Review of Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery

As someone who is a big fan of Murderville (both American and British versions) and loves the premise and improv of the show, it pains me to say that this just isn't it. We were so excited to watch, and as always Will Arnett nails it, but the guest stars were pretty bad. I will say Jason Bateman does a good job and had me laughing. And if he had been the only guest star, it probably would have been a pretty good special. But then comes in Maya Rudolph (who I usually love) and, without a script, can apparently only do terrible accents and giggle. There were so many prompts from Will Arnett, way more than in the original show, that reached too hard for laughs. It was like watching a high school improv class do exercises. The comedy was forced and exhausting in the same way SNL becomes exhausting. And if that wasn't bad enough... in walks Pete Davidson, who doesn't even try. There is nothing worse than watching a show where the whole premise hangs on people being good sports and playing along-- and having someone come on who is too cool for school to be a part of it. He's like the kid in class that doesn't listen... and instead of being able to do his loosely scripted show, Will Arnett spends the last 10 minutes trying to keep Pete from blowing the whole thing up, which he manages to do anyway. This special had so much potential. Watch for yourself, some people are really enjoying it... I'll be holding out for more episodes of the original.