Police procedurals are extremely common on TV, but there’s rarely been a show like Netflix‘s Murderville. The first trailer for this series demonstrates that Murderville is both a murder mystery and an improv comedy series starring Will Arnett as Detective Terry Seattle. Arnett and his regular castmates have a script, but his celebrity co-stars do not. And it’s up to them to figure out who the killer is.
Terry Seattle is the senior detective in the homicide division, so he’s seen it all before. However, his celebrity partners never had any crime-fighting training. Luckily, Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek), Conan O’Brien, Ken Jeong (The Hangover), and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) are gifted comedians who know their way around a good joke. Marshawn Lynch and Sharon Stone also have some comedic chops of their own and seem to have fun lampooning their well-known public personas. Each of these guest stars will essentially play themselves in a single episode. And if the trailer is any indication, they may have trouble keeping a straight face.
Among the many hilarious moments in the trailer, Terry makes Jeong lie down in a chalk outline and he also gives O’Brien a ridiculously long name to use while he’s undercover. Part of the charm of the show is the way that it could potentially go off the rails. As an example, Nanjiani seems to break character at the end of the trailer simply because he can’t hold back his laughter at one of Arnett’s jokes.
Murderville is based on the BBC series Murder in Successville, which was created by Andy Brereton and Avril Spary. That show established the format of pairing fictional detectives with real celebrities for an improvised crime and comedy series.
Haneefah Wood also stars in the series as Terry’s ex-wife, Chief Rhonda Jenkins-Seattle, with Lilan Bowden as medical examiner Amber Kang, and Phillip Smithey as Det. Darren “Daz” Phillips.
Arnett has a long history with Netflix, including starring in and executive producing the animated series BoJack Horseman. He also reprised his role as Gob Bluth in Netflix’s revival of Arrested Development. Arnett is executive producing Murderville with Krister Johnson, Marc Forman, Jonathan Stern, Peter Principato, Brian Steinberg. Tom Davis, Andy Brereton, and James De Frond. The series was written by Anna Drezen, Chadd Gindin, Craig Rowin, Jack Kukoda, Marina Cockenberg, Kerry O’Neill, Hannah Levy, and Adriana Robles.
Murderville‘s six-episode first season will premiere on Netflix on Friday, February 3.
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