Will Arnett is great for three things: playing goofballs, voiceover work in commercials, and serious acting. He can provide his gravel voice to commercials for literally any product and sales will go up. He can knock his tough role in Is This Thing On? out of the park. But, best of all, he can turn self-serving jerks and absent-minded dummies alike into comedy gold. On the former end you have Jonathan “Babe!” Ault in Hot Rod. And, on the latter, you have Detective Terry Seattle (Arrested Development‘s Gob Bluth falls somewhere towards the middle of those two categories).
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Detective Terry Seattle is who we spend time with in Netflix’s Murderville, based on the BBC Three series Murder in Successville, which ran from 2015 to 2017. But not just him, because in each episode we get a celebrity joining him on a case to solve a, you guessed it, murder.
What Makes Murderville One of Netflix’s Funniest Shows?
In this series, everyone is given a script to work with…except for the guest. The guest is going in fully cold. They’re informed that the victim is dead, are given a summary filled with some subtle clues, told to solve the case, and they’re introduced to a series of three different suspects. By episode’s end their asked to name their chosen suspect and both they and we learn if their deductive reasoning led to the right person.
For instance, the first episode (which is pretty much a lock for the best, though the rest are also funny) features Conan O’Brien as the guest. The episode coasts on O’Brien and Arnett’s chemistry and Arnett’s forcing O’Brien to each a Spicy Jalapeñ-Joe sandwich with a Slop-a-rita. But more to the point, a magician has been murdered, and O’Brien is introduced to waitress and former magician’s assistant Deb, competing magician Magic Melvin, whose “Sorcery” startles and confounds Det. Seattle, and the head of an anti-magician MADD-type movement.
That’s the general template for the show. One suspect is interviewed in the police station, one is in their own element with distractions thrown in to catch the guest off guard, and a third that requires the guest to go in undercover. When it comes to that third and final suspect, Det. Seattle is speaking through an earpiece, giving advice that ranges from terrible to off-topic rants about something mundane or ludicrous.
The first season, released in its entirety on February 3rd, 2022, consists of six episodes. The guests are O’Brien, former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, Kumail Nanjiani, Annie Murphy, Sharon Stone, and Ken Jeong. There isn’t a weak episode in the bunch, but O’Brien’s, Nanjiani’s, Murphy’s, and Jeong’s are pretty special.
Then, 10 months after that first season dropped, we got “Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery?” This dual-length episode threw a curveball at the audience by having not one but three guests. First, it’s just Jason Bateman, Arnett’s old buddy and co-host of the SmartLess podcast (that show’s third host, Sean Hayes, plays Santa). But all of a sudden Det. Seattle has a third partner in Maya Rudolph, who helps the two interview the second and third suspects. Then, after all three suspects have already been interviewed, Pete Davidson comes in to get a very confusing summary from Rudolph and Bateman.
“Who Killed Santa?” is an excellent special, yet it’s the last we’ve heard from Murderville. No official cancellation, no official renewal, nothing. It’s a shame because Arnett is perfect in the role of what amounts to host. His comedic timing is sterling as always, but he also knows how to make the investigation difficult on the guest without making them outright uncomfortable. It’s clear Arnet had a blast making this and it would be great to get at least one more season out of this premise. There are any number of comedically-inclined actors who would work well in this loose setting.
Then again, there could also just be a full season of O’Brien coming on to solve a new murder for six episodes straight. If he wants to crack off another Dianne Feinstein-related joke that is so funny it breaks one of the show’s actors, that would be okay with us, too.
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