Netflix's comedy crime spoof Murderville adapts the UK's Murder in Successville with one big change that makes it much slicker and too perfect. Created by British actor and comedian Tom Davis, Murder in Successville pairs a celebrity guest with gruff detective Detective Inspector Sleet (played by Davis) to investigate a high-profile murder case. The guest is given no prior knowledge of the case and has to improvise their way through a scenario created by Davis and his fellow writers.
It's this central premise that the U.S. remake, Murderville, and its actors have adopted, replacing Davis with a suitably grizzled Will Arnett as Detective Terry Seattle. Where the UK original featured reality stars, TV presenters and former pop stars, Netflix's new TV show features the likes of Sharon Stone and Eternals' Kumail Nanjiani. The biggest change to the original version, however, is the setting, which dramatically impacts the tone. Murderville, the city, is a generic cop show location where elaborate murders take place practically every day. The Successville of the original series was more stylized and ridiculous. It was a city uniquely populated by absurd, fictionalized versions of well-known celebrities, played by a cast of comedy actors and impersonators. The chief of police is shouty celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and the crimes include the kidnapping of Simon Cowell and the murder of Ed Sheeran.
It was this setting that made Murder in Successville unique, and in dropping it for the Netflix remake, Murderville loses the original's absurdist edge. That's not to say that Murderville is without absurdity. It parodies the elaborate murders and oddly jovial tone of series like CSI or Castle. Schitt's Creek star Annie Coates' entirely improvised response to Terry's joke about a man poisoned by soup unintentionally skewers the weirdness of CSI's love of crime scene puns. Indeed, the no-script, completely improv nature of Murderville is impressive. Murderville is clearly a very slick, very funny spoof of American cop show clichés, but in being so polished and more "realistic," it lacks what made Murder in Successville so memorable, losing the anarchic, absurdist edge of the original UK series.
It was the heightened reality of Successville's cartoonish celebrity city that elevated the series beyond being merely a spoof cop show. Murderville's cast of characters is comprised of cop show archetypes - the jilted lover, the spoiled heir, the business rival. With a never-ending supply of famous faces to lampoon, however, Murder in Successville's team of comedy actors and impersonators could create a cast of characters that add extra levels to the show's improvisational elements. For example, Kimberley Wyatt from the Pussycat Dolls is tasked with delivering bad news to a potential suspect without using the word "dead." The suspect is an over-the-top emotional, exaggerated version of the singer Adele, who begins retching, weeping, and falling over when she hears the bad news. It's a funny scene, but it's even funnier because the real Adele is known for her emotionally charged songs about heartbreak and loss.
Ironically, the British version is more violent, with the cartoonish, satirical style allowing for each celebrity guest to shoot the suspect they think committed the murder before they find out if they were right or wrong. It's this anarchic approach that elevates Murder in Successville above Murderville's more mannered procedural spoof; for as funny and clever as it is, Murderville plays it a little too straight. While a denouement where Conan O'Brien pulls the name of a murder suspect out of a magician's hat is funny, a climactic showdown where Baby Spice shoots an evil Katy Perry is funnier. Without Murder in Successville's unique setting and cast of absurd characters, Murderville is a celebrity murder mystery party. It's fun to watch, but after a few episodes, it already begins to feel like it needs elevating. Murderville season 2 might consider embracing the edgier tone of its UK predecessor.