Series / Murderville

"My name is Terry Seattle. I'm a senior homicide detective. And I am killing it."

"Come on, my life's not going wrong enough as it is that I gotta babysit some homicide trainee?"

— Terry Seattle

Murderville is a half-hour series starring Will Arnett. An American version of the British show Murder In Successville, it was released on Netflix on February 3, 2022.

Part Police Procedural and part improvisational comedy, Murderville has Arnett play Terry Seattle, a grumpy senior homicide detective from the big city. Every episode, Terry is paired with a Celebrity Star playing themselves to solve a murder. The catch? The celebrity guest doesn't have a script and has to improvise their way through the episode, including having to catch the killer.

The show's six episodes star, in order, Conan O'Brien, Marshawn Lynch, Kumail Nanjiani, Annie Murphy, Sharon Stone, and Ken Jeong. In addition, Haneefah Wood plays Terry's ex-wife/boss Rhonda, Lilan Bowden plays forensic scientist Amber Kang, and Philip Smithey plays Detective Phillips.

On December 15, 2022, a Christmas Special titled "Who Killed Santa?" was released. The special stars Jason Bateman, Maya Rudolph, and Pete Davidson. Additionally, Tawny Newsome plays Mayor Palmer.

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Tropes:

• Actor Allusion:
  • When making his accusation in Episode 6, Ken Jeong says "I know exactly who this is", his catchphrase from The Masked Singer.
  • In the Christmas special, Jason Bateman is asked to do an "elf dance" and ends up doing a version of the Chicken Dance from Arrested Development (a double allusion, since he's specifically doing GOB's dance and Will Arnett is standing right there).
• Adam Westing: Sharon Stone's appearance comes the closest to this, with her joking about being called "difficult."
• Aerith and Bob: Most of the main cast have ordinary names. But some of the side characters have weird names, like Jimothy from Episode 1.
• Agents Dating: The theme of Terry's dynamic with Sharon is that he thinks they'll fall in love like many other partners before them. Later on, he makes what appears to be a confession of love to her but turns out to be a request to help him sell some of the phony nutrient shakes he's been suckered into buying.
• As You Know: Played with and somewhat parodied. If the guest star chooses the right killer, Chief Jenkins-Seattle will congratulate them for spotting all the clues and explain why they are right. Often, the guest will nod along in agreement and take the credit, even if they didn't actually find the clues the Chief is referring to.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment:
  • Rhonda tears into Annie Murphy's summation as nonsensical, ludicrous and the epitome of Insane Troll Logic... then acknowledges she's totally dead right on who's the killer and why.
  • On the flip side, Rhonda begins congratulating Sharon Stone's logical and insightful discussions of a murder... then reveals she's completely wrong.
• Black Boss Lady: The tough, no-nonsense chief of the precinct, Rhonda Jenkins-Seattle, is a black woman played by Haneefah Wood.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Terry Seattle. Though he bumbles through most of the season, in the final episode he correctly pieces together the full details behind the conspiracy to cover up Lori Griffin's murder, despite guest star Ken Jeong getting the killer wrong.
  • In addition to this, Terry takes on the role of the Chief in "Who Killed Santa?", explaining the circumstances of the murder at the end of the episode and outlining what happened after all of the guest stars deliberately guess wrong.
• Call-Back:
  • In the first episode, Rhonda describes the possessions Terry has left at her house (a Playstation 2, a pile of Maxim magazines, and a "Take Me Drunk, I'm Home" T-shirt). In "Murder By Soup", the box Annie Murphy brings to Vinnie Palmieri as tribute contains all of these items.
  • "The Cold Case" features Ken Jeong rattling off a string of references to the previous episodes as desperate attempts to guess Commissioner Barton's code word.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: In the second episode, the killer was one of Cora's sons, who spray-painted "Mom" on the wall of her house. Charles is disqualified from being the murderous son because he calls her "Cora".
• The Cameo:
  • Terry's dead partner Lori is "played by" a photograph of Jennifer Aniston.
  • The actors playing the suspects include recognizable faces like Allison Becker, Rob Huebel, David Wain, Erinn Hayes, Phil LaMarr, Kurt Braunohler, and John Ennis.
  • "Who Killed Santa?" features three: previous guest star Marshawn Lynch, Sean Hayes as murder victim "Johnny Blaze", and Pete Davidson as the surprise third guest star rookie.
• Clueless Detective: Terry Seattle regularly makes mistakes and bungles missions. However, he reveals himself as a Bunny-Ears Lawyer in the finale. The guest stars can also fall into this depending on whether or not they correctly identify the killer.
