Netflix thriller you can binge in one sitting will leave you 'gasping' (2025)

After binge-watching Netflix’s dark comedy No Good Deed, I couldn’t stop thinking about how we have been deprived of Lisa Kudrow onscreen.

Certainly, she hasn’t been absent from TV shows since playing Phoebe Buffay in Friends but her roles have been minor or infrequent.

I last remember watching her play Mae Martin’s mother Channel 4 sitcom Feel Good. Kudrow stole every scene; she was just in too few of them.

Before that, Kudrow first proved to the world she wasn’t just ‘Phoebe from Friends’ in online series Web Therapy. But arguably, she hasn’t had an equivalent, meaty leading role in the nearly 10 years since it ended. Well, until now that is.

Why it’s taken Netflix so long to cast Kudrow in a main part in a series is beyond me, but they’ve finally done it with No Good Deed. She plays Lydia, who on the surface has it all. She’s a middle-class mum living in a fancy house in a posh part of LA with her affable husband Paul – played by fellow sitcom legend Ray Romano in another stroke of genius casting.

If, though, you’ve consumed any of Nicole Kidman’s recent work – The Perfect Couple and Expats, to name a few – you know that’s extremely dangerous territory. If you’re a rich white woman living in a mansion on a TV show these days, you’d be safer wearing a meat suit in a lion enclosure.

So, you’d think Kudrow’s Lydia putting her Spanish revival mansion on the market to downsize is a very smart move, but as she is still rich, white and a woman her TV fate is somewhat sealed.

Not only does she have to deal with a cacophony of vulturous neighbours wanting to snap up the pad, but she must also deal with the unravelling of a family trauma so dark she’s been living like a hermit for three years.

In short: it’s terrible for Lydia. On the upside: it’s an excellent vehicle for Kudrow’s acting capabilities. She manages to flit between despair, grief, laughter, boredom, frustration and longing in the blink of an eye. Kudrow walks that perilous tightrope of appearing outwardly happy but, actually, you’re screaming inside.

It’s a good job Kudrow is such a fine dramatic actor and can hurl from one emotion to the other. No Good Deed is a russian doll of a TV show. Not only did I not anticipate the outcome of twists, I didn’t anticipate them even happening in the first place. They are so knotty and unexpected Harlan Coben is truly put to shame. I may also have to bill Netflix for whiplash.

Then there’s the rest of the cast, the prospective buyers of the coveted mansion. Linda Cardellini brings campy villainy to unhinged trophy wife Margo, while Luke Wilson injects pathos into the role of fading soap star JD. British actor O-T Fagbenle charms as kind-hearted Dennis, who is expecting his first child Carla, played with panache by Teyonah Parris. Finally, Abbi Jacobson is suitably infuriating as nosy lawyer Leslie married to doctor Sarah, played expertly as a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing by Poppy Liu.

Bar soap star JD, unless you happen to live in Islington, they’re all feasiblyexactly like the neighbours on your Christmas card list. And exactly like them, they’re all hiding secrets and making deals with the devil to protect the ones they love behind closed doors.

As they say, the best TV always mirrors society and while the plot isn’t going to happen IRL any time soon (I hope), No Good Deed is addictive viewing as it reflects us warts and all. It could also serve as a fable – one I’m all sure we can learn from – on the human cost of lying.

But aside from making you want to confess your deepest and dark secrets to anyone who will listen right this second, No Good Deed is also just good old-fashioned entertainment. I just hope we don’t have to wait another 10 years to see Kudrow shine in another ride of a show.

No Good Deed is available to stream on Netflix.

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