Murderville: Season 1

February 6, 2022 5:37 AM - Season 1 (Full Season)

For City Senior Detective Terry Seattle, every day brings a murder, and a new celebrity partner, who isn't given a script but who must solve the mystery or else be fired. Starring Will Arnett. Guest Starring Conan O'Brien, Marshawn Lynch, Kumail Nanjiani, Annie Murphy, Sharon Stone, and Ken Jeong. Co-Starring a who's-who of funny people. Entire six-episode first season streaming on Netflix.

So, like... you remember "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" Like, the TV show, not the video game? Picture that... kinda. But instead of Geography, you need to know improv games. So there's a bit of "Who's Line is it Anyway?" in there too. But gritty. So much darkness and grit. And zero Rockapella. Anyway, there's about three hours of it total and it's hilarious.

posted by Navelgazer (26 comments total)

I found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the bits went nowhere, some were hilarious.

I liked the Sharon Stone episode because she was so unflappable (there was also some line about how "this is as messy as my last divorce" that killed me).

But I also liked how Ken Jeong kept absolutely losing it in every scene.

It's not life-changing TV, but it's fun and silly.
posted by champers at 5:52 AM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I was worried that Sharon Stone wouldn't fit in with what they were doing here, but she killed it by going unflappably deadpan and staying "in character" more than anyone else (except for maybe Marshawn Lynch, who is arguably never out of character ever.) Just immediately settled into a straightman role from which to toss out brilliant under-her-breath asides (like "'Difficult' is the word I usually get...")

But there was no guest-star that didn't do it for me in their own way. Annie Murphy had me rolling.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:12 AM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

This is a good example of the category of show we call either "fun to make" or "must be nice".
Like, if you could convince those people to hang out with you while you made them to do dumb things, wouldn't you? And everyone gets paid?

I'm assuming GOB was involved in getting this show made. If not, it might not fit.

(The show that got us to make this category was 'comedians in cars telling Seinfeld he's great'. )
posted by Acari at 7:06 AM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]

I love this. It's exactly tuned in to the level of silliness I want & attention I have to pay to anything so it's like the only show I can watch with my phone down at this point. Plus it reminds me of Improvised Shakespeare which I miss from being able to go to live shows.
posted by bleep at 9:36 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

Terry and Marshawn swearing vengeance oaths to an urn may have been the high point for me.

Wait, Annie Murphy undercover as the pancake king was also great.

This is evidently a US remake of Murder in Successville, I guess? I have not seen the original but now I wanna check it out.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 12:07 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

This is fun. Reminds me of kids’ tv. I keep waiting for the spelling or math lesson. What’s todays word, Detective Seattle?
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 2:46 PM on February 6, 2022

Oh, geez, I didn’t really read Navelgazer’s summary. Whoops, sorry!

I was totally going to mention the live-action Carmen Sandiego!!!
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 2:49 PM on February 6, 2022

I watched the first one, with Conan, and was sort of 'meh', but decided to try another and I'm only in the second one and it's the two-way mirror scene and I'm just in pain from snortlaughing
posted by The otter lady at 4:29 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm halfway through. I feel like the first two guys guessed whodunit and Kumail actually thought it out and noticed the clues, so good for him. Marshawn appeared to be having fun.

So the premise is that the guest partner has to improvise all of it and the rest of the cast is...I'm not sure how scripted/improvised that part is, but I do like that they actually had planned clues that someone could figure out from watching.

Terry and his future ex's conversations are comedy gold.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:28 PM on February 6, 2022

OH GOD THE KINDERGARTEN SCENE. THAT TEACHER LADY. THE THINKING BENCH. ANNIE'S NAKED BOOBIE PICTURE and the teacher complimenting it!
Annie also logics it out.... "You missed clues and frankly messed up some others..." but she is correct!
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:53 PM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]

Well, you see, Annie was a Biology major, so...
posted by Navelgazer at 7:04 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

The kindergarten was gold, especially since they'd been sort of fighting in the last scene and it was like they needed couples therapy from kindergarten
posted by The otter lady at 8:44 PM on February 6, 2022

Had moments that didn't work, but plenty of others that had us laughing. Felt like he was a little meaner to Annie than anyone else, but then the kindergarten scene...her stick figure with boobies! The thinking bench! And the pancake king!

Sharon's deadpan was the best, and while she missed the clues, she actually approached the whole thing like she was on a police procedural and asked serious questions and looked at motive, means, and opportunity.
posted by nubs at 5:27 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

This hits me in the weird little surreal/meta/whimsy place that few shows ever do, and I predict this will either do very well or vanish entirely in three months.
posted by The otter lady at 9:37 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Having seen them all now, Marshawn is definitely the best, especially considering he's not a 'pro' comedian. He comes at it like a guy discovering D&D and his joy is just a delight.
posted by The otter lady at 11:51 AM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]

I can't solve crimes for shit. I actually tried on episode 5 and failed, pretty much for the same reasons as Sharon cited :P All I could figure out was that it had something to do with coffee and how Chen didn't drink any. God, I'm dumb.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:31 PM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I only got the super obvious ones like THEY TOOK AWAY MY PASSPORT.
posted by bleep at 7:59 PM on February 7, 2022

Also, wow, the people playing the corpses are -good- at keeping 'dead", I don't think I could have kept a straight face with Sharon Stone tweaking my nipples
posted by The otter lady at 9:48 PM on February 7, 2022 [6 favorites]

Pretty funny moments but felt Will Arnett was a little too overbearing for the guests to shine. I get why you need celebs for the mainstream appeal, but would love to see this format with some comedians who are already comfortable being a character on the fly in an improv situation. Like, any guest of Comedy Bang Bang ever.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:40 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

I enjoyed the celebs. I concur that Arnett was overbearing/jerky as heck and he was my least favorite aspect of the show for that.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:49 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

It felt like Arnett just didn't know how to share the stage or when to let a skit go and move on. I found his "we can't fall in love" schtick with Sharon Stone particularly grating.

It's Sharon Freaking Stone. Everyone is in love with her. We get it. Move on.
posted by champers at 3:53 AM on February 9, 2022

We finished these last night. Marshawn, Annie, and Kumail were definite highlights.
I'm not sure who Marshawn is, but he was delightful. Annie and Kumail both seemed stressed out a bit because they wanted to solve the case and didn't have patience for detective Seattle, but their faces were just excellent.

This was the correct level of dumb and silly for me right now.
posted by Acari at 12:32 PM on February 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

I haven't watched the US version, but in case anyone's interested, the original UK version is on youtube. One thing to note about that version is that most (all?) of the supporting cast are supposed to be doing impressions of various celebrities, though they could be UK celebs who aren't so easily recognizable.
posted by juv3nal at 5:47 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Marshawn was my favorite. I keep chuckling about this exchange:
"I can hear you!"
"Then pretend you can't. . . . the fuck"
posted by Anonymous at 7:36 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

In case anyone was wondering about Detective Seattle manhandling Conan when he first appears, the guest actor has never seen the script or the set, while everyone else knows the set and blocking.

Arnett was (in-character) moving Conan to the right spot on stage for the scene.
posted by zippy at 9:26 PM on February 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

I've only seen the first two episodes but I am so on board. God the scene at Quirky Jack's Homestyle Eatery killed me. "You've never seen a wetter sandwich." The set decorator for that scene went to town with flair from Every Bad Outdoorsy Theme Restaurant on the walls. Snowshoes, deer, lobsters, geese, fox hunting horns, anchors, and of course saws.
posted by zippy at 12:16 AM on February 23, 2022 [2 favorites]