What is “No Good Deed” about? Well, it’s hard to say without running afoul of the list of spoilers that Netflix has asked reviewers not to reveal. There’s an empty-nester couple, Paul and Lydia, played by consummate sitcom pros Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow, and they’re trying to sell a beautiful house in LA, but are also hiding some dark secrets about the place.

Three couples are interested in the house: fading soap star JD (Luke Wilson) and his scheming model wife Margo (Linda Cardellini); Expectant couple Carla (Teyonah Parris), an architect, and her husband Dennis (OT Fagbenle), a writer; and Sarah (Poppy Liu), a doctor, and her wife Leslie (Abbi Jacobson), a lawyer. All spouses have secrets from their partners, which they reveal over the course of the series’ eight-episode season, premiering Thursday on Netflix. Denis Leary is also there.

Here’s what else I can say: It’s pretty fun. Sometimes when there’s a cast of well-known names, it feels like all the money went to paying these people and not to writing a script. But luckily, “No Good Deed” comes from Liz Feldman, who was last seen in “Dead to Me” (also with Cardellini), which is about the friendship between two women after one of them marries the other’s husband secretly killed in a hit-and-run accident. Feldman knows his way around dark comedies, and “No Good Deed” is what’s either surprising or entirely expected, considering much of the drama revolves around a real estate deal.

Cardellini, in a role riddled with stereotypes, stands out in this collection of heavyweights, keeping Margo underhanded without delving into scene-chewing to make the point. Her efforts to ingratiate herself with Lydia, who hates her, led to one of the show’s funniest jokes, which I won’t spoil here. Suffice to say, it pays off when these two factors bounce off each other. Cardellini can land a joke; Kudrow knows exactly how to respond.

Kudrow is generally excellent. It’s fair to say that what goes on between her and Romano is the mystery at the heart of the series, and she proves an impressively grounded presence amidst the crazier goings-on. It’s strange considering she gained public attention for playing a crazy character on Friends, because she’s often funniest when you give her a one-liner that proves it she is significantly smarter than the person she is talking to. She has a lot of lines like that in “No Good Deed.”

Romano doesn’t fare as well with fewer jokes. Plus, no one looked quite like Ray Romano, as if he grew up in California. But he brings an appropriate weariness to the role, and the duo lend their shared portrait of a long-married couple grappling with the question of what they still mean to each other as they work to sell the house in which they raise their children raised, a soulful note. Given their respective positions in the pop culture landscape, it’s hard not to be enchanted by the casting of this particular juxtaposition couple.

The other couples differ in how well they perform as part of such a large ensemble. Sarah and Leslie get slightly less shade than the others, which is a shame considering Jacobson and Liu are both talented comedians. Dennis and Carla spend a lot of time dealing with the overbearing presence of his mother Denise (Anna-Marie Horsford). And yes, the fact that a woman named Denise named her only child Dennis tells us something about her attitude towards him. Parris, perhaps best known to audiences for her work as Monica in “The Marvels” and “WandaVision,” finds new and powerful ways to react in emerging horror as she learns how close her new husband is to his mother. And Wilson skillfully enchants as a slightly gloomy, fading actor who has completely overwhelmed himself in a huge house with modern devices that he cannot use.

The extent to which almost all of these people are hiding multiple massive, life-changing secrets from their spouses strains credibility, even on a show as high-pitched in tone as this one. “No Good Deed” moves through the plot at top speed, to the point where it occasionally drags because at some point a new puzzle can no longer be as satisfying as some answers. But even then, it’s a pretty pleasant ride.

NO GOOD DEED

Cast: Lisa Kudrow, Ray Romano, Linda Cardellini, Luke Wilson, Teyonah Parris, OT Fagbenle, Abbi Jacobson, Poppy Liu, Denis Leary. On Netflix.

Lisa Weidenfeld can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @LisaWeidenfeld and Instagram @lisaweidenfeld.