Hulu’s entry in the massive cast mystery trend starts with sexy confidence before collapsing under its own weight.
Mysteries have steadily made a comeback on screens and in multiplexes over the past several years. Kenneth Branagh offered old-school fun with his triptych (so far) take on master of the genre Agatha Christie’s works. Rian Johnson took Christie into modern times with a helping of class insight in Knives Out and Glass Onion. Things even get meta with the murder at an Agatha Christie play shenanigans of See How They Run. Series like The Afterparty and Murder at the End of the World took the genre to the small screen. With all this competition, of course Death and Other Details would try to find a new way of telling a familiar tale.
Early on, it seems series’ creators Heidi Cole McAdams and Mike Weiss have hit upon a simple but ingenious solution. Let’s get some sex in here! For all the delights of the massive cast mystery revival, each project has been noticeably short on heat. Daniel Craig can still fill out some swim trunks with the best of them, but he’s a married man with a barely glimpsed sweet hubby back home. Emma Corin’s Darby Hart had a romance with Harris Dickinson’s Bill in End of the World, but by the time we know them, those days are over. Death and Other Details, however, boldly declares that, to paraphrase High Fidelity, it’s ok to be investigating a murder and horny at the same time.
Even more encouraging, the sex portrayed is not simply the youngest, prettiest woman in the cast with one of the men. There’s Dominatrix-sub stuff, loving lesbian sex (although both couplings are a bit male gaze-y), seniors, and more. Don’t worry. No one is talking pornography here, but the sense of flirtation, danger, seduction, and post-coital cuddling makes for a new change of pace.
Hulu)" class="wp-image-47734"/>Certainly, it helps the rather average overarching plot feel more vibrant. Imogene (Violett Beane) is something of an adult ward of the Collier family. A decade earlier, she watched her mother die in the Colliers driveway, a victim of an apparent car bomb. The family brought in Rufus Coteworth (Mandy Patinkin), a media sensation labeled the world’s greatest detective, to solve the crime. Imogen believes in him, but thousands of dollars and weeks later, all he’s turned up is a name, Victor Sims. Then he disappears, the case unsolved, the girl mourning her dead mother betrayed.
In the present, Imogene has come aboard a luxury liner with the Colliers to help celebrate the daughter Anna’s (Lauren Patten) assumption of the role of CEO and a merger with the Chun family’s holdings. The Chuns have brought Rufus with them, ostensibly as security but really as an intimidation tactic. Sadly, two days in, the most obnoxious cruise guest (Michael Gladis) is found dead by harpoon gun in his room. Despite her animosity towards him, Imogene agrees to help Rufus solve the case, and soon both are convinced this killing connects to Imogene’s mother’s unsolved murder.
Patinkin is a delight as Rufus, using an accent of unclear origin and an air of knowing he’s at rock bottom and still preferring not to do anything about it. Beane is a fine enough foil for him. She doesn’t get to have nearly the fun he does, but she projects fury without going over the top. As the Colliers’ fixer/attorney, Llewellyn Mathers, Jere Burns gives another class on how to crush it as a supporting character without blotting out your costars. For the most part, the performances all work and gain depth as the series proceeds. Even Linda Emond delivers as Interpol Agent Hilde Eriksen despite acting through an accent even more ludicrous than what Patinkin’s got.
Hulu)" class="wp-image-47735"/>The problems start when the mystery takes a backseat to massive conspiracy, Death and Other Details’ other “solution” to being yet another massive cast mystery. The heightening of the situation doesn’t ratchet up the tension. Instead, it makes it dulls it. The threat becomes too big to be interesting. Further exacerbating the issue is the show choosing to let people off the boat for a time. In short order, it derails the two best aspects of these kinds of mysteries: the small but tragic stakes and the sense of claustrophobia. Eventually, all return to the boat and it pushes back to sea. Unfortunately, it’s too late. The excursion already shattered the illusion. Now, circumstance and danger hasn’t foisted isolation on them. They can leave and chosen not to.
As a result, the final three or so episodes provided—Hulu gave critics eight of the series’ ten installments—feel less like a fun destination and more like a slog waiting for port. There are still charms and some interesting character developments, for certain. However, Death and Other Details loses most of its charm in the push to be different. A considerable part of what makes massive cast mysteries so much is that cast. By trusting increasingly complex plot mechanics over those human delights, the series ends up lost at sea.
Death and Other Details packs its streamer trunk for Hulu on January 16.
Death and Other Details Trailer: