Will Arnett’s Murderville painstakingly blends improv comedy with a crime show
For Netflix’s improv crime comedy, the audience needs to be as game as the celebrity guests
TV Reviews Will Arnett
It can be fun to see how our favorite performers and celebrities would act in the strangest circumstances, to look behind the media training to the unfiltered personality lurking beneath. Netflix’s Murderville throws celebrity guests into immersive chaos in each episode, its crime-based improv landing like a late-night sketch crossed with a high-budget murder mystery dinner. When the guests are as game as the actors around them, it’s delightful fun—though, like a live improv show, the audience has to arrive prepared for absurdity.
Will Arnett leads the show as homicide detective Terry Seattle, a bumbling policeman who’s divorcing his police chief and is still reeling from the death of his partner (the show’s best cameo, limited to a photo). Each episode sees a different celebrity guest star join Seattle’s latest case without receiving as much as an outline of the crime. They learn everything on set, cameras rolling, with Seattle tossing out random commands that seem straight from a rowdy audience. It’s also up to the guest to name the killer after deciphering all the clues and interrogating the suspects.
An adaptation of the BBC3 series Murder In Successville, Murderville simplifies the premise by having the suspects be random characters with links to the deceased—in the series premiere, the case of a dead magician expands to include a rival, a former assistant, and a Moms Against Magic association. The suspects are often the best part of the show, thanks to some of Hollywood’s best comedians and character actors making the most of whatever Arnett and the celebrity guests throw at them.
Arnett commands the troupe with a variation of his BoJack Horseman growl. He’s the show’s version of a straight man, keeping the farce moving and making suggestions while staying in character. He’s excellent at feeding off the energy of the guests; the best episodes allow Arnett to just play, morphing from a rebel paired with a goody two-shoes one episode to an admirer trying not to fall in love with his partner the next. Along with Arnett’s performance, Murderville depends on some overarching details of Seattle’s life to keep the procedural connected. The recurring cast—Haneefah Wood as the police chief, Lilan Bowden as the forensic scientist, and Philip Smithey as another precinct cop—are great in their supporting roles, and it’s fun to watch their characters’ relationships with Seattle evolve throughout the six episodes.
Season one’s celebrity guests are Annie Murphy, Conan O’Brien, Ken Jeong, Kumail Nanjiani, Marshawn Lynch, and Sharon Stone. We catch their reactions to the strangest situations, hints of their personalities coming out in their choices. It’s like seeing how your partner travels: You never know how they handle an upset until they’re in the midst of one. A great way to learn about performers is seeing how they react when they’re told to act like the president of Finland. (Marshawn Lynch and Sharon Stone are surprisingly fearless.)
For any true-crime fans interested in solving the cases, the show’s mysteries are about as random as the commands from Seattle. The clues aren’t very well-defined, leaving both the guest-star recruit and the viewer scrambling to figure out who’s the killer. The point of the show is the improv comedy, which could have been accomplished without making another cop show. Murderville almost solves that quandary by poking fun at Seattle’s ineptness the whole way through, but the show requires the audience not to think too much about how the mystery gets solved.
Murderville recreates the vibe of an improv show in a half-hour narrative, a fun departure from game or sketch form. The constant spontaneity is there, plus the feeling of awe when a guest gets totally into the scene. It also adopts the nature of live improv or stand-up comedy where the interlopers, both the guest and the audience, have to accept the circumstances and be open to the comedy. But in the few instances that the recruits are less credulous—where they appear to find Arnett’s requests or a suspect’s motive as foolish—the illusion that the players have so painstakingly built is broken.
When everything melds together on Murderville, with the guests feeling like part of the troupe instead of a name air-dropped in, it’s a very enjoyable watch. When the celebs aren’t a great fit, it’s up to Arnett and the cast to keep everything going, and they often do. In the end, it falls under the nature of any improv show: The best moments see everyone, from the guests to the audience, dedicated to keeping this fever dream going.
70 Comments
Might be interested, but I’m done watching cops. Pass.
I’ve been going through this recently, I think what’s finally made me just recoil from it is every single show has the lawyer-less suspect press ganged into an admission of guilt as if that’s some great thing.All interview scenes in cop shows are tantamount to torture.
I think in the BBC version the guest star had to shoot the person they thought did it.Which probably isn’t quite as hilarious a concept, state-side.
every single show has the lawyer-less suspect press ganged into an admission of guilt as if that’s some great thing.A suspect can’t be press-ganged into an admission of guilt. They can only be press-ganged into enlisting in the army or navy.
Swing and a miss
Metaphor: confusing pedants since Proto-Indo-European.
Substitution: generalising expression to the point of pointlessness since Bogdanov realised it was a problem.
Yeah, kinda done with police procedurals, and police shows in general. Even Brooklyn Nine-Nine had the decency to hang a lampshade on it as they bowed out. This show could have just gone with the private citizen who is also an expert detective, since they’re ripping off the Brits anyway. No need for police at all.
