TV

Netflix murder mystery series starring Kylie Minogue axed after just one series

The queen of pop, Kylie Minogue, stars in Netflix’s The Residence (Netflix)

The queen of pop, Kylie Minogue, stars in Netflix's The Residence (Netflix)

Netflix has cancelled Shondaland White House murder mystery The Residence after just one series, and fans are devastated.

The streaming service is well-known for cancelling fan-favourite shows, with Warrior Nun, Our Flag Means Death, Kaos and Girls5Eva all being recent casualties.

The Residence stars Orange is the New Black‘s Uzo Aduba as eccentric detective Cordelia Cupp – the “greatest detective in the world” – who is tasked with solving the murder of White House Chief Usher A.B. Wynter (Giancarlo Esposito) at the US president’s official home during a a state dinner for the Australian prime minister.

Set “upstairs, downstairs, and backstairs”, the show weaves together the various, interconnected stories of the staff and members of the political elite – including a gay US president.

Alongside Aduba, the show cast includes Molly Griggs, Ken Marino, Randell Park and Kylie Minogue – as a fictionalised version of herself – amongst many others.

“132 rooms. 157 suspects. One dead body. One wildly eccentric detective. One disastrous State Dinner. The Residence is a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs, and backstairs of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world’s most famous mansion,” the synopsis for the show read.

After it premiered in March, the series scored an 85 per cent rating on RottenTomatoes and received positive reviews from critics, with NPR’s Eric Deggans calling it a “superior, genre-blending TV experience” and whilst Dev Einav for the Financial Times said what it might lack in sharpness, it “makes up for with a breezy spirit and a wonderfully dry, deadpan lead performances from Aduba”.

In The Residence‘s four weeks in Netflix’s global top 10, it accumulated around 177.4 million hours of viewing, time, equivalent to 22.9 million full runs of the season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“In those same four weeks, Nielsen recorded about 83.1 million hours of viewing, about 47 percent of the worldwide total,” Rick Porter wrote for the outlet. “The Residence spent two additional weeks in the Nielsen rankings, adding 15.55 million more hours just above 2 million more views.

You may like to watch

Fans were, unsurprisingly, devastated that the zany mystery show was cancelled.

“lol does Netflix renew anything good,” one user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote following the news. Given the raft of cracking shows that have been killed off over the years – RIP First Kill, my beloved – we have to agree.

“The residence definitely deserve a second season 😒,” a second said.

“The residence deserved another season. One of the best mystery shows on Netflix,” a third wrote.

Others certainly did not hold on their feelings, with one writing: “THE RESIDENCE NOOOOOOOO BOOO NETFLIX U SUCK”

Other viewers hoped Cordelia Cupp might pop up in another Shonderland series in the future, or that the show will get picked up by another streaming service.

More:

Please login or register to comment on this story.

Register to save articles and more. It'll only take a minute and it's free.
JOIN US TODAY!