No Good Deed Review: Ray Romano & Lisa Kudrow's Beautiful Dramatic Performances Struggle To Elevate Netflix's Dark Comedy

Comedic-driven mystery shows have become all the norm with modern television, whether it's the eight-time Emmy winning Only Murders in the Building or Kaley Cuoco's Based on a True Story. Creator Liz Feldman previously saw success with the Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate-led Dead to Me and now she's back with Netflix's No Good Deed, which also reunites her with the former Emmy-nominated star, but it doesn't quite find the same spark as their prior work.

Led by Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow, No Good Deed chronicles the lives of four couples, three of whom are trying to buy a beautiful Spanish-style villa in an upper-class Los Angeles neighborhood that's being sold by Paul and Lydia Morgan. On the surface, the Morgans are a couple dealing with empty nest syndrome as their daughter doesn't keep in touch, and they're still mourning the death of their son sometime prior. As the bidding war escalates, Paul's fresh-out-of-prison brother shows up and blackmails the pair with the promise of exposing a dark secret in the house's history.

No Good Deed's Cast Performances Are Top-Notch

Rare Dramatic Turns From Romano & Kudrow, In Particular, Prove Compelling

One of the biggest things No Good Deed has going for it is its massive roster of stars, including actors who have done various genres. Whether it's the typically comedic Romano, Kudrow, Abbi Jacobson and Poppy Liu, the dramedy queen Cardellini, the effortlessly versatile Luke Wilson, or heavy hitters Teyonah Parris and O-T Fagbenle, it proves to be one of the most diverse casts in modern filmmaking.

This range proves very beneficial with how much Feldman's work in No Good Deed jumps between tones, as much of the cast keeps us grounded in what she's going for at every moment. Jacobson and Liu's storyline is generally effective with its mix of drama and comedy, Parris and Fagbenle's, while familiar, is a fun "mama's boy can't move on" arc, and Wilson and Cardellini's is also an engaging blend of petty domestic squabbles and genuine drama as secrets are unveiled about her.

But among the show's ensemble cast, Romano and Kudrow prove to be the standouts. While Feldman certainly lets the duo tap into the comedy roots that put them on the map, the material actually gives them a lot of really powerful moments. Their very different means of processing their son's death feels very authentic, as we feel the long-standing effect on them as individuals and as a couple, and the few moments they do explode land with the right impact.

The Show's Central Mystery Is Largely Engaging & Fairly Unpredictable

The mystery comedy genre has explored a wide variety of stories, from closed cases being reopened to fresh murders being investigated by true-crime-obsessed locals. With No Good Deed, Feldman finds an interesting and compelling way to develop the mystery at the heart of the show and also with how she goes about setting up the major reveals regarding the death of Paul and Lydia's son. It's largely stated his death was a result of an attempt to stop a home invasion, though it's never made clear who killed him, or what his part was in it.

The show does gradually begin to make it clear that one of two characters was the likely culprit behind his death, but in the latter few episodes, No Good Deed delivers a twist, revealing the culprit to have been a third character. The reveal works in part because we've spent so little time with that character that we had no reason to suspect them, but also because of the emotional flashback to the moment. A death already layered with complexities becomes a truly thought-provoking situation with its final reveals.

Even aside from the Morgan family, No Good Deed lays out a variety of intriguing mysteries for each couple. Jacobson and Liu's struggles to build a family together stems from a pretty massive lack of communication between them, Fagbenle and Parris' soon-to-be-born son raises important discussions between them about the darker sides of their childhoods that they've kept secret up to this point, and Cardellini's drive to buy the Morgans' house actually has a more sinister motivation that could upend her entire family.

No Good Deed Is Overstuffed & Not That Funny

Some Character Stories Feel Rushed & The Humor, Though Grounded, Hardly Incites More Than Chuckles

Despite fantastic performances and a great central mystery, No Good Deed ultimately falls fairly short for a couple of key reasons, the first being just how jam-packed its storytelling is. Even with eight episodes, Feldman can never quite settle on who she deems to be the main characters of the show, with Paul and Lydia certainly being set up as such, while a few episodes make it so they're largely sidelined in favor of other characters. As the Morgans' mystery overtakes the story's focus, it also leads to characters like Jacobson and Liu's being pushed aside and their story rushed.

The other unfortunate downside is that, despite the show's attempts to present itself as a dark comedy, it's just not all that funny. There are certainly attempts at humor throughout its eight-episode season, particularly on the darker side of things, but they don't really illicit gut-busting laughs as Dead to Me and Only Murders in the Building. Even rarer are the chuckles, leaving us to sometimes feel disengaged from the material, even when the mystery and performances keep us invested.

All eight episodes of No Good Deed are now streaming on Netflix.

Pros

• The cast are all fantastic, particularly Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow in rare dramatic turns.
• The primary mystery plays out in a well-paced and unpredictable nature across all eight episodes.
• The show leaves very few hanging plot threads.

Cons

• The large cast leads to the story feeling overstuffed and some arcs rushing to finish.
• The humor feels generally tame and rarely incites more than a chuckle.