WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Murderville, streaming on Netflix now.
Netflix's new murder mystery improv series Murderville showcases a number of stars who seem to be stepping out of their comfort zones. Sharon Stone and Marshawn Lynch lean in to improv prompts, while comedians Kumail Nanjiani of Eternals fame and Annie Murphy go toe-to-toe with the series' antics. The wildest episode, however, features Ken Jeong -- who despite his improv and comedy training can't seem to keep a straight face. Jeong's constant breaking makes for one of the most delightful parts of Murderville.
Ken Jeong joins Murderville for the season finale, where he serves as a trainee detective trying to solve the cold case murder of veteran detective Terry Seattle's partner Lori Griffin. After a quick job interview at Seattle's desk, Jeong helps the detective re-enact the crime scene to uncover the wealth of evidence left behind years ago. He goes undercover at a prison to interrogate a suspect and then assists Seattle in pitching a new ice-breaking product on a Shark Tank parody. Finally, he breaks into the police commissioner's apartment before accusing the murderer at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new condo building.
From the beginning, Jeong can't seem to keep it together and laughs -- seemingly genuinely! -- at every prompt thrown his way. When he's introduced as a new prisoner, his only response is a short laugh under his breath, and while impersonating the President of Finland on the phone he can't help but guffaw at his own abilities. Jeong also laughs too hard at throwaway jokes like "naked ice cream sundaes," which somehow makes them funnier than they should be. Lines that shouldn't rate more than a chuckle all of a sudden become hilarious because of how much they cause Jeong to break.
Jeong's inability to stay in character and take Murderville seriously provides a change of pace from the rest of the season, where the guests occasionally break character but otherwise play along. The continuous breaking also sets the finale up for even more entertainment value. When Seattle provides him with an earpiece so that the detective can feed Jeong lines while he's going undercover, Jeong laughs too much to be able to repeat many of them. Seattle has to come and bail him out -- which was probably the intent anyway but happens much earlier thanks to the unstoppable laughing. The deviation puts the experienced improv artists on their toes and forces them to swerve -- which is exactly when they shine best.
By laughing his way through the entirety of Murderville, Jeong also was clearly not keeping track of any of the clues that were thrown his way. While other celebrity guests miss the mark -- either accusing the wrong suspect or getting it right with some truly strange evidence -- Jeong has almost no proof when it comes time to identify the murderer because he's been too busy laughing to collect any. While gathering the right evidence and arresting the guilty party might be the point of a traditional murder mystery, the point of improv comedy is just to have fun -- exactly what Jeong is doing.
Ken Jeong is a fitting guest star for Murderville given his comedy experience with Community and Dr. Ken. But it isn't Jeong's expertise that makes him such a good guest -- it's his inability to take it at all seriously. His performance, and the rest of the cast's commitment to just going with his style, makes for one of the most endearing and relatable episodes of Murderville, and the continuous breaking makes the season finale a different kind of hilarious.