MovieChat Forums > Murderville (2022) Discussion > Moderately amusing

Moderately amusing

posted 2 years ago by [deleted]
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The basic concept: Assorted actors -- and one sports figure -- acting as homicide sidekicks to Will Arnett's detective must solve a murder. They don't see the script so must solve it on their own. Everything is improv'd and Arnett gets them to do goofy stuff during the course of the investigations.

Sounds good in theory. In practice not so much. The problem is that the collection of guest actors that they came up with aren't particularly good at improv. Mostly we watch them mug or struggle to react to Arnett's dialogue or instructions. Conan O'Brien does pretty well, generating some laughs of his own. So does Marshawn Lynch.

The rest... not so much. (Sidebar: Sharon Stone mostly plays it straight and I thought she was good. I'd actually watch a series with her as a homicide detective.)

What this series needed was actual improv talent... Wayne Brady and all the rest of the crew from Whose Line...? for example.

There is some entertainment value in solving the crimes yourself with all the clues that are presented. I solved half of them correctly with only a bit of effort.

[–] ExTechOp (2758) 2 years ago

Agreed 100%

It was a clever concept but execution was half-baked

Reminds me of the "Spinal Tap" outtakes on the Criterion edition - nearly two full hours of additional improv during which it became PAINFULLY clear why that material was all deleted. Even comedy greats like Christopher Guest & co. can't hit it out of the park all the time. So why would Arnett expect that much from so many non-comedy celebrities?

That said, I also agree that Sharon Stone playing it straight was a good choice, soooo much better than trying to be funny when you're not (and she's most definitely not -- Stone's a textbook MENSA member, super smart but analytical to the point of seeming autistic).