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The opening pictures of Netflix’s new present No Good Deed supply a type of visible metaphor for the true property expertise.
Starting with sweeping photos of Los Angeles — a row of homes, a busy avenue, a colonnade of Mexican fan palms — the digital camera regularly zeros in on a single nook, then (presumably by way of some fancy drone piloting) swoops down and goes inside one specific house. It’s the Zillow expertise, in photos.
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No Good Deed, which premiered in December, runs with that premise over an eight-episode arc. And in case you’re on the lookout for the tldr, it’s not an ideal present. However it’s chock stuffed with sturdy performances and, maybe most charmingly, capabilities as a uncommon dive into the highly effective symbolic journey of shopping for or promoting a house.
Credit score: Netflix
The story begins with couple Lydia and Paul Morgan, performed by Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, respectively, who’re considerably reluctantly promoting their house in L.A.’s ritzy Los Feliz neighborhood. The property has been within the Morgan household for generations, however the couple has apparently run out of cash. And anyway, they’re grappling with the dying of their son, which happened within the house below mysterious circumstances that solely change into clear over the course of the present’s run.
The drama, at the very least within the earlier episodes, largely focuses on the Morgans wrestle to promote the house — he needs to, she doesn’t — and the three {couples} vying to purchase it. There’s the washed up cleaning soap star and his scheming spouse, performed by Luke Wilson and Linda Cardellini. There’s the lawyer-doctor energy couple, performed by Abbi Jacobson and Poppy Liu. And there’s the pregnant newly weds, performed by O-T Fagbenle and Teyonah Parris. Every couple is grappling with their very own demons — demons they hope a brand new house may assist drive away.
Should you acknowledge a lot of these names, that’s an enormous a part of the present’s allure. Not like, say, Solely Murders within the Constructing that has seen its high quality fall in direct proportion to the variety of celebrities who cram into the forged, No Good Deed manages to stay partaking regardless of the viewers’s familiarity with its many well-known faces. That’s most likely partially as a result of relative parity in fame the varied actors take pleasure in. Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano are each well-known from beloved sitcoms, and there’s no Meryl Streep — which is to say, somebody believed to behave at a completely completely different degree — who distractingly pops up each episode or two.
And it’s additionally most likely as a result of work the actors put in. Kudrow and Romano particularly go onerous on this present, typically treating it as a full drama regardless of the episodes’ sitcom run occasions. Certainly, Matt Rogers as a pleasant if ethically doubtful actual property agent straight out of a actuality present is among the few actors who places in a conventionally comedic efficiency.
All of which is a protracted strategy to say that in case you preferred exhibits corresponding to Associates, Everyone Loves Raymond, Broad Metropolis or Freaks and Geeks, No Good Deed might be a enjoyable sufficient look ahead to the actors alone. Present creator Liz Feldman additionally originated Netflix’s Useless to Me, and producer-director Silver Tree ran The Flight Attendant — each exhibits whose affect is abundantly clear in No Good Deed.
There are occasions, although, that sturdy performing can’t fairly overcome the present’s weaknesses. Later within the season, the motion focuses more and more on the mysterious dying of the Morgans’ son, a path that introduces plenty of plot holes. The characters’ conduct additionally turns into much less plausible. It’s straightforward to think about, as an illustration, a household scuffling with tragedy opting to promote their home. Or a pair with a child on the best way wanting to maneuver. It’s a lot tougher to think about higher center class Angelenos all of the sudden behaving like they’re in a movie noir.
In different phrases, the extra No Good Deed turns into a caper, the extra it strays from the genuinely poignant fact propelling its core. That fact posits that actual property issues. Essentially, the present is about the best way a bodily construction assumes symbolic which means. The Morgans wish to promote their house seemingly partially due to its affiliation to the dying of their son. But additionally, they wish to not promote it for a similar purpose. The home has change into a vessel for a lifetime of each ache and pleasure.
The main points are completely different for every couple within the present, however the symbolism is a recurring theme. For Luke Wilson’s cleaning soap star, shopping for the house could be a strategy to downsize, but additionally a strategy to display his masculinity. For Teyonah Parris’ expectant mom, the property turns into wrapped up in intergenerational nervousness and her sense of independence. And so forth.
Greater than the performing or the Instagram-worthy settings — the Morgans’ house is gorgeous — it’s this realization that makes No Good Deed exceptional. The present understands the distinction between a home and a house. And critically, it accurately identifies the expertise of shopping for or promoting a house as a descent right into a symbolic journey. It’s actual property as myth-making. Actual property as origin story.
Should you discuss to actual property professionals, one of the frequent belongings you hear is that purchasing or promoting a house is the most important deal most individuals will ever do. Additionally, many individuals do it at moments — a marriage, a delivery, a dying — of nice significance. This argument has taken middle stage throughout a interval of tumult for the true property business, and is introduced as justification for the existence of brokers and a broader ecosystem of actual property companies. Individuals want execs, the considering goes, as a result of these offers matter.
So it’s shocking, in that context, that so few artistic works truly wrestle with why the offers matter. Actuality TV is obsessive about actual property, however principally to current casts of lovable (or, lovably hate-able) egomaniac clowns. Actual property brokers seem typically in motion pictures, however most of the time in bit roles. It’s uncommon for an actual property transaction on display to happen outdoors of a narrative’s first act.
In No Good Deed, then again, the deal drags on by way of all eight episodes. The writers don’t at all times perceive the precise procedures concerned in promoting a home, and Cardellini’s character at one level discusses her “Re-LA-tor.” However even with its flaws, No Good Deed appears to essentially agree with the professionals: Shopping for or promoting a house is the most important deal most individuals will ever do. And positive, that’s partially as a result of cash concerned. However can be as a result of there’s nothing in life as laden with which means as house.
E-mail Jim Dalrymple II
