You’ll Want to Make an Offer on No Good Deed

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Anyone who has ever bought or sold a house knows what a stressful (nightmarish?) experience it can be. Strangers traipse through your home making judgements. Potential buyers are routinely outbid by people who waive inspection and make a cash offer over asking. Since the pandemic, which saw so many looking for more space away from crowded cities, the entire process has become even more fraught. It’s in this world that creator/showrunner/writer/executive producer Liz Feldman sets No Good Deed, her latest dark comedy. Like the double entendre title (deed to a house, an action performed intentionally), the comedy works on multiple levels and keeps viewers guessing until the very last twist.

Paul (Ray Romano) and Lydia (Lisa Kudrow) Morgan are selling their long-time Los Feliz home. It’s actually the house Paul grew up in but it’s Lydia who feels more attached; it’s where they raised their children and where she still feels their presence. Newlyweds Dennis (O-T Fagbenle) and a very pregnant Carla (Teyonah Parris) want a house to raise their baby in—just maybe not a house with enough room for Dennis’ overbearing mother Denise (Anna Maria Horsford). Former soap star JD (Luke Wilson) and his trophy wife Margo (Linda Cardellini) are looking to downsize. Well JD is looking to downsize since he’s in deep debt due to Margo’s zealous overspending. Margo is just looking for her next get-rich-quick scheme. Neighbors Sarah (Poppy Liu) and Leslie (Abbi Jacobson) have been eyeing their dream home for years and are so thrilled that the Morgans have finally decided to sell. They’re still mourning Sarah’s recent miscarriage and think the house might give them the fresh start that they so desperately need.

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But like Feldman’s Dead to Me, there’s much more going on than you might expect. Despite the characters’ often questionable behavior and more than a few outlandish plot twists, the comedy never turns into a farce. Paul and Lydia suffered an unspeakable tragedy three years earlier. Lydia, a pianist with the symphony, can no longer play. Her hands uncontrollably shake every time she’s near a piano. Paul, a contractor, has gotten them in deep financial trouble by taking out a second mortgage on their house. There’s also the problem of just-out-of-prison Mikey (Denis Leary doing his best Denis Leary) who is blackmailing Paul to the tune of 80 grand. The hold Mikey has over the couple and his relationship to them is slowly revealed throughout the season.

Add in a very needy realtor (Matt Rogers), a nosy neighbor (the incomparable Linda Lavin) and a sketchy business developer (Kate Moennig) and the show has all the ingredients for a delightfully bingeable series. Each episode, which moves along brisky, hovers at a little over 30 minutes (the longest episode is the finale which clocks in at 39 minutes). That timing leaves very little room for filler. Every scene feels necessary.

As the heart of the series holding everything together, Romano and Kudrow are fantastic. There’s a reason they headlined two of the biggest comedies of the 1990s. Their comedic timing and deadpan delivery is unmatched, but what makes No Good Deed shine is their ability to switch from comedy to drama so deftly. Lydia’s heartbreak is palpable as is Paul’s desperation. They are a couple struggling with loss and unable to communicate with each other. The chasms in their marriage is the undercurrent to all their conversations. “Why is everything about money with you,” Lydia asks her husband. “Because we don’t have any, Lydia,” he responds.

The writing from Feldman and six others is strong. There’s the one-off jokes. “When we were kids nobody needed to be hydrated. What changed,” Mikey wonders. Lavin’s scenes are short but pack a big punch. “I’m sorry he’s a little racist. During Obama’s second term I had to send him to sensitivity training,” she tells Dennis about her dog. But the writing also shines in the show’s quieter, more nuanced moments. Like when Lyida is trying to have a conversation with her estranged daughter. Those moments are so heartfelt and real, you’ll forget all the other shenanigans happening.

The three couples vying for their home also have rich stories.Standouts include Cardellini, who, playing against her girl-next-door type, is hilarious (and at first almost unrecognizable) as a gold digger who can’t stop spending. Her taste is questionable (check out her bright pink piano) and her fidelity to JD is even more shaky. Cardellini seems to be having such a good time with the role, and her performance is infectious. Fagbenle, free from the dreary world of The Handmaid’s Tale and whatever he was trying to do in Presumed Innocent, is also hilarious as a man trying to make both his mom and his new wife happy, a task he soon finds out is nearly impossible. Liu shines as a doctor with a perhaps unhealthy penchant for social media.

The show probably could have worked with just their stories. But what gives No Good Deed extra oomph is the ongoing murder mystery that unravels slowly over the eight episodes. The action flashes back and forth through time and the suspects are many. The ultimate culprit is a great plot twist that I, for one, did not see coming. And, thanks to Kudrow and Romano, the finale hits hard emotionally. It also leaves the door open for perhaps a second season following one of the other couples more closely. Sign me up.

All eight episodes of No Good Deed premiere December 12 on Netflix.

Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).

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