• Cool Old Lady: Sharon Stone, the oldest of the celebrity guests, fits neatly into this role throughout her episode. She's an unflappable Deadpan Snarker who isn't fazed by Terry's antics and keeps a cool head, even when she gets the final accusation wrong. By contrast, Conan O'Brien, despite only being a few years younger, spends his episode acting more like a Troll and Large Ham than a Cool Old Guy.
• The Coroner: Amber Kang. As part of the formula, Terry and the celebrity guest meet her at the morgue or the crime scene to discuss the crime. She'll tell them how the victim died and mention any clues she has already picked up.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Terry, to Rhonda, when she starts dating Daz in later episodes.
• Crazy Survivalist: "Doomsday prepper" Chester Worthington, who lives in an underground bunker, fears society, and tries to print his own currency.
• Da Chief: Rhonda, who shows up at the beginning and end of each episode to assign the case, hear the guest detective's accusation, and declare whether they are right or wrong.
• Dead Partner: Exaggerated. In the first episode, homicide detective Terry relates that he never got over the loss of his partner, Lori Griffin. Not only has he not been able to keep a partner since, he's also never touched her desk since she died, including never cleaning her breakfast burrito or feeding her rabbit (now a skeleton).
• Did Not Get the Girl: Happens to Terry twice in the same season, first with Lisa Capobianco in Episode 3 and, more devastatingly, with Rhonda in Episode 6. Three times if you count Sharon Stone in Episode 5, though he stops pursuing her romantically halfway through.
• Dirty Cop: The Cold Case reveals that Police Commissioner Donald Barton is one. While not Lori's killer, he was paid off by the real culprit, Rebecca Hendricks, to keep the police department from looking into her schemes.
• Disability Alibi: How Kevin Rivera is disqualified from being the murderer in "Most Likely to Commit Murder". His carpal tunnel syndrome would make it impossible for him to have thrown a CD into Seth's neck.
• Dumb, but Diligent: Terry makes up for his lack of intelligence by being fiercely loyal to his partners, whether it's avenging Lori Griffin's death or sticking up for the celebrity guests in the finale of each episode.
• Edgy Backwards Chair-Sitting: While interrogating a suspect in "The Magician's Apprentice", Conan attempts to look intimidating by turning a chair around and sitting on it backwards. Terry comments that he almost looked cool.
• Expy: Amber Kang is a Perky Goth forensics expert, like Abby Sciuto.
• Fair Cop: The handsome, self-assured Detective Phillips aka Daz can be seen as this, which is perhaps part of why he and Rhonda start dating.
• Foreign Remake: The show owes its premise to the British show Murder In Successville.
• Fun with Acronyms: In "The Magician’s Apprentice", Terry and Conan investigate Mothers Against Magic Association, or M.A.M.A.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop:
  • In the first episode, Terry and Conan decide whether to be "good cop/bad cop" and eventually land on "bad cop/worse cop" where they both end up yelling at the suspect.
  • When approaching Terry's high school crush in the third episode, Terry positions himself as "good cop" and Kumail as "stupid cop".
• Guest-Star Party Member: Part of the premise of the show has Terry taking on a new trainee each episode, each played by a different celebrity guest.
• Gut Feeling: Though she does cite some evidence to support her claim, Sharon Stone's accusation relies more on this than hard facts. She ends up being wrong, arguably making her a Horrible Judge of Character, at least here.
• Herr Doktor: Invoked by Terry in "Heartless", when he puts Sharon on the spot while undercover as a German surgeon named Eva Brownfinger. Stone affects a German accent.
• Hospital Hottie: The victim in "Heartless" was a doctor so handsome that his colleagues made a habit of trying to sext him during surgeries.
• Humiliation Conga: Over the course of the first six episodes, Terry loses his ex to someone else, gets humiliated at his high school reunion, blows his money on a Ponzi scheme, and is forced to start living in his office. However, the end of episode 6 sees him successfully solve Lori's cold case and start to accept his divorce with Rhonda.
• Ironic Name: As he explains in the opening episode, Terry has never actually been to Seattle.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Terry is a pompous slob and a bit of an idiot but he does try to help his partners out and always stands by their final summation, whether they're right or wrong.
• The Ketchup Test: Parodied. When testing Annie Murphy's homicide detective mettle, Terry asks her what she would do if a little girl ran up to her crying that her parents won't get up and there's "ketchup" everywhere. He then berates her for assuming the stuff was blood, since the hypothetical little girl's family ran a ketchup factory with a ketchup machine that malfunctioned.
