If they share one unifying quality, it is the ability to keep secrets, wrote Kate Anderson Brower of the White House staff in her 2015 book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House. The book is the basis for the new Netflix show of the same name, but thats where the similarities end. Browers tome is a journalistic account of several generations of workers in the private living quarters of the president of the United States and his family, whereas The Residence features a neurodivergent-coded detective named Cordelia Cupp (Uzo Aduba) solving the murder of the head usher (played by Giancarlo Esposito). The murder mystery exists at the intersection of Elsbeth and Shondalands other White House show, Scandal, combining political intrigue with parlor-room puzzlementand that parlor happens to be located in the most famous house in America.As Cupp attempts to suss out potential suspects across the domestic and wider presidential staff, were introduced to the housekeepers, butlers, kitchen and wait staff, engineers, custodians, curators, florists, gardeners, event planners, and secret service agents who serve at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The show dramatizes what it might be like to work in the White House, but just how true to life is it, murder aside?In a scene from The Residence, the cast stands in a room that appears to resemble a past iteration of the White Houses Blue Room.Photo: JESSICA BROOKS/NETFLIXThe White House features a labyrinthine 132 rooms across six floors and two mezzanines. The executive residence is located in the center of the building, and includes numerous State Rooms, plus the private quarters of the first family on the second floor and third floors. Prior to 1902, the presidents office was located in the residence, but Theodore Roosevelt had it moved to what is now known as the West Wing. Today, it takes around 100 full-time and 250 part-time employees to keep the residence running smoothly, including the head usherthe murder victim on the showwho is basically the chief of staff. The sheer number of workers are there to alleviate the burdens of daily life for the first family, who generally have no time to cook, shop, or clean, Brower writes.