Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow’s comedy has good bones

An open house for an upscale home already resembles a game of “Clue”: wealthy people from different walks of life gathered in a large, attractive room. All that’s missing from this prefabricated setup is a corpse, a gap that creator Liz Feldman easily fills in the Netflix black comedy No Good Deed.

Feldman previously created “Dead to Me” for the streamer, another series about wealthy, amoral residents of Southern California. (Christina Applegate’s character was even a real estate agent.) If “No Good Deed” reuses some elements from that earlier project, including the presence of Linda Cardellini as a woman who doesn’t tell the whole truth about her backstory, the series at least benefits from hers reliable nature. In fact, “No Good Deed” features such a solid production — and such a well-cast cast, led by Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow as a couple trying to sell their Los Angeles mansion — that it can be counterproductive to dwell on it relying heavily on twists and turns. To put it in central industry parlance, once the eight-episode season settles into its story, you can see the good bones beneath all the unnecessary fixations.

Paul (Romano), a building contractor, and Lydia (Kudrow), a pianist, live in Los Feliz, a hip but 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. (Not only did Paul do most of the work on the house, he also grew up in it. Selling it is pure profit!) But when Mikey (Denis Leary), a menacing figure from her past, comes back to blackmail her about something, the If secrets have been buried for a long time, we learn that they may have ulterior motives for giving up their long-time residence.

Netflix has forbidden me from revealing Mikey’s connection to Paul and Lydia or what actually happened at their house about three years ago – not coincidentally the deadline at which they would be legally required to disclose a death on the property. It’s true that “No Good Deed” withholds these crucial details for several episodes, ratcheting up the tension with vague, choppy flashbacks. But the answers are so important that I wish No Good Deed had focused on the story of a grieving family to better illuminate the relationships within it. The marriage between Lydia, who is psychosomatically prevented from playing her instrument, and Paul, who is insanely focused on getting ahead, only comes into focus towards the end. At first, acting in a comic style old hat for two sitcom legends, they bicker and fumble their way through an amateur cover-up. Once “No Good Deed” stops harrumphing, Kudrow and Romano can finally flex their dramatic chops.

At least “No Good Deed” buys time with a bitchy, nimble satire of greedy yuppies. Paul and Lydia’s admirers are a colorful group. Newlyweds Dennis (OT Fagbenle, dropping his insane accent from “Presumed Innocent”), an author, and Carla (Teyonah Parris), now six months pregnant, need more space for their growing family – which may include his overbearing one Mother heard, but maybe not. Denise (Anna Maria Horsford). Sarah (Poppy Liu) and Leslie (Abbi Jacobson) have been obsessed with the house for years, but their scrutiny is unwelcome: Leslie is a prosecutor, while Sarah is addicted to Citizen. Even JD (Luke Wilson), the down-and-out sitcom actor down the street, is interested, having spent his entire income on a McMansion designed by his trophy wife Margo (Cardellini). (It’s the ultimate compliment that, at 49, Cardellini is more than believable as a scheming gold digger who gets by on her good looks.) As real estate agent Greg, Matt Rogers is a delightful ringmaster of this three-ring circus.

“No Good Deed” avoids the weightier implications of a show set in the modern real estate market; There is no talk of a real estate crisis, nor is there a specific price. Instead, Feldman stays on the buyer’s side of the broader symbolism of searching for a home and on the seller’s side of how a home is haunted by decades of memories. It’s a worthy theme, enough to sustain “No Good Deed” through the distraction of one twist after another – a tendency that affects the entire ensemble, beyond Paul and Lydia. From finances to family background, the surprises are consistently less satisfying than the post-reveal candor. A stable status quo creates a more conducive 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.