Josh Reviews Murderville: Who Killed Santa?

Will Arnett’s improv murder mystery show, Murderville, dropped a double-sized holiday special episode last December.  I hadn’t had a chance to watch Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery until a few weeks ago, but I’m so glad I did.  It’s the best episode of the series so far!  If you haven’t seen the first season, you can drop right into this episode.  In fact, that’s exactly what I recommend that you do, because not only is this special completely stand-alone, it’s by far the funniest episode the show has produced.

The premise of Murderville is that Will Arnett stars as pompous, bumbling homicide detective Terry Seattle.  Each episode is a new murder mystery set in a different setting and with different characters.  Each episode features a guest star who is trying to solve the mystery along with Mr. Arnett’s Terry Seattle.  But while Mr. Arnett and his fellow actors have a script for the episode, the guest star does not.  So they must improv their way through the murder investigation, and then try to identify the killer before the end of the episode.

It’s a great concept, and I enjoyed the first season, though the episodes were somewhat hit or miss.

But this double-length holiday special is a home run.  This episode features two special guest stars: Jason Bateman and Maya Rudolph.  Both are absolutely spectacular.  They’re both so funny and so quick on their feet that they make every scene funny.  It’s incredible how well the show comes to life when such talented comedic performers are featured, along with Mr. Arnett!

It also helps that both Mr. Bateman and Ms. Rudolph have such great chemistry with Mr. Arnett.  Jason Bateman in particular is wonderful when paired up with Mr. Arnett, which is no surprise, because the two of them worked together for years on Arrested Development and now host the SmartLess podcast together.  (Their third co-host, Sean Hayes, also shows up in this episode!!  He’s terrific — and very funny — as well, even though he basically has no lines and just laughs his way through a Weekend at Bernie’s type sequence.)

A highlight of the episode is the sequence in which the Mr. Bateman and Ms. Rudolph have to shift, rapid-fire, into various increasingly insane cop personas while interrogating a suspect.  (Maya Rudolph’s cockney accent had me rolling with laughter.)  I also really laughed at the scene in which the two of them have to deal with an unexpectedly nude sportscaster…!

There are some fun other stars in the episode as well, who I won’t spoil.  I will mention that I was happy to see Tawny Newsome (who voices Mariner Beckett on the excellent animated Star Trek series Lower Decks) as the mayor.

Whether or not you watched the first season of Murderville, I encourage you to give this Christmas Special a try.  It’s a lot of fun.

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