I sincerely hope someone hits you in the face with a hammer.
My only exception so far has been Twin Peaks, because I’m an abolitionist, but BOB can stay the FUCK in that Red Room pls.
Right, because this is the very definition of copaganda.What a stupid, misguided attitude.
even Bosch?
This sounds like cops acting foolish, so I am okay with it
I think that still serves the purpose of presenting them as harmless and buffoonish rather than terrifying and abusive.
Its fair to hate cops, the perpetrators of the evil of the state, but the whole American media landscape is about cops. Every superhero is a cop but worse
I’m torn about this myself. I love a good whodunnit, but I’ve lost a lot of respect for/faith in cops IRL.
As far as I’m concerned, The Shield made cop shows ridiculous forever. Like how Austin Powers killed James Bond (or at least turned him into James Bourne)
This is a cop show in as much as the Simpsons is a family drama.
Came here to say this. The whole “cops” shtick is just a flimsy framework to hang improv comedy on. It’s more of a murder mystery dinner type scene.
I’m feeling this way about the Justified reboot. And I LOVED Justified. But police brutality is fucked up.
Good thing Will Arnett isn’t a cop. For fuck’s sake, leave this teary-eyed bullshit on Reddit.
I get it, but I will say there’s a great bit in Annie Murphy’s episode where a kindergarten teacher says, “I always tell my students the police are there to help you,” and Arnett does a great little, “eh” and shrug. I can’t do straight cop narratives anymore, but media that mocks them is easier for me to stomach, personally.
I can’t imagine this being even close to the BBC original in terms of quality.
Well I am sure this small American outfit called “Netpass” or whatever doesn’t have the money of the BBC, with all those TV taxes they collect!!
If you think money is what would make it good I’m not even sure how to respond to you.
It’s a bit of a shame that they didn’t film more of them, with a mind to drop the ones where the guest stars don’t cut it. Too expensive I’m sure.The first two episodes of the BBC one are absolute class because those two guests understood that they are supposed to play along. The later guests didn’t seem to quite get it.
After seeing the trailer for this I went and checked out the original British “Murder in Successville.” It’s often extremely funny, and I can’t imagine Arnett topping Tom Davis’s performance, but it’s hampered a bit by the “put a hat on a hat” premise of ALSO having everyone they meet being a parody of a celebrity, so I’m glad the American version is doing away with that. To be fair, some of the issue for me is that they’re often parodying some extremely specifically British celebrities, so a lot of the jokes go over my head, but mostly the ridiculousness of the impressions just detracts from the initial ridiculousness of the premise. As always, there’s some unintentional hilarity when British actors attempt non-British accents, including an inexplicably Joisey-sounding Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber.
where did you watch “successville?”
Youtube!
A) I fear this is going to be like the American “Taskmaster” where it just doesn’t translate for whatever reason. I mean, who needs to see Lisa Lampanelli do…anything?2) I’m going to watch the hell out of the Marshawn Lynch episode. He seems delightful.
In this case ‘the reason’ will be that they can’t help but try and stack the deck which then just makes it all a bit contrived. Go look at who the guests are on each version. The vast majority in the British version are just people in the public eye in some way: singers, athletes, presenters, reality TV stars. For the American version, all but 2 are comedians/comedy actors, the other is an actor, the last is Marshawn Lynch. So in MiS, you had fishes out of water trying to cope in a bizarre world created for them, in the American version you’re mostly going to have professional comedians trying to give their A-game.
It is my fervent hope that Lynch’s excellently rambling guest spot on Brooklyn Nine-Nine was cut from one 2-hour uninterrupted monologue that the crew only caught by sheer luck.
I hope he keeps talking about quesadillas, because his pronunciation of that word is the gift that keeps on giving.
My big worry on seeing the trailer was that it would turn out like the American version of Thank God You’re Here, where the regular performers were so dedicated to maintaining the setup they’d created that they were constantly breaking the “yes and” rule, shooting down every single contribution the guest tried to make to the story. Sounds like that’s not actually an issue here, so that’s great.
Did AVClub even bother to cover the much better original show?
I’m having a hard time envisioning Marshawn Lynch being lucid enough to solve a murder mystery.
That’s not the point. Some of the guests don’t solve it, but the police chief comes in and tells who did or didn’t. The idea is the guests don’t have a script, they have to play off Arnett.
Can’t be as unfunny as Space Force was.
Oh ho, not “was,” my friend. Is! Space Force was renewed, and is coming back this month!(uuuuuuugh…)
Sharon Stone looks like the winning episode in the trailer, might skip the rest.
Yeah, her commitment seems pretty high.Much as I love him, Conan gets annoyed pretty easily. I don’t know how fun his episode is going to be.And I fucking hate Ken Jeong. So probably gonna skip that one.
I’d rather have a show about Conan O’Brien and Jordan Schlansky solving mysteries.
Conan is, as usual, ready, willing, and hilarious. He bounces off people beautifully. I miss seeing him though I listen to his podcast and also Arnett’s (with Bateman and Hayes) every week.
