Murderville follows up its excellent first episode with a very solid second, with Marshawn Lynch as his celebrity guest. This time, the pair are investigating the murder of a doll maker. The suspects? The victim’s identical triplet sons. Let the games begin.
The Trainee
When your victim is the maker of a very popular doll, what else would you expect of a murder weapon than the doll in question? (As Lynch aptly remarked, “What kind of sick ass shit is that?”) But, of course, the mystery really isn’t the point of Murderville. No, this series is all about its celebrity guest stars (and star Will Arnett‘s antics). And although we’re only two episodes in, the series has always made a liar out of me.
I had assumed going in that the strength of the series would lay heavily on the improvisational ability of its weekly guest. That is still true, to a point. After all, you can’t have someone who completely drops the ball and responds to the action on the screen with a blank look and dead air. But, given the premise, I would have assumed that seasoned comedians – who are accustomed to thinking on their feet while bringing the humor – would be the best type of guest. But with Lynch, I realized I was wrong.
I confess, I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of his career, outside of the highlights. So perhaps I’m assuming wrongly when I suppose he probably doesn’t have the strongest background in improv. But that really didn’t end up mattering because he went for it. Every single time. Granted, there were a couple of “you want me to what?” moments, but those actually made the whole thing better.
And the fact he only cracked (to the point where he had to struggled to gather his composure and carry on) once? I know he’s done some comedy (such as his brief but memorable appearance on Brooklyn Nine-Nine), but he clearly should be doing a lot more.
In the end, he didn’t guess the culprit correctly (though I couldn’t fault his logic) and was therefore “fired” as a trainee. But the important thing is that he clearly had fun. And, frankly, so did we.
Notable Moments
- Lynch may not have known what he was supposed to do with the urn, but I hope he knew there wasn’t really a person’s ashes inside. (There weren’t, right? Right?)
- “Do you think you’d be any good at [this job]?” “Shit, I don’t know.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to respond to job interview questions in exactly that way.
- I really wish they’d gotten back to the question of “Detective Bagabitch” – a solid attempt by Lynch to get Arnett to crack.
- “What do you mean good luck? Why are you making that face?” This may be the moment I fell in love with Lynch.
- “We don’t have time to discuss the implausibility of this scenario!”
- One of the best things about having a guest star who isn’t a seasoned improv actor? They’re more likely to crack. And I loved watching Lynch crack.
I can’t help it. I love this show.
Murderville is streaming now on Netflix. Did you enjoy “Triplet Homicide?” Let us know in the comments!