Will Arnett plays your quintessential lone-wolf police detective who’s reluctantly paired with a new partner each episode in the Netflix comedy “Murderville,” which is premised on a central gimmick: A different celebrity guest who has zero knowledge of the script joins him each time as his latest detective-in-training, and together they must solve a crime. Some on the roster, such as Conan O’Brien, have legit improv experience. Others, including former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch (who is terrific here), have none. Let the improv-orama commence!
I like the willingness to experiment and this is such a fun idea (it’s based on the BBC series “Murder in Successville”) but the results are hit and miss. That’s true of all improv, full stop. Watching a live performance, you’re inclined to remember only what works because when improv does work, it’s such a stunning and thrilling moment built from ideas grabbed out of thin air and an actor’s subconscious. The stakes are higher once you put improv in front of a camera, which preserves all those misses that once faded into the mist.
The structure of “Murderville” (from showrunner Krister Johnson, whose credits include “Children’s Hospital,”) deviates from traditional long-form improv in one key way: Arnett and his recurring cast mates (including Haneefah Wood, who plays both his police chief and ex-wife) have more information than their guest stars, who also include Kumail Nanjiani, Annie Murphy of “Schitt’s Creek,” Ken Jeong and a brilliant turn by Sharon Stone. This creates an imbalance that allows the celebrity drop-ins to remain a reactive presence only, rather than driving a scene forward with their own ideas. That’s the antithesis of long-form improv, which is inherently team-oriented, where no one person is in charge or knows more than anyone else.
