An open home occasion for an upscale dwelling already resembles a recreation of “Clue”: prosperous individuals from varied walks of life, gathered collectively in a big, enticing area. All that’s lacking from this ready-made setup is a useless physique, a niche simply crammed by creator Liz Feldman within the Netflix black comedy “No Good Deed.”
Feldman beforehand created “Lifeless to Me” for the streamer, one other sequence about prosperous, amoral residents of Southern California. (Christina Applegate’s character was even an actual property dealer.) If “No Good Deed” recycles some components from that earlier undertaking, together with the presence of Linda Cardellini as a lady who’s not telling the entire reality about her backstory, the present no less than advantages from their reliable nature. In truth, “No Good Deed” options such a strong setup — and such a stacked forged, led by Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow as a pair trying to promote their Los Angeles villa — that its overreliance on twists will be counterproductive. Within the parlance of its central trade, as soon as the eight-episode season settles into its story, one can recognize the great bones beneath all of the pointless fixtures.
Paul (Romano), a contractor, and Lydia (Kudrow), a pianist, reside in Los Feliz, a hip-yet-cushy neighborhood quickly to be renamed The “No one Needs This” Zone. As cash-strapped empty nesters, it’s comprehensible why the pair would wish to downsize. (Paul not solely did a lot of the work on the home, he grew up in it. The sale is pure revenue!) However when Mikey (Denis Leary), a menacing determine from their previous, returns to blackmail them over some long-buried secrets and techniques, we study they might have ulterior motives for letting go of their longtime residence.
Netflix has forbidden me from disclosing both Mikey’s connection to Paul and Lydia or what truly occurred of their home round three years in the past — not coincidentally, the cutoff for after they’d be legally obligated to reveal a dying on the property. It’s true “No Good Deed” withholds these essential particulars for a number of episodes, ginning up suspense with obscure, uneven flashbacks. However the solutions are essential sufficient that I needed “No Good Deed” had simply minimize to the guts of its story a few household in grief, the higher to light up the relationships inside it. The wedding of Lydia, psychosomatically blocked from taking part in her instrument, and Paul, maniacally centered on shifting ahead, solely comes into focus close to the shut. At first, they function in a comic book register that’s previous hat for 2 sitcom legends, bickering and fumbling their approach by an novice coverup. As soon as “No Good Deed” stops throat-clearing, Kudrow and Romano lastly get to flex their dramatic chops.
A minimum of “No Good Deed” buys time with a bitchy, nimble satire of acquisitive yuppies. Paul and Lydia’s suitors are a motley crew. Newlyweds Dennis (O-T Fagbenle, dropping his insane accent from “Presumed Harmless”), an creator, and Carla (Teyonah Parris), now six months pregnant, want more room for his or her rising household — which can or might not embrace his overbearing mom, Denise (Anna Maria Horsford). Sarah (Poppy Liu) and Leslie (Abbi Jacobson) have been obsessive about the home for years, however their scrutiny is less-than-welcome: Leslie is a prosecutor, whereas Sarah’s hooked on Citizen. Even JD (Luke Wilson), the washed-up sitcom actor down the road, is , having spent all his earnings on a McMansion designed by his trophy spouse Margo (Cardellini). (It’s the highest of compliments that, at 49, Cardellini is greater than credible as a scheming gold digger getting by on her attractiveness.) As actual property agent Greg, Matt Rogers makes for a pleasant ringmaster of this three-ring circus.
“No Good Deed” avoids the weightier implications of setting a present within the fashionable actual property market; there’s no point out of a housing disaster, or perhaps a particular worth. As a substitute, Feldman sticks to the broader symbolism of trying to find a house, on the patrons’ facet, and the way a home turns into haunted with a long time of recollections, on the sellers’. It’s a worthy topic, sufficient to maintain “No Good Deed” by the distraction of twist after twist — a bent that impacts the complete ensemble, past simply Paul and Lydia. From funds to household backgrounds, the surprises are uniformly much less satisfying than the post-reveal candor. A secure establishment makes for a extra nurturing setting than fixed upheaval. That’s kind of the purpose of sinking all of your financial savings into an empty constructing, isn’t it?
All eight episodes of “No Good Deed” at the moment are streaming on Netflix.
