Not a good deed

Open House

Season 1

Episode 1

Editor’s Rating

3 stars

***

Photo: Saeed Adyani/Netflix

I assume that most people have found the way to do this Not a good deed for one of two reasons: (1) because of the absolutely star-studded cast or (2) because you were a fan of Liz Feldman’s other Netflix dark comedy, Dead to me. The former is quite the charm – Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano play a married couple who may or may not be hiding something murder It feels like a fever dream I once had in the ’90s – but admittedly it was the latter that most excited me to spend a little time in Los Feliz. Feldman’s last show had a perfect mix of characters with gray moral centers, enough twists to keep the viewer engaged, and enough edge and humor so that the heartfelt moments never seemed overly saccharine. What can I say? I laughed, I cried, I gasped; it is my way.

After an episode, you can see all of these elements at work here Not a good deed. Will they work as well as in? Dead to me? Ehhh, the jury is still out. “Open House” has a difficult task: it must both introduce us to its rather large and varied ensemble and begin sowing the seeds of this little mystery we have in progress. Technically it’s successful in these ventures, but I can’t say I’ve invested too much in any of it. There’s no Jen and Judy yet – you know what I mean? Luckily, I have enough faith in the queen of the cliffhanger Liz Feldman to trust the process. Besides, it’s my job, so there’s that. And guess what? There are worse things than watching Luke Wilson and Linda Cardellini be terrible to each other. So, move on!

Welcome to 500 Derby Drive in Los Feliz, everyone! Here we meet homeowners Lydia and Paul Morgan, who are clearly keen to get rid of their magnificently restored family home – Paul is a building contractor. Well, Paul seems eager. Lydia is having a hard time dealing with such a big change. So hard that she and Paul hide in their son Jacob’s room and watch the open day with the surveillance camera to judge all the applicants. So hard that she compares it to “cutting off a limb.” This is all pretty tough. But while Lydia raised her family here, Paul has lived in this house since he was a child, and yet it seems almost urgent for him to clear out this place. Could it just be because they’re broke? Lydia, a legendary pianist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic – she played for Gustavo Dudamel! – Apparently she hasn’t touched a piano in years because she suffers from something that causes her hands to shake uncontrollably. So all of her income went to Paul. So all of Paul’s apparent fear of making a quick sale rather than a grand one could certainly be related to the Morgans’ money problems.

But even if you initially believe that, and even if the Morgans need money, the arrival of Denis Leary’s Mikey – he’s dressed all in black, so you know he’s not a good guy – will immediately make you realize that they’re not whole story is. After Mikey announces his presence at the open house, he later finds Paul working in the garage. He was recently released after a three-year sentence for a drug offense and is not only upset because Paul never visited him, but he’s also demanding that he hand over $80,000 by tomorrow or he’ll tell the police “everything” about it knows what actually happened in Paul’s house. Mikey reminds Paul that he “helped you when you needed it most” and then “paid the damn price.” Given the way Mikey seems so angry that Paul never showed up for him in prison, it’s doubtful he’s just a guy with incriminating evidence ready to collect some debts. However, the speed and ease with which he slides Paul’s finger into the very turned on buzz saw to show Paul that he is serious about his threats certainly suggests a, shall we say, complicated relationship.

Mikey isn’t the only person showing up at the open house. There we meet our entire cast of characters, each with their own secrets. There’s JD (Wilson) and Margo (Cardellini), who live a few doors down, and both have different reasons for checking out the Morgans’ house – which is probably why they attend the open house separately and it Don’t tell each other they were there. JD is a largely unemployed soap opera actor who has his own money problems. He’s spent all his money trying to make his wife happy (“gifts are her love language”), which he clearly wants to do, even if he looks extremely unhappy about it. (By the way, let’s not miss the brief comment that he’s off his medication.) Unfortunately, he has no idea that Margo is cheating on him with a woman she wants to work with to buy and flip the Morgan house. Margo seems like an absolute monster – when Lydia sees her rolling up to the open house with lots of makeup and full designer get-up, she declares that she’ll “burn this place to the ground if we give it to someone like that.” “Sell her” – admittedly I’m obsessed with her. This show clearly needs an Agent of Chaos to spice it up later, and Agent of Chaos, your name is Margo.

