Earlier this year Netflix gave us Krister Johnson’s improvisational detective series Murderville, in which different celebrity guest stars join Detective Terry Seattle (Will Arnett, The Lego Batman Movie) and attempt to solve a murder. While Arnette, some recurring characters, and potential suspects have a rough outline of a script to follow, the guest stars were always completely left in the dark, and it led to some truly brilliant comedic moments. Just in time for the holidays, Murderville returns to solve its biggest mystery yet, who killed Santa Claus?
In, Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery, we find Seattle home alone on Christmas, chowing down on some Nakatomi Pizza, which serves as just the first of many homages to the unquestioned Christmas classic, Die Hard. Before he can pop in his recorded VHS tape of Die Hard’s (cool parts only), he’s interrupted by a phone call from his ex-wife and boss Chief Rhonda (Haneefah Wood, Truth Be Told), who tells him he must work security detail for an event at City Hall for Mayor Palmer (Tawny Newsome, Space Force), with his new trainee, Jason Bateman.
A heartwarming event where local orphans can meet former hall of fame QB Johnny Blaze (Sean Hayes, Will & Grace), portraying Santa, and receive presents takes a dark turn when the lights go out and the big guy is stabbed through the chest with a sharpened candy cane. Now Seattle and Bateman are in a race against time to find the killer and deliver the gifts to the orphanage by morning to save the spirit of Christmas.
There is a slightly different energy with this episode. This is largely due to the relationship that Arnett and Bateman share working together on their podcast, Smartless. If one thing is clear, it’s that Arnette is thoroughly enjoying torturing his friend and co-host. To his credit, Bateman is game for literally anything and seemingly embarrassed by nothing. On Smartless, they also work with Sean Hayes, whom Arnett wisely cast as the quickly dispatched Santa, but they still manage to have fun at his expense as well, especially in a bit where they give him the full Weekend at Bernie’s treatment, so the orphan children won’t realize he’s dead.
While there is typically just one celebrity guest per episode on the show’s standard format, this is clearly a high-profile case, and after Seattle and Bateman question their first suspect – Channel Five News sports reporter Jim Trentley (Kurt Braunohler, The Big Sick), who exposes quite a lot to them – Maya Rudolph joins the team. Amusingly, Arnette gives Bateman 25 seconds to catch Rudolph up on the details of the case, who reacts to its absurdity with wheezing laughter.
The trio then goes on to easily the best bit of the episode when they interrogate Santa’s assistant (Courtney Parchman, The Get Together). At the same time, Seattle has them transition from good cop/bad cop to various accents and eventually has Bateman just imitating a robot until the assistant relents and starts talking. Rudolph really shines during this improv at an insanely brilliant and fun level.
One of the great staples of Murderville is having the guests wear an earpiece while Seattle feeds them lines and they talk with the last suspect. It continues in this episode, while Arnette gets to live out what you would assume is a personal fantasy of his. As Bateman and Rudolph go undercover and pitch a terrible business idea to Donna (Eliza Coupe, Happy Endings), Seattle ditches his shoes and socks and climbs into an air duct, John McClane style, for no constructive reason at all really.
At this point, the celebrity guest typically makes their guess as to who the killer is based on the sometimes obvious, and sometimes subtle, clues provided, but this time things descend into comedic chaos as a surprise third celebrity is introduced. Bateman and Rudolph must try and explain everything that has been going on – which is incredibly difficult to do – before all three make their selections. The closing of the show goes off the rails in the best way possible, exactly as it should, before Seattle wraps things up with a joke that comes full circle.
If you enjoyed Murderville, then you’ll love this addition. The show could rest simply on its comedic elements with no attempt at coherence when it comes to the murder mystery itself, but determining the killers typically proves somewhat tricky, and the surprising reveals are always a bonus. The episodes are always as good as the guests are at going with the flow and committing to the premise with Arnette, so Bateman and Rudolph are a fun pairing, with the added comedic layer of having the whole Smartless group involved.
