
The newest film in the Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man, now available on Netflix, is visually stunning and explores interesting ideas while still following a familiar pattern. Like the previous films, it centers on a close-knit group of people – in past installments, they were wealthy families or those beholden to powerful figures. Their comfortable world is disrupted by an outsider who doesn’t understand their values, similar to characters in earlier films. This disruption coincides with a murder, and the outsider immediately becomes the prime suspect. Luckily, detective Benoit Blanc arrives to help those who are overlooked and underestimated. Throughout the Knives Out series, Blanc has consistently championed working-class protagonists – nurses, teachers, and others with union protections – because these films are ultimately about the importance of community and how welcoming or isolating it can be.