Based on BBC Three’s Murder in Successville, Murderville sees senior homicide detective Terry Seattle (Will Arnett) get paired with a new celebrity partner each episode to try and solve a dastardly murder. The guest stars – including Ken Jeong, Kumail Nanjiani, and Sharon Stone – are not given a script, and have to improvise their way through the various skits and situations that the case throws their way. They then have to decide who the murderer is for themselves.
It’s not difficult to strip each episode back and see exactly how it is testing the guest stars, who are tasked with traversing the often ridiculous scenarios in as entertaining a way as possible. Some are better at it than others (NFL player Marshawn Lynch is the highlight) but all to an extent depend Arnett to carry them through with his welcome and familiar brand of deadpan, baritone charisma. Arnett provides some overconfident certainty to balance out his partners, who are forced to flounder under the absurdity. All the while, you start to appreciate how the show works, and there is honest fun to be had in dialing in to uncover the clues for yourself.
There are laughs, although not anywhere near as many as you might hope for. Sometimes the jokes are more cringey than funny, and parts of the improv don’t feel like anything other than badly scripted normal dialogue. At other times however, the show just about finds the zip and energy it needs, with more than enough to make you smile. Murderville’s occasional moments of ingenuity manage to hit the corny, slapstick murder mystery mark that you are after.
Season 1 of MURDERVILLE is out on Netflix now.
