Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery Review: Crime Series That Combines Script and Improvisation From An English Format

Cast: Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Maya Rudolph, Pete Davidson, Haneefah Wood, Lilan Bowden

Director: Laura Murphy

Streaming Platform: Netflix

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 2.5/5 (two and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

The partnership between Will Arnett and Netflix continues unstoppable, as we were able to see at the beginning of the year with the debut of Murderville. A series with a very particular setting, which we are talking about on the occasion of its festive return with the review of Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery was just released by the streaming giant Netflix.

Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery Review: The Story

As in the mother series, the premise revolves around a murder that the policeman Terry Seattle, in this case already grappling with doubts about the Christmas spirit, must solve. As in previous episodes, he is partnered with a showbiz star, and these guests are not given the script; therefore, they must improvise on the basis of what is happening around them and then, at the end of the episode, try to guess who the murderer was. For the holiday special, two guest stars Jason Bateman and Maya Rudolph investigate the killing of a man who worked as Santa Claus to entertain children in shopping malls.

The Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery also follows the same basic rules as the series. The protagonist and showman are Will Arnett, in the role of Terry Seattle, an over-the-top police detective who thinks more about being a braggart than solving cases, to get to retirement unscathed by doing the bare minimum but appearing impeccable. If it weren’t for the partners who keep hooking him because he can’t keep one, right in the old-school cop-lone wolf stereotype. We find him in search of the Christmas spirit while he would like to enjoy his holiday film – Jake Peralta would approve – or Die Hard. A surprise, last-minute security assignment at the mayor’s event from his ex-wife and his boss Rhonda (Haneefah Wood) catapulted him back into action.

At the party to donate to the town’s orphans, none other than Santa Claus himself is killed. Or rather the one who had been hired by the mayor to play him for the orphans. At that point, just like in the episodes of the series, the possible suspects and their motives will be presented and questioned. After Conan O’Brien, Sharon Stone, Ken Jeong, Annie Murphy, Kumail Nanjian, Marshawn Lynch and Erinn Hayes, the special lasting almost an hour and is a special occasion, could only have not one, but two guest stars: American comedy veterans Jason Bateman and Maya Rudolph. And maybe even some other cameos that we won’t reveal to you.

Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery Review and Analysis

Will Arnett returns as Seattle, joined by Haneefah Wood as his boss (and ex-wife) and Lilan Bowden as the medical examiner. The two main guest stars, who play “themselves” in a self-deprecating key, are two old friends of Arnett: with Jason Bateman, he shot several seasons of Arrested Development, while with Maya Rudolph he starred in the two years of Up All Night. Other guests, who enjoy fictitious roles instead, are Eliza Coupe, Sean Hayes, Tawny Newsome and comedian Kurt Braunohler.

The series was born as a remake of Murder in Successville, a British title that has a similar premise but is even more ferocious in its satirical intent: the city, as the name suggests, is populated exclusively by celebrities, all deformed in a parody key, and it is they having to support, from time to time, the policeman in his investigations. An approach that plays with the grotesque, which in the Netflix version has been sweetened to give us essentially an improvisation game where Arnett can have fun with various famous friends (Conan O’Brien, Sharon Stone, Ken Jeong and others), sometimes “torturing them” during the thirty minutes of the single episode through the absence of a script for the guest on duty.

It is an experiment that can work, but which in the case of the festive special, lengthened to 52 minutes, becomes a self-satisfied ballast that dramatically multiplies downtime, dampening any comic and narrative inspiration. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the most successful parts are those that precede the actual game, in particular when Seattle is alone at home and contemplates whether or not to watch Crystal Trap(obviously on VHS), a film that later pays homage to one of the rare moments in which the dynamic between him and the two guest stars finds the right rhythm. But they’re brief interludes in a flood of humorous stillness that doesn’t do much beyond fleshing out Netflix’s Christmas catalog which, to be honest, needed no further filler.

Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery Review: The Last Words

At the end of the review of Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery, we can say that some progress has been made compared to the series, for characterization, interpretation and improvisation of the characters. The merit of the skill of the double guest stars Maya Rudolph and Jason Bateman and knowing how to play with the styles of Christmas and not just those of the crime genre. Who knows if it doesn’t become a successful experimental franchise for Netflix? Except for a few cute insights, in Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery the partial improvisation formula weighs more than usual, due to the extended duration of 52 minutes.