Kerry Washington and McG Team Up for Hulu's Next Must-Watch Thriller What Remains

Kerry Washington clearly isn’t done making herself comfortable at Hulu. After her turns in ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ (where she didn’t just act but also had a hand behind the scenes) and the more recent ‘UnPrisoned’, Washington’s now doubling down on drama with a new thriller series called ‘What Remains’. This one’s based on Wendy Walker’s 2023 novel, and by the sound of it, it’s not your run-of-the-mill cop show.

The Premise: Guilt, Suspense, and a Cat-and-Mouse Game

Here’s the crux: Washington plays Detective Elise Sutton. She’s made a name for herself as a cold case specialist—someone who usually keeps her head. Typical day out, until, as these things go, she ends up shooting a disturbed man while on duty. That one act knocks her for six. Even though she’s being hailed as a hero, Elise can’t shake the guilt and starts properly doubting if she actually did the right thing.

Instead of doing what most of us might—try desperately to move on—Elise goes looking for the mysterious man she supposedly saved in the incident. She tracks him down (or possibly he tracks her down; the lines blur), and quickly realises he’s anything but straightforward. What follows is a twisty game between the two, with the bloke leaving her cryptic clues and Elise suddenly in the position of having to play detective in her own life, just to keep her family safe. And, of course, ‘the only person who can stop him is her’—as these things are contractually obliged to say.

The Team Behind the Scenes

McG (yes, the same McG who somehow gets more pilots off the ground than most people get hot dinners) is on board to direct the first episode. He’s done this dance for Kapital Entertainment before—somehow shepherding both ‘The Mysteries of Laura’ at NBC and ‘Kevin From Work’ at ABC Family to full series.

The list of producers and execs is frankly a who’s-who of TV networking—maybe a bit inside baseball, but for those who care:

• Chris Luccy (writing and executive producing)
• Kerry Washington and Pilar Savone (for Simpson Street – Washington’s own banner)
• Aaron Kaplan (for Kapital Entertainment)
• McG, Mary Viola, and Corey Marsh (all from Wonderland Sound and Vision)
• Dylan Hammalian (co-exec, Kapital), Adam Haiken (co-exec, Wonderland), Will McDonald (co-exec, Simpson Street)
• Wendy Walker, the original author, attached as producer
• Studios involved: 20th Television (Simpson Street has a deal here) and Kapital

A Bit More on the Source Material

Walker’s novel delves into the very shaky mentality of someone who, on paper, is supposed to have nerves of steel. Elise’s trajectory is messy: she goes from being a quietly confident forensics expert to someone racked with self-doubt, struggling to connect with her own family. The man she’s hunting—or being hunted by—isn’t just your standard TV psycho, and their encounters push everything into proper psychological thriller territory.

In Their Own Words

There’s a handy summary from the book’s description that pretty much sets the mood:

Detective Elise Sutton is a forensics expert with a knack for solving cold cases and a deep knowledge of the criminal mind. She prides herself on being rational and in control, until a crisis at a department store leaves her steeped in guilt and self-doubt about whether she did the right thing to save a man’s life. Elise is hailed as a hero, but she doesn’t feel like one. She soon grows numb, even to her husband and daughters, as she sets out to find the one man who might know the truth. When she finds him—or did he find her?—their connection sets off a terrifying game of cat and mouse, threatening Elise and the people she loves most.

Bottom line: If you like your crime thrillers a bit more psychologically bent—less about ticking boxes and more about unraveling a character on the brink—there’s every chance ‘What Remains’ is going to hit the spot.