Death and Other Details

Death and Other Details is an American mystery drama television series on Hulu created by Heidi Cole McAdams and Mike Weiss, starring Mandy Patinkin and Violett Beane. The series premiered on January 16, 2024. In March 2024, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

Rufus Cotesworth finds himself on a luxury cruise liner when a locked-room murder takes place.

Cast

Main

• Violett Beane as Imogene Scott
• Lauren Patten as Anna Collier, Imogene's wealthy best friend, heir apparent to the Collier Mills Company.
• Rahul Kohli as Sunil Bhandari, the owner of the cruise ship SS Varuna
• Angela Zhou as Teddy Goh, the crew manager on the SS Varuna
• Hugo Diego Garcia as Jules Toussaint, the head of security on the SS Varuna
• Linda Emond as Agent Hilde Eriksen, a business-minded Interpol agent
• Mandy Patinkin as Rufus Cotesworth, a detective who used to be "the world's greatest detective"
• Pardis Saremi as Leila, Anna's paranoid wife, a former clickbait journalist suffering from the after-effects of a traumatic car accident.

Recurring

• David Marshall Grant as Lawrence Collier, Anna's father and the CEO of Collier Mills who is getting ready to retire, but has yet to declare his successor
• Jere Burns as Llewellyn Mathers, the Colliers' lawyer
• Michael Gladis as Keith Trubitsky, an obnoxious businessman being courted by Tripp. Later revealed to be Danny Turner, Rufus's assistant and best friend.
• Jack Cutmore-Scott as Tripp Collier, Anna's brother
• Tamberla Perry as Alexandra Hochenberg, the governor of Washington, close associate of the Collier family
• Annie Q. Riegel as Winnie Goh, a crew member on the SS Varuna and Teddy's younger sister
• Danny Johnson as Father Toby Briggs, a close friend of Lawrence and Katherine's and a powerful behind-the-scenes political player
• Sincere Wilbert as That Derek, Toby's 14-year old son, a TikTok influencer
• Karoline as Eleanor Chun, an heiress to a fashion empire and Anna's former fling in business school
• Sophia Reid-Gantzert as Young Imogene
• Jayne Atkinson as Katherine Collier, Lawrence's wife
• Lisa Lu as Celia Chun, Eleanor's grandmother, a billionaire clothier in talks with the Colliers to buy a significant stake of Collier Mills
• Christian Svensson as Andreas Windeler

Guest starring

• Sofia Rosinsky as Yeva

Episodes

Production

Development

The series was ordered by Hulu in March 2022, then called Career Opportunities in Murder and Mayhem, with Mandy Patinkin attached in the lead role. It was written and executive produced by Mike Weiss and Heidi Cole McAdams, with the pair also serving as co-showrunners. Marc Webb directed the pilot and executive produced via Black Lamb. Angela Zhou acted in the pilot, and joined the writers room for the series, as well as continuing her acting role as Teddy Goh, the crew manager on the SS Varuna.

Weiss and McAdams, creators of the ten-episode series, describe themselves as huge fans of the work of Agatha Christie and "wanted to capture the atmosphere of those works and drag her style into our contemporary world." Mandy Patinkin's character is inspired by famous fictional detectives, including Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, Sherlock Holmes, and Philip Marlowe. Among the production staff are production designer James Philpott and costume designer Mandi Line. In March 2024, Hulu canceled the series after one season.

Casting

When the series was picked up in March 2022, it was reported that Patinkin would star alongside Violett Beane, Lauren Patten, Hugo Diego Garcia, Angela Zhou, Pardis Saremi, and Rahul Kohli. In August 2022, Annie Q. Riegel was added to the cast. In September 2022, Linda Emond, Jayne Atkinson, and David Marshall Grant were added to the cast. In November 2022, Christian Svensson joined the cast.

Release

Death and Other Details premiered on Hulu on January 16, 2024.

Reception

Audience viewership

According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, Death and Other Details was the fifth most streamed television series in the United States from January 22 to January 28, 2024. According to Whip Media's TV Time, Death and Other Details was the fourth most streamed original television series across all platforms in the United States during the week of January 28, 2024, and the fifth during the week of February 4, 2024.

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 55% approval rating with an average rating of 6.2/10, based on 33 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Death and Other Details has plenty of ideas to spice up the classic whodunnit, but its fatal flaw proves to be a lack of cohesiveness in the bigger picture." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 60 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Chicago Tribune gave the show 3.5 stars saying "the show might be derivative — and yet another outing about the ultra-rich — but it’s so much fun." The A.V. Club gave the show a B rating and described it as "a vivid caper that feels both cozy and refreshing at the same time."

Less positive was Time described the show as "Frankensteined together from pieces of existing shows by a roomful of executives—or an algorithm—desperate for a hit." Variety described the show as "Intricately stylized, boasting dizzying twists and turns" but criticized the complexity saying "[a]s the storylines and secrets pile up, the mystery becomes more of a confusing maze than an intriguing puzzle."

References

External links

• Death and Other Details on Hulu
• Death and Other Details at IMDb