My father and I, much to my mother’s dismay, share an affinity for sitcoms and bad jokes. 

We also both agree that there are currently not any good background TV shows that have been newly released and resort back to The Office reruns more often than not. 

Well, either The Office reruns or we scroll aimlessly through Netflix hoping for something to jump out at us. This past Saturday, we stumbled upon Murderville, and because I’m not quite sure how many more times I can rewatch my favorite New Girl episodes before my mom revokes my remote privileges, I was hoping this show would be the perfect brand of awkward comedy that my dad and I both enjoy. 

The main premise of the show is that Terry Seattle (Will Arnett) is a homicide detective, and in each episode, he’s trying to solve a new murder case. What sets this show apart from others is each new episode, he has a new partner. In the first episode, guest star Conan O’Brien is his first partner, but he doesn’t have access to the script of the show—all of the guests must improvise their lines for the whole episode with no idea of how the episode is going to end, leaving them to guess who the killer is at the end of each episode. 

Other guest stars on the show include Ken Jeong, Annie Murphy, Marshawn Lynch, Sharon Stone, and Kumail Nanjiani. 

Because the guest stars are left to come up with their own lines, it results in a few confused giggles from the actors and hilarious circumstances that keep you guessing, along with Seattle’s partner, who did it.

I couldn’t help but laugh along with O’Brien as Arnett reacted outrageously to different events throughout the first episode as we follow Arnett and O’Brien as they try to solve the mystery of a magician’s assistant who was sawed in half and couldn’t be put back together again. 

My father and I, who watch a fair amount of murder mystery shows, always try to guess the storyline before the characters figure it out, but because the show is also trying to confuse the guest star and make it difficult for them to choose who committed the murder, it made it harder for us to figure out ahead of time who committed the murder. 

The episode ends with O’Brien naming who he thinks committed the murder and his evidence before the Chief of Police reveals whether or not he was right, and walks the audience through all of the clues that were included throughout the episode. 

The combination of bad jokes and absurd plot points kept me watching throughout the entirety of the show, wondering how these comedians could possibly come up with so many of these jokes that are so bad, they’re good. Murderville ended up being the perfect brand of bad humor to match my father and I’s taste.