I have the boobs, I bring the booze, and I review shit.
How this review series works: This series is unlike any you’ve read before. At the end of each review, I give a rating in the form of wine bottles. The number of bottles will depend on how many I had to drain to get through the series or movie on a scale of 1 to 5 bottles. Thus, like in golf, the lower the number of bottles, the better the show or movie. The greater the number of bottles, the more I had to suffer through it, chugging my way along. There will be no spoilers in these reviews, just an opinionated asshole with an unhealthy fascination for wine letting you know if you should dedicate your time to whatever I’m reviewing.
Let’s get started!
What I’m watching: Death and Other Details
Movie or series: Series
Where to find it: Hulu
Length: 4 episodes thus far
Wine type: White
Wine brand: Bota Box Pinot Grigio (Because I’m classy)
Ok, you caught me. I’m as BWG (Basic White Girl) as the next pumpkin spice latte walking down the street. The next thing that comes in that delectable bundle? True crime. Whether it be podcasts (my fave, Morbid), documentaries (John Wayne Gacy is..moving on), scripted movies (Knives Out, anyone?) or TV series (like this one!). What a delightful coincidence it was when my girlfriend and I stumbled upon the best-kept secret currently on Hulu. Drinking wine. Braiding hair. And attempting to learn to crochet. Anywho…
Death & Other Details is about just that. Death, and finding the other details. It’s an Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery with a dash of Bridgerton and Sherlock Holmes-type show. Sounds intriguing, eh? You may be thinking “ok, why is this one different? We’ve seen this time and time again. What makes it so good?” And that, my darling readers, is why we are here.
SPOILER ALERT from here on out. If you want to be surprised and guess along with the watcher, stop reading!
Juicy details are the plot. Billion-dollar family controversy, one-night stand hookups, and an investigator who only works with an assistant. The gotcha is when the assistant is the daughter of the woman whose murder he was trying to solve. Let’s clarify. The main characters are the daughter of a murdered Mom, Imogene (Violett Beane), and the investigator of said murder, Rufus Cotesworth (Mandy Patinkon)… they haven’t seen each other in 20 years after he failed to solve said murder. It just gets juicier!
Once Imogene’s Mother is murdered (yes, her name is Imogene, pronounced Em-o-jin), she gets adopted by the billionaire Collier family. They own and operate what is a presumably very large, very successful textile business. So, Mom & Dad Collier are old, rich, and white. Their only daughter, Anna (Lauren Patten), has the makings of a true CEO, and their only son, Tripp (Jack Cutore-Scott), is a stereotypical rich frat boy. Nepo baby! Now, back to the plot.
The Collier family is hosting a myriad of guests on a luxury Mediterranean ocean liner. It’s just them, their guests, and the ship’s staff. To wrap up the guest list, we have a very rich Asian family who will be hopefully helping the Collier family out of some debt troubles by way of a “deal for both families.” So, when one of the guests turns up murdered in his room after having a verbal altercation with a staff member, the guns go off, and it’s off we go to the races.
The murdered man is a giant ***hole who’s too big for his britches. Or is he? We are discovering he was actually an investigator working with the main investigator and played his part of a doofus really well. The staff member whom he yelled at is a server and sister of the head maitre’d and is related to several other staff members who now fear for their own lives. We then have the beautiful Governor (of whom we’re not sure yet) who, it so happens, is sleeping with the frat boy son Tripp (who also deals & does cocaine). We have a preacher on board…who is sleeping with Mrs. Collier.
We have the Collier family lawyer….. whom they find in a closet all wrapped and bandaged in a BDSM way by a dominatrix…a dom who happens to be the aforementioned maître’d. I’m telling you, it’s a fun ride! The head of security ends up being a refugee, and a fugitive, who is also harboring stowaways, and the rich daughter’s wife is a looney tune…who happens to know the murderer of Imogene’s mom. This show has more twists than sister locks. Are we interested yet?!
Honorable mention cast members include the ship’s owner Sunil (Rahul Kohli), the BDSM-loving family lawyer Llewellyn (Jere Burns), the governor Alexandra (Tamberla Perry), our delightful Interpol Agent Hilda Eriksen (Linda Emond) Mr. & Mrs. Collier (David Marshall Grant & Jayne Atkinson), and let’s not forget our murdered man Keith Trubisky (Michael Gladis).
Now that we’re caught up on the actors let’s get into what makes the show stand out. It lets us, the watcher, learn right alongside Imogene. I know, they’re all like that, I get it. What I mean, however, is the investigator she is partnering with (Rufus) is acting as her mentor – brilliantly. He is able to tell Imogene when and how to remove the emotion from her findings, how to *not* lead a witness, and how to truly notice the other details. When they are questioning someone, the show reverts to a flashback. During the flashback, current Imogene and Rufus are in the scene, and those in the flashback respond to dialogue as if they are also in the present moment. Here’s an example: Imogene and Rufus are questioning a young girl about what she saw the night of the murder. Imogene says, “So you heard a loud metal clang?” and the girl goes “Yes! It was the murder weapon.” Rufus steps in and says “She is remembering metal because you said metal.” Imogene “I did?” Little girl still in the flashback: “You did.”
As hard as that was to follow, the show is not that. I won’t go too much further, as I wanted this to be a tease enough to get you interested. Edging the curiosity (sorry Mom). There’s sex, drugs, murder, scandal, and money to be tossed. What more can you want? With it being a weekly release, we won’t know the answer to this locked room, whodunnit show for a few more weeks! Personally? I fear it will be a predictable ending to an otherwise M. Knight Shyamalan twisty show. However, that could be my ignorance shining through from the genius of these writers. Either way, it’s going to be a damn fun ride. Who wants to go on this journey with me? It’s airing on Hulu every Tuesday. My girlfriend and I are doing a couple’s watch party with each other and our SO’s every week, and then chat about our thoughts after the episode. Bring on the people to join us! Let’s solve this mystery!
Now you may be looking at the end of this article, searching for the wine bottle ranking system. Have no fear, I have not forgotten (and trust me I have plenty of bottles). Since the show is not complete, I’m not going to rank as of yet! You’ll have to come back for the update. Muahaha.
