AKA The Compulsion of “Eat the Rich” and Why Rich People Murder Mysteries Work?
Before Rian Johnson went and twisted the genre, readers would not necessarily connect “murder mystery” with “scathing critique of the ultra rich.” But then a series of movies called Knives Out subverted our expectations.
The murder mystery is a perfect genre to critique the highest echelon of society, because the stakes are so high for all the characters. While you don’t need a murder to showcase the lengths that rich people are willing to go to maintain their wealth (ie. Succession), it sure helps make your point more impactful.
We have become obsessed with watching the Ultra Rich cling to their money, status, and fortune for all they're worth — and in an even more satisfying way — lose it all despite that. The irony is not lost that these mega-movie-hits cost millions of dollars and are sometimes critiquing the very people that star in them.
Part of what makes stories like Knives Out, Glass Onion, and Crazy Rich Asians so compelling is that they all center around a victim -- the everyman. In a show like Succession (which I will discuss in depth at a later time) viewers are caught up in the world of the ultra-rich, so there is little to juxtapose it with. The only victims (that we’re empathizing with in the narrative) are the ultra wealthy themselves.
In the Rian Johnson duology--and Crazy Rich Asians--we see the world of the ultra-rich from a lens that is more relatable, more grounded, and most importantly, gives us a victim we can identify with immediately. The other thing the working class victim does is provide a viewpoint that contrasts how the ultra rich view themselves compared to who they actuall are.
In the case of Knives Out, all the Thrombley siblings argue they worked hard to earn and maintain their wealth. However, Harlan Thrombley only bestows the money on the girl who is really actually working. In the case of Crazy Rich Asians, Rachel is someone we can project onto, and someone who has earned everything she’s worked for. Her journey is constantly compared to that of Edward Cheng who puts suffocating effort into maintaining his status.
All of these stories show people going to the extremes to protect something —whether it’s their wealth or status —that ultimately makes them continuously dissatisfied with their lives. I would argue the whole point of the rich person satire is that it shows the great and inhumane lengths people are willing to go to to hold onto something so fickle. And — if the satire is good – do it in a way that’s funny.
So the murder mystery makes sense as a backdrop for scathing critique because it shows these people at their absolute lowest and the absolute extremes they're willing to go.
In a broader sense, this critique is attacking the American capitalist ruling elite class which is fixated on financial success — anything else be damned. In all three of these stories, it is the threat of losing money or status that propels the story and is the crux of the conflict. In each story, the threat comes from a different place, but it all centers around a crumbling empire and the ways people respond when they feel threatened. All three stories feature out of touch characters confronted by someone (our working class victim) who forces them to reveal their true colors and what they’re actually fighting for.
The compulsion of these stories is complex. For one, the ostentation of wealth and the flashiness of having the world at your fingertips is simply fun to engage with. But on a deeper level, these types of stories have the same intrigue as political dramas. It’s about what people are willing to do to maintain power. How far will someone go to hold onto something as fluid as status? This conflict is the same as a show like Game of Thrones but with (sometimes) less bloodshed. At the end of the day, these stories argue that money brings out the worst in people. Money brings out a violent instinct and forces us to confront ourselves. It asks: if put in the same position would we cling to our morals or would we give it all up just for a chance to get to the top?
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