Ray Romano, Lisa Kudrow Comedy has good bones

An open house event for an exclusive home already looks like a game of “Clue”: wealthy people from different walks of life, gathered in a large, attractive space. All that’s missing from this ready-made setup is a dead body, a gap easily filled by creator Liz Feldman in the Netflix black comedy “No Good Deed.”

Feldman previously created “Dead to Me” for the streamer, another series about wealthy, amoral Southern Californians. (Christina Applegate’s character was even a real estate agent.) If “No Good Deed” recycles some elements from the previous project, including the presence of Linda Cardellini as a woman who does not tell the whole truth about her backstory, the show at least benefits from their reliable nature. In fact, “No Good Deed” has such a solid setup — and such a stacked cast, led by Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow as a couple looking to sell their Los Angeles mansion — that its overreliance on twists can be counterproductive. In the parlance of its central branch, when the eight-episode season settles into the story, you can appreciate the good bones beneath all the unnecessary furniture.

Paul (Romano), a contractor, and Lydia (Kudrow), a pianist, live in Los Feliz, a hip yet cozy neighborhood soon to be renamed the “Nobody Wants This” Zone. As cash-strapped empty nesters, it’s understandable why the couple would want to downsize. (Paul not only did most of the work on the house, he grew up in it. The sale is pure profit!) But when Mikey (Denis Leary), a menacing figure from their past, returns to blackmail them over some long-buried secrets , we learn that they may have ulterior motives for letting go of their longtime residence.

Netflix has forbidden me from revealing either Mikey’s connection to Paul and Lydia, or what actually happened at their house about three years ago—not coincidentally, the time when they would be legally required to reveal a death on the property. True, “No Good Deed” withholds these crucial details for several episodes, building tension with vague, choppy flashbacks. But the answers are important enough that I wish “No Good Deed” had just cut to the heart of its story of a family in grief, the better to illuminate the relationships within it. The marriage between Lydia, who is psychosomatically blocked from playing her instrument, and Paul, who is manically focused on getting ahead, only comes into focus close up. To begin with, they operate in a comic register that is old hat for two sitcom legends bickering and fumbling their way through an amateur coverup. When “No Good Deed” stops clearing its throat, Kudrow and Romano finally get to flex their dramatic chops.

At least “No Good Deed” buys time with a bitchy, nimble satire of acquisitive yuppies. Paul and Lydia’s suitors are a motley crew. Newlyweds Dennis (OT Fagbenle, dropping his insane accent from “Presumed Innocent”), a writer, and Carla (Teyonah Parris), now 6 months pregnant, need more space for their growing family – which might or perhaps not including his overbearing mother, Denise (Anna Maria Horsford). Sarah (Poppy Liu) and Leslie (Abbi Jacobson) have been haunted by the house for years, but their scrutiny is less than welcome: Leslie is a prosecutor, while Sarah is addicted to Citizen. Even JD (Luke Wilson), the washed-up sitcom actor down the street, is interested after spending all his earnings on a McMansion designed by his trophy wife Margo (Cardellini). (It’s the highest of compliments that Cardellini, at 49, is more than believable as a scheming gold digger who manages his good looks.) As real estate agent Greg, Matt Rogers makes a delightful ringmaster in this three-ring circus.

“No Good Deed” avoids the heavier consequences of putting on a show in the modern real estate market; there is no mention of a housing crisis, or even a specific price. Instead, Feldman sticks to the broader symbolism of searching for a home, on the buyer’s side, and how a house becomes haunted with decades of memories, on the seller’s. It’s a worthy topic, enough to sustain “No Good Deed” through the distraction of twist after twist — a trend that affects the entire ensemble, beyond just Paul and Lydia. From finances to family background, the surprises are uniformly less satisfying than the openness after the reveal. A stable status quo provides a more nurturing environment than constant upheaval. That’s kind of the point of sinking all your savings into an empty building, isn’t it?

All eight episodes of “No Good Deed” are now streaming on Netflix.