The Residence TV Pilot Beat Sheet Analysis

Why We Chose to Do a Save a Cat! Beat Sheet Analysis of the The Residence Pilot

What makes a show from Shondaland tick? Inquiring Cats want to know.

The Residence

Created and Written by: Paul William Davies
Inspired by the book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower

Directed by: Liza Johnson

S1 E1: “The Fall of the House of Usher”

The World: The two planetary systems of The White House Executive Residence, a world of difference between the “visible” inhabitants (politicians, largely old white men who just expect everything to run smoothly) and the “invisible” (the staff, largely POC, that make that happen)

Franchise Type: Whydunit

Platform: Netflix

TV Genre: Hourlong comedy/mystery

Story DNA

Heroes: A.B. Wynter, the long-suffering Chief Usher of the White House whom we see only in flashback, and Cordelia Cupp, a brilliant and deeply eccentric detective

Goal: Wynter just wants to take proper care of “The House” where he’s worked his entire life; Cupp also wants to just do her job: solving this mystery so she can go on her planned birding trip to Papa New Guinea.

Obstacle: Wynter dies, which makes it somewhat difficult to properly oversee things; the genius Cupp is dealing with a raft of suspicious characters (and more than a few morons).

Stakes: The livelihoods of the staff, the futures of the 200+ souls at the State Dinner, and the possibility of a major diplomatic disaster.

Save the Cat! Beat Sheet Analysis for the The Residence TV Pilot

Opening Image

As busts and portraits of dead presidents watch, the hustle and bustle of a State Dinner descend upon the rooms of the Executive Residence of the White House, filling them with politicians, staff, security, guests, musicians, creating a thesis world that seems destined to be disrupted, if that rather ominous clap of thunder tells us anything.

We follow White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) as he prepares, deftly supervising all the moving parts, until a piercing scream rings out somewhere in the building.

Theme Stated

Wynter’s replacement for Chief Usher, Jasmine Haney (Susan Kelechi Watson), assures the members of a congressional hearing that “the work of the White House Residence staff is not political in any way,” to which Senator Filkins (Al Franken) quips, “same with this committee, Ms. Haney.”

Of course, the work of the residence staff is political, since all things in life are political (at least according to Thomas Mann and Bob Marley), and the staff is constantly dealing with issues of governance, status, power relations, distribution of resources, race, sex, truth, falsehood—everything that makes for a juicy thriller.

Set-Up

We jump back and forth between the events of October 11 and a few months later, as a congressional committee convenes to figure what the heck happened at a State Dinner that was supposed to repair fraught relations between the United States government and the Prime Minister of Australia.

We get to meet many of our characters as they flash back to the events of that crazy night and all the things that needed fixing: Jasmine Haney recalls that she was excitedly awaiting her promotion to Head Usher but at the last minute, A.B. Wynter said he was not going to retire after all, leaving her devastated and furious. As Haney drowned her sorrows in a very large martini, she is called to the third floor where the president’s chief adviser and resident blowhard Harry Hollinger (Ken Marino) tells her there’s been an “incident.”

Catalyst

The (inciting) “incident” is that there’s a dead body in the game room and it’s none other than the man who’s supposed to be running this whole damn thing: A.B. Wynter.

Debate

Hollinger and his lackeys are freaking out because there’s that pesky State Dinner happening on the main floor and, somehow, they have to keep the corpse on the third floor a secret, which is gonna be tough since, among other issues, the Australian pop star Kylie Minogue is supposed to be sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom that night.

Also, the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department is running the investigation, much to the chagrin of Hollinger, who was expecting the FBI or CIA at the very least. Nope, they’re getting the MPD, but with a little dollop of special sauce: the (in)famously eccentric detective, Cordelia Cupp.

Break into Two

The stunned men look out the window at Cupp (a hilarious Uzo Aduba), who’s currently on the White House lawn with her binoculars, birding.

B Story

The Residence is rife with thorny B Story relationships, but the main anti-love story is between Cupp and the FBI agent assigned to assist her, Edwin Park (Randall Park). Their banter is a captivating dance of insults, one-upping, and bureaucratic dysfunction that we just know will eventually morph into grudging respect and, perhaps, a murder mystery solved.

Fun and Games

Cordelia Cupp turns The House upside-down with her antithesis world personality, surveying Hollinger and his entourage with a dry “Wow. It’s a lot of dudes.” Her birder’s eye takes in every tiny detail of the scene and her deadpan observations make Hollinger nearly go ballistic; it’s his job to “manage the rollout” of the info about the death and he declares it a suicide.

Not so fast, says Cupp, and she proceeds to question absolutely every facet of the situation, including how a man could unalive himself with no weapon and why he would do it next to a pool table.

Midpoint

Deftly crossing A and B Stories, Cupp blows through the bureaucratic BS and takes the mini-patriarchy down with her declaration: this was not a suicide. The brilliant Black woman lists off the reasons speedily and in such overwhelming detail that the white men wilt further with every word.

A ticking clock is introduced, 30 minutes to the end of the State Dinner when every possible suspect will be leaving the building, so Cordelia’s gotta work fast.

Bad Guys Close In

Cordelia walks through the dining room fixing every expensively-dressed patron with a piercing stare, then repeats this unnerving practice with the staff, giving both the well-to-do and the busting-their-humps a deep sense of unease. She finally demands to question anyone who had contact with A.B. Wynter that night, which is basically… everyone.

As the current administration is deeply unpopular, this is going to go over like a lead balloon, or perhaps a lead pipe brandished by Colonel Mustard in the library, but Cupp manages to get Hollinger and his goons on board. Unfortunately, there’s a small problem:

All Is Lost

All the guests at the State Dinner have heard about the murder and there’s a mass exodus in process. Even Kylie Minogue is running for the hills in her high heels.

Dark Night of the Soul

Hollinger is tearing out his hair, the President of these United States is refusing to stop people at the White House doors, and even the superwoman Cordelia Cupp is flummoxed, since these events could trigger a potentially major diplomatic incident!

Break into Three

The Australian Prime Minister (Julian McMahon) and his entourage angrily approach the President. It’s all over, folks; we’ve lost the Aussies.

Finale

But Cordelia calmly gathers the team (her brains and binoculars) and executes the plan, which consists of switching into intense observation mode as the leaders of the two countries duke it out and in an amusing high tower surprise, she interrupts the verbal fistfight to ask Australian Foreign Minister David Rylance (Brett Tucker) why he’s wearing a dead man’s shirt.

As will happen in the last few minutes of every episode of The Residence, Cordelia executes the new plan of catching someone out; why is Rylance wearing A.B. Wynter’s shirt under his tuxedo? Rylance squirms and stammers, Cupp smiles, and the President grudgingly locks down the White House, keeping every single person trapped together inside.

Final Image

The camera careens upward, showing all those rooms from the Opening Image now filled with possible suspects for a brutal murder and we hear another clap of thunder, a closing rim shot of sorts, and even more winkingly ominous than the first.