Review by C.J. Bunce
If you’re in it because you follow one of its cast members, the new Netflix series No Good Deed, a dark drama with comedy notes, might be for you. Friends fans may show up for Lisa Kudrow. Everybody Loves Raymond fans may show up for Ray Romano. And followers of Luke Wilson, Teyonah Parris, Denis Leary, Linda Cardellini, and O-T Fagbenle will get a fix of their actors in supporting roles. But except for the frequently sardonic Leary, get ready to find these actors outside their typical roles. The show does it all in a fast clip. Eight half-hour episodes track three couples trying to buy a Spanish-style Los Angeles villa in an obvious attempt to capture the magic of Only Murders in the Building. It doesn’t. It’s about two hours too long, but does have its moments.
Kudrow plays Lydia Morgan, a grieving former famous pianist who can’t make herself play, or barely function at all, since her son’s death. Romano plays her husband Paul. Paul wants to sell the house they raised their family in, but Lydia can’t, especially once she’s convinced a flickering light is a sign from her son. If you’re after Kudrow and Romano for their previous roles of levity and stand-up comedy, stop here. Although the script is peppered with some wry and dry funny lines, it doesn’t succeed in finding its footing, neither delivering something endearing or real or humorous. Leary enters the picture as Paul’s brother Mikey, fresh out of jail and blackmailing Paul for Paul’s apparent involvement in his own son’s death.
More of the comedy–a mix of hijinks and near (but not quite) slapstick–is left for the three couples bidding on their house, which is on the market but under Lydia’s protest. That’s Parris and Fagbenle as new couple Carla, who is pregnant, and Dennis, who wants his mother to live with them. Abbi Jacobson plays Leslie a city prosecutor whose wife Sarah, played by Poppy Liu, is a doctor trying to get pregnant. And Luke Wilson and Linda Cardellini play soap opera actor J.D. and Margo, a grifter, who is really the only layered character in the series. In her penultimate role is Linda Lavin as a nosy neighbor of the Morgans.
Why doesn’t this land as well as Only Murders in the Building? The biggest difference between the two casts of actors known for their stand-up careers as much as their acting is the mystery plot. Only Murders features an overt crime and dead body each season, while in No Good Deed the mystery needs shaken loose through a few episodes. That mystery is: What happened to the Morgan’s son, and whodunnit? Actual slapstick and tomfoolery ala Clue might have helped turn the series into something more entertaining. But the comedy isn’t fun. The dark comedy beats are too dark. At one point Romano’s character seals his brother into a secret room in his house. In the next episode his wife gets him out, and everyone takes it in stride. Only Leary gives a performance that matches his past work. You’ll want Kudrow to do anything light or to smile once (does anyone want to see Kudrow play someone so sad and grim?), for Romano to be his old funny self from stand-up, for Wilson not to play the victim, for Parris to be that unrestrained fighter she’s known for portraying.
The script spends so much time on Cardellini’s character that the finale comes as no surprise. Margo hits the ground running, first sleeping with a woman trying to get the house sale for someone else, then hijacking J.D.’s daughter, then maneuvering everyone and anyone into making some money any way she can. Cardellini is truly funny along the way, but it’s either too much or out of step with what’s happening with the rest of the characters.
Would it have been better edited down into a movie? Or is its struggle to find a consistent tone what prevents it from being something better? More likely showrunner Liz Feldman simply doesn’t know what it wants to be. What it is is an excuse to watch an ensemble cast of some beloved television actors who have all had bigger and better things to do. It’s not that it’s no good. There’s almost enough–but just barely–to see whether they could come up with something better in a second season.
No Good Deed is now streaming on Netflix.