We also meet the newly married and very pregnant Carla (Teyonah Parris) and Dennis (OT Fagbenle) … and Dennis’ mother Denise (Anna Maria Horsford). Even if you can’t tell from their names alone, Dennis and Denise have a very special relationship – one that Carla is just discovering and that she’s having a lot of fun with. (Apparently Carla and Dennis’ wedding was so rushed that there wasn’t even a real wedding, Denise will let you know!) Carla and Dennis love this house, but it’s out of their price range. Well, it’s out of their price range until Denise comes up with a great plan: She gives them the money and moves in with them to help raise the baby. Isn’t that so funny and cool and generous? Dennis asks his wife. Carla looks like her head is going to explode.

The third couple to play for the Los Feliz house are Leslie (Abbi Jacobson) and Sarah (Poppy Liu). They were obsessed with this house, and now that they’ve given up artificial insemination, they can put some more money into buying this house. They seem great! I like Sarah’s immediate reaction that there’s a “dark vibe” in this house, because follow your instincts, girl! But like all characters in a Liz Feldman production, these two are pretty shitty. We later discover that Sarah is secretly still taking IVF injections. We also discover that Leslie may be a crazy person. Or at least Leslie makes terrible decisions.

After promising Sarah that she would do a few “night walks” around the Morgan house to see what the neighborhood looks like after dark, Leslie just won’t let it go, even though it’s clear that this neighborhood looks so idyllic, As can only be they think something strange is going on in the upstairs bedroom where they previously saw the doorknob shaking. (We know it was Lydia and Paul who were monitoring the open house.) And so she decides to do a little trespassing to… I guess we’ll find out who or what is in this room, even if any normal adult person could probably guess that it’s someone who lives in this house, so to speak? And how was she going to get to the second floor window? This plan is bad and stupid.

Leslie never makes it far enough to even have to think of a major plan, because as soon as she sneaks through the back gate, the floodlights come on and the neighbor’s dog starts barking, waking Paul and Lydia. Already annoyed by the emotional open house, Mikey’s blackmail threats, and the whole thing about putting Paul’s finger through a buzz saw, Paul goes downstairs to deal with who or what is outside. But first he makes a pit stop: He runs into the basement, where he promptly pulls a pistol out of a pipe, a weapon that looks like it was deliberately hidden safely… you know, like it could be incriminating evidence.

And suddenly we get some very relevant information: First, we learn that Jacob, Paul and Lydia’s son, for whom Lydia has been leaving voicemails throughout the episode, was killed in the Morgan house. As Margo points out, it makes perfect sense that they’re putting the house up for sale now – there’s no need to disclose that there was a death in the house after three years. We also get a glimpse of Paul when he sees the gun again – a glimpse of a corpse in a hoodie on the kitchen floor and a lot of blood. It looks like Mikey, the hidden weapon, Jacob’s death, and Paul and Lydia’s desperate need to leave this house behind them are connected. Perhaps the Morgans will end up being their own agents of chaos.

At least they might have some explaining to do: Leslie – who we know can’t let things go – watches as Paul throws the gun into Lydia’s piano.

• At least now we know why Lydia doesn’t want to leave this house: she doesn’t want to let go of her son. And I’m referring to both all the memories she has of him growing up here and the fact that she sees her son – or at least thinks he’s talking to her through the flickering lights in his bedroom. It was not for nothing that her little “hello” to the lamp broke my heart.

• Paul and Lydia also have a daughter, but apparently Emily hasn’t set foot in the house since Jacob’s death. What does she know?!

• Here’s hoping they let Matt Rogers’ Greg the Realtor do more than just swap jokes at an open house. His quick, controversial interaction with Margo was perfect and I want more of it.

• Vanessa Bayer in a cameo during the open day, but why?