Uzo Aduba

In The Residence (2025), Uzo Aduba's Cordelia Cupp watches closely while the people around her seem determined to be noticed. The stillness suits a birdwatching detective, and Aduba keeps us interested in what Cupp might have noticed. She can deliver a complicated sentence rapidly and precisely, letting us hear how quickly Cupp processes information. We laughed at her dry delivery because her restraint lets the jokes land amid all the fuss. There is pleasure in watching someone who does not need to compete for our attention.

That economy is worth remembering when we look back at her breakthrough as Suzanne Warren in Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). Suzanne's piercing stare and childlike tics made the physical detail more conspicuous, but close control of movement remains a useful thread to follow through Aduba's work. She later played the central therapist, Dr. Brooke Taylor, in In Treatment (2021). With Cupp, she leads a series again, this time allowing patient observation and dry humour to do much of the work. The detective is eccentric without the performance constantly having to insist on it.

Paul William Davies's The Residence also makes clear how much a series can ask of its lead. Across eight episodes, the investigation repeatedly wanders away from its most interesting person to let a crowded cast keep talking. Aduba provides a steady centre, but her timing cannot make every diversion funny or justify how long they take. The writing also presses the connection between birdwatching and detection too hard. We understand why Cupp is good at her job before the programme has finished explaining it.

The next part need not come with another conspicuous set of habits. We would like to see that comic restraint given a tighter script, with enough confidence to leave her watching while other people talk. Cupp gives us reason to want more of Aduba's comedy, though not necessarily more of this particular programme. Try The Residence for her, and stop if the diversions wear you down.