Lisa Kudrow hailed for carrying Netflix’s ‘flimsy’ new comedy No Good Deed in first evaluations
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Netflix’s newest comedy, No Good Deed, has failed to impress critics despite its star-studded ensemble featuring Lisa Kudrow, Ray Romano, and Linda Cardellini.
The eight-episode series, which was released on Thursday (December 12), follows a couple — played by Kudrow and Romano — who list their ritzy Los Angeles 1920s Spanish-style villa on the market in hopes of starting a new life. The listing immediately attracts multiple families interested in the property, convinced that the idyllic home will solve all their problems. However, the couple are forced to keep hidden the dangerous secrets that linger in the home if they have any hopes of selling it.
No Good Deed also features Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson, Hacks breakout Poppy Liu, comedian Matt Rogers, Legally Blonde star Luke Wilson, and Rescue Me’s Denis Leary. But even with an impressive cast, the new series from Dead to Me creator Liz Feldman has faced a lukewarm reception in early reviews, with TVLine describing it as “flimsy” and “shaky.”
Kudrow has been singled out for her performance as Lydia Morgan, with The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson writing that the Friends alum “carries this twisty, binge-worthy mystery.”
Carol Midgley of The Times agreed, going so far as to say that Kudrow “saves this comedy.”
“Kudrow shows her talent for doing both the light and the very dark, and that she is more than capable of holding the screen alone,” she wrote of the actor.
Variety’s Alison Herman found the show’s “overreliance on twists” to “be counterproductive.”
However, “in the parlance of its central industry, once the eight-episode season settles into its story, one can appreciate the good bones beneath all the unnecessary fixtures,” she added.
Meanwhile, Saloni Gajjar was stronger with her criticism of the show, writing for the AV Club that “No Good Deed isn’t worth the investment.”
While the series is at first glance “promising,” she argues that it “slowly falls apart because it’s — gasp — pretty boring, with half-baked scripts, a lack of suspense, disjointed arcs that align too late, and surface-level character development.”
As for the comedy’s ending, the Los Angeles Times’s Robert Lloyd said that it felt like the show “runs out of breath.”
“After the main mysteries reach their climax, the series jumps forward six months to an ending so tidy and generous and sentimental that it verges on parody,” he said.
No Good Deed is available to stream on Netflix.
