Hulu’s new murder mystery, Death and Other Details, is not getting the kind of reviews that Hulu would have been hoping for. Paste Magazine, one of the few positive reviewers, says it’s smart and fun, but even that praise is tempered by the fact that it “is clearly capitalizing on the success of Knives Out and Only Murders”.
Other critics are not pulling their punches. TIME says that it “goes down like the Titanic… [it’s] a generic title for a derivative whodunit… It has neither the cozy charm of Only Murders nor the ferocious wit of The White Lotus and Succession". RogerEbert.com says that after a promising start “you can almost see Death and other Details run out of ideas… maybe the real mystery is how we’re going to fix this bloated era of TV”.
It’s fair to say that there are a lot of murder mysteries streaming right now – The Hollywood Reporter lists some of them, and it’s a big list – but that doesn’t mean the genre doesn’t have its gems even if Death and Other Details doesn’t appear to be one of them. Here are three to stream that won’t disappoint.
Only Murderers in the Building
With three seasons to binge and a collective 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, this is the cream of the murder mystery crop with a cast including Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez and Meryl Streep. It’s about a bunch of true crime obsessives who find themselves face to face with a real crime, and the first season has a perfect 100% score on the review site. As Thrillist says: “What keeps you hooked on Only Murders in the Building is that it works as well as a mystery as it does a comedy.”
Only Murderers in the Building is also streaming on Disney Plus in the UK and Australia.
The Other Black Girl
Based on Zakiya Dalila’s bestseller, The Other Black Girl is a smart take on race in the workplace and features Sinclair Daniel as Nella, the only Black girl in an all-white publishing company – a hire that appears to be more about ticking a diversity box than any real commitment to workplace equality or equity. When a second Black girl, Hazel, is hired, it soon becomes apparent that something isn’t right – and that something turns out to be horrific. The Guardian says: “The Other Black Girl is part satirical 'white ignorance' comedy, part horror, a tale of why we code-switch.” It’s not always a comfortable watch, but it’s a thrilling one with some serious things to say.
The Other Black Girl is also streaming on Disney Plus in the UK and Australia.
Sleepy Hollow
Based on Washington Irving’s legendary tale (it’s a story whose headless horseman traumatized me as a kid) is given new gothic life by Tim Burton. Ichabod Crane is a policeman sent to the titular hamlet to investigate a string of murders, and according to Empire it’s “probably the most beautiful horror movie ever made. And a cracking piece of action cinema to boot.” It’s “a richly imagined Gothic horror story with Burton and [Johnny] Depp at their most gloriously eccentric.”
Sleepy Hollow is also streaming on Disney Plus in the UK and Australia.
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