Shonda Rhimes is a creative force to reckon with. With her production company Shondaland, Rhimes has produced various shows that have garnered massive critical acclaim and fan following.
On Netflix, her shows have been highly successful. Besides the recent success with the true-crime series, Inventing Anna, Rhimes also produced the Regency-era show, Bridgerton, one of the most-streamed shows on the streaming service. Fans are eagerly waiting for the show’s second season, scheduled for a March 25th, 2022 premiere.
Rhimes will be collaborating with her colleague, Paul William Davies, who was the writer and producer on Scandal for her latest Netflix series. Davies will serve as the showrunner on this new eight-episode project, The Residence.
The show will be a “screwball whodunnit” based on Kate Anderson Bower’s murder-mystery book, The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. After signing a multi-project deal with Netflix, Rhimes had acquired the rights to the book in 2018, after which the project was in the works.
The book offers a very intimate insight into the White House and features interviews with the various staff members who have tended to US presidents and their families during their tenure at the White House.
From the Kennedy administration to the Obamas, the book uses real-life knowledge of the setting to create an intriguing murder mystery story.
While the cast details or release date have not yet been revealed, the Netflix description for the series reads, “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.”
Given Rhimes’ extraordinaire in the true-crime and murder mystery genre, expectations for the upcoming series is pretty high. Till then, stay tuned for the second season of her production, Bridgerton.