I’m concerned whether Jason ever figured out Tubi is available basically on every platform that provides streaming. Amazon, Smart TVs, etc…
“Do I have Tubi?” Gotta get the shirt made for Jason
Do yourself a favor and watch Marshawn Lynch. There’s a guy who gets improv.
Watching Arnett hit on her the entire episode was great. “Try not to fall in love with me”. “Yeah not today. Nope, not gonna happen.”
Will this make me laugh or help me fall asleep? I’m watching either way.
This looks like shit, but I’m just happy to see Will Arnett alive. In AD season 5 he looked like the grim specter of Death. He was at Scott Weiland levels of “this dude is literally dying in front of us”
100%. He genuinely looked so healthy (and handsome!) in AD season 4, and it looks like playing BoJack and his relapse into alcoholism really took its toll – there were parts of AD season 5 (which I didn’t like anyway) where I was taken out of it any time Arnett was on screen cos I just felt so worried for how unhealthy he looked. He’s back in good shape and I’m happy cos I bloody love the guy.
Although Ken Leong is indeed an actor, it would appear that it’s Ken Jeong that is in this show (‘Starring’ above has Leong listed).
Given how ball-bouncingly hysterical Murder in Successville was I’ll be willing to give this a try – the thought of Conan going through it is tantalizing. But it was so gloriously British I don’t know how I feel about it being remade.
Serious Question: how close was the involvement of the MiS team? Did they buy the rights or concept or is it just a straight uncredited rip-off?
Tom Davis from MiS is in the credits so it’s an official American remake, not just a knock-off
Watched the first episode of this remake and … nah. I really like Will Arnett but this is just not that funny. The best thing about it is the noir-ish lighting and music, but that’s not enough to make it funny when coasting celeb buddies crack each other up.
Watched the first episode of this remake and … nah.
The show’s a bit hit or miss. I didn’t think Conan was quite as good as it could’ve been but I liked the Kumail Nanjiani and Annie Murphy’s episodes quite a bit.
The Kumail Nanjiani and Sharon Stone episodes I thought worked very well because they both pushed back against Arnett hilariously. Marshawn Lynch and Ken Jeong both though were really funny by being game for whatever & really throwing themselves into it. Annie Murphy and Conan were both a little lost it seemed like though I like both of them.
I thought Annie played along well enough, if maybe not as reactive as Lynch. Conan felt a bit too much like he was in on the joke to really make it work.
The first one with Conan was really fun, especially when even the cast members would break because of how ridiculous it got. Arnett’s and Conan’s chemistry is so infectious that I would almost wish he’s stay on. One question i did have though was in the end, did Conan pick the name at random and then have to improvise why he thought that person was guilty, or did he actually guess based on the… “clues?”
Having watched that episode (and that one only, at least so far) I felt like, whatever he said his reasons were, he picked the biggest name of the three suspects as the murderer. This is a reliable indicator on police procedurals as well, so sound TV police work there, Lou. I mean Conan.
I watched the first episode and I found it somewhat strange. Arnett and Conan were both funny and played off of each other well and the supporting characters all did a good job as well. But it also felt abrupt when the ending came and Conan had to name the murderer. The case felt like such an afterthought to the hijinks of the episode that it didn’t feel satisfying for Conan to guess right (especially since he guessed right for the wrong reasons).I kind of wonder if this would have been better had it been an interactive show where the viewer got to pick who the murderer was at the end instead.
Caught the first two episodes and loved it! Really funny stuff, now I don’t have to bother with the BBC version, which is probably worse like the BBC Office, but snobs won’t ever admit that and will just continue to push the false narrative that anything from the BBC is funny at all let alone better then their superior US remakes.
Do yourself a favor and at least watch Marshawn Lynch on this–he’s fucking hilarious.
i’m actually loving this!
The Annie Murphy one was good, as was Sharon Stone. Conan is probably the best at improv, and he knows how to save a joke going off the rails from skits on his old show.
i thought marshawn lynch was surprisingly delightful!
Does anyone here get that this is a spoof of police procedurals? Not a documentary. What joyless lives you all must live.
Watched the whole thing in one sitting and laughed my gd butt off. This is just great silly fun. I keep thinking back to Arnett’s line from the Marshawn Lynch episode, angrily shouting “We don’t have time to discuss the implausibility of this scenario!” and then proceeds to have him “mirror” the white suspects movements so he “thinks there’s still a two-way mirror in the room”. I’m trying to use that line as much as possible in life.
The Annie Murphy episode with the “you BOIL your pancakes?!??” made me laugh so hard that I hurt myself coughing. The whole series is just *chef’s kiss*
Having Ken Jeong go last, in the longest episode of the season, was a choice. His version of improv is “laughing uncomfortably at everything.” It was physically painful to watch and derailed any enthusiasm I had for another season. It’s telling when a former NFL player ends up being funnier than a “professional” comedian.
Yeah he couldn’t do it.