• The Killer Was Left-Handed: An explicit clue in the second episode is that based on the positioning of the victim's head bruise, the killer must have been left-handed. Two of the triplets use their right hand to do things, leaving the left-handed Chester as the correct murderer.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Aside from all of the glances at the camera, there's a moment in "Triplet Homicide" when Marshawn Lynch is offered a shot to drink and he asks if it's real. He's ostensibly talking to Chadd but he's clearly addressing the crew off-camera.
• Lighter and Softer: Much more light-hearted than the British series it's based on. There's less of a focus on Cringe Comedy, the cinematography isn't as noirish, and the climax of each episode only requires the guest to identify the perpetrator rather than killing them, as they usually do in Murder in Successville.
• Mirror Routine: Referenced in "Triplet Homicide". Terry and Marshawn Lynch try to do this when they discover there's no two-way mirror in the interrogation room. Terry himself acknowledges that it doesn't really make sense.
• Mr. Exposition:
  • Rhonda, Da Chief, briefs Terry and his new recruit on the new case at the beginning of each episode, often after proclaiming "There's been a murder!".
  • Amber Kang, the forensics expert, shares this function as well. She describes the condition of the victim's body and points out the main clues for the guest detective to focus on each episode.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: "Heartless" features three doctors suspected of cutting out the victim's heart and sewing him back up: the victim's boss, Dr. Alexander, his ex-girlfriend, Dr. Chen, and another doctor, Dr. Gonzalez. While both Chen and Gonzalez are trained surgeons, Dr. Alexander is ruled out because she's not a medical doctor, but someone with a doctorate in hospital administration.
• Notice This: The scenes with Amber in each episode serve to highlight the main clues for the celebrity guest (and the audience) to look out for later.
• Overly Long Gag: Seen twice in Kumail Nanjiani's episode, first when he's asked to gasp over and over again, and later when Terry makes him do different versions of a ridiculous-looking "cool walk".
• Ponzi: Terry gets caught up in an MLM in Heartless.
• Revisiting the Cold Case: "The Cold Case" sees the murder of Terry's partner reopened after fifteen years.
• Reunion Revenge: The third episode sees a Tech Bro murdered at Terry's high school reunion, and the three suspects are all high school classmates who had motive to kill him.
• The Rival: Detective "Daz" Phillips, who starts dating Terry's ex Rhonda in later episodes (even before the divorce has completed). Daz is younger, smarter, and more laid back than Terry, though that doesn't prevent them from getting into arguments.
• Rule of Three: Each crime has three suspects and (usually) three key clues left at the crime scene.
• Running Gag:
  • Every episode, Terry comes up with an atrocious and inappropriate alias for his partner when they briefly go undercover.
  • Terry mentions his obsession with Tommy Tune in every episode.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Terry is often rude and full of himself. In Episode 3 he tries to act like he was cool in high school instead of the laughingstock he really was.
• Spotting the Thread: Suspects give clues that the guests have to notice to figure out who's guilty. They range from very obvious to surprisingly subtle.
• Stage Magician: The conceit of the first episode, "The Magician's Apprentice". A magician's Lovely Assistant has been sawed in half, and one of the suspects is a rival magician who awes Terry and Conan with sleight of hand during his interrogation.
• The Summation: Each episode culminates with the suspects gathered together and the guest star encouraged to pick out who's the killer, often in some odd game (like opening up dishes). They then explain their reasoning. Finally, Rhonda will enter to reveal whether the guest star's accusation was true or not and recap clues that they got or missed.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: In "Murder by Soup", Alistair Hale is murdered when someone puts toxin from a golden poison frog into his soup.
• Terrible Artist: Annie Murphy's "self-portrait" in the kindergarten scene of her episode is a crude stick figure with huge boobs. The teacher takes it in stride, though.
• Theme Twin Naming: The Worthington triplet brothers in the second episode, Charles, Chadd, and Chester.
• Troll: "Who Killed Santa?" climaxes with all THREE of the guest stars deliberately picking characters other than the three suspects as the murderer. Maya Rudolph chooses the Mayor, Jason Bateman claims "suicide," and Pete Davidson says it's "obviously" Mia but officially picks Terry. None of them even try to justify their guesses with evidence and they're all wrong.

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