Will Arnett takes us all to Murderville, where comic improvisation is the only law

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, February 3. All times are Eastern.

Top pick

Murderville (3:01 a.m., Netflix): Improv is a harsh mistress, but perhaps not so harsh as… murder! At least that’s the vibe in this new improvisational cop show from Will Arnett, where Arnett’s gravel-voiced dick Terry Seattle attempts to solve a grisly murder by quizzing a genuinely impressive roster of clueless-as-to-the-plot guest stars. Everybody’s a new partner for Arnett’s grizzled copper, from Ken Jeong, to Kumail Nanjiani, Conan O’Brien, Sharon Stone, and even former NFL star Marshawn Lynch, all of whom are expected to not only keep the plot moving according to Arnett’s whims, but to somehow stay one step ahead of Terry Seattle’s ineptly prying eyes.

In The A.V. Club’s pre-air review of this six-episode limited series (based on the BBC series Murder In Successville), Quinci LeGardye says of this unique take on the comic crime procedural:

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.

Regular coverage

And Just Like That… (HBO Max, 3 a.m.)—season finale
Peacemaker (HBO Max, 3 a.m.)

Wild Card

Raised By Wolves (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m.): Tonight’s the night to catch the first two episodes of the second season of this heady mix of religious meditation, technological futurism, and super-cool robots Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim). Tasked with raising human children in a post-apocalypse post-Earth, these two fiercely protective simulacra of humanity must prove themselves more human than the warring religious factions that humanity has split into, all while struggling to nurture their gaggle of eternally imperiled charges.

Filled with twists and turns, major violence and minor-key emotion, the series (executive produced by Ridley Scott) tackles those age-old sci-fi questions like, “What does is mean to be human?,” “Will humanity eventually create artificial life that will supplant us?,” and “What happens if scavenging future-humans try to take away a powerfully protective murder-bot’s surrogate family?” (Just a note that you should never, ever try to do that.) Toss in Vikings’ ever-magnetic Travis Fimmel as a suitably enigmatic foil for our robot duo, and there’s plenty to recommend this handsomely inventive sci-fi series.

In reviewing two-episode the early passages of season two, Arielle Bernstein says of the series’ leads, “One of the greatest pleasures of the series is watching as Amanda Collin and Abubakar Salim so expertly embody the characters of Mother and Father, adding subtlety, nuance, and depth to characters still learning how to understand their own instincts.” This in spite of, perhaps, some of Scott’s Prometheus-style narrative messiness being the real obstacle facing the characters, and the viewers.