EXCLUSIVE: Netflix‘s The Residence, which was originally announced as a drama and feels like a limited series with its season-long murder mystery format, will be submitted as a comedy for awards consideration, starting with the upcoming Emmys.
The move is not entirely surprising as the Shondaland-produced whodunit, starring Uzo Aduba and Randall Park, has a strong comedic bent in the vein of Hulu’s Only Murders In the Building. Actually, in what is likely a first, we have three murder mysteries among the strong Emmy series contenders in the comedy categories this year, returning nominees Only Murders In the Building and Peacock’s anthology Poker Face, joined by The Residence. All three have a female single lead or co-lead.
Of the three, only Only Murders is in the traditional half-hour-ish format, while Poker Face and The Residence are in the 46-60 minute episode range commonly associated with drama series, which leads to them often being called dramedies. Previous Outstanding Comedy Series winners of that sub-genre include Fox’s Ally McBeal and Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
The series Aduba got her break on, Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, also was hourlong and competed as a comedy series until the TV Academy reclassified it as a drama, giving Aduba the rare distinction of winning Emmys for the same role in both comedy and drama categories.
Netflix’s murderer’s row of comedy contenders
The decision to submit The Residence as a comedy increases what already is shaping up to be a stiff internal competition at Netflix with five new comedy series in strong Emmy contention: Erin Foster’s Nobody Wants This, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, and Mike Schur’s Man On The Inside, headlined by Ted Danson, which both already received awards recognition at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards; Mindy Kaling’s recently launched Running Point, starring Kate Hudson; and the upcoming The Residence, which launches March 20 and Tina Fey’s The Four Seasons, which will premiere later this spring.
The Residence was created by Paul William Davies who comes from drama background having previously worked on Shondaland’s Scandal and For The People as well as Betrayal. The series is described as a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs, and backstairs of the White House as one wildly eccentric detective, Cordelia Cupp (Aduba), an avid bird watcher, is trying to solve a murder that occurs during a disastrous State Dinner.
Season 2 with Cordelia & Edwin
The show is named after the Executive Residence at the White House, where the first season tales place, and where the murder at its center is ultimately solved, Davies is ready to do another season with Aduba’s Cordelia Cupp and her sidekick, Park’s FBI agent Edwin Park, at the helm should Netflix renew the show.
“I really love Cordelia Cupp; I really enjoyed coming up with her and writing her. Uzo is amazing,” he told Deadline in an interview tied to the series’ launch. “I love the relationship between Cordelia and Edwin. There are lots more stories to tell about her adventures and him with her. We’ll see how people feel about the show but I certainly would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought a lot about it, and didn’t have a lot of ideas about where it could go.”
While Only Murders In the Building is keeping each season’s murder within the same building per the show’s title, Davies confirmed that The Residence could go to another residence in Season 2 that isn’t necessarily The White House.
Aduba and Park are game to carry on for another season too.
“We talk about that all the time, we would love it, in part because we had such a great time in the actual making of this show,” Park said in a joint video interview with Aduba. “But also, the characters’ dynamic is just so fun to play, and Paul is so singular in his writing style and in the way he approaches these mysteries that the opportunity to maybe travel to another country and solve another case would be pretty amazing.”
Added Aduba, “Absolutely. I love Cordelia, I love playing Cordelia. What I know for sure is that the adventures and the cases will never stop. There’s always going to be something in the world to solve. She has found an amazing partner and friend in Edwin Park, and I wish nothing more for them to continue solving, exploring and journeying around the world.”
Here is a video of the duo’s comments:
Season 1’s ensemble cast also includes Giancarlo Esposito, Edwina Findley, Molly Griggs, Jason Lee, Ken Marino, Al Mitchell, Dan Perrault, Bronson Pinchot, Julieth Restrepo, Mel Rodriguez, Susan Kelechi Watson, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Mary Wiseman and Jean Curtin.
