Liz Feldman already has ideas for No Good Deed season 2: 'It would involve a whole new house'

Warning: This post contains spoilers for No Good Deed.

The truth is complicated in the twisty and structurally sound No Good Deed, Netflix's newest dark comedy from Dead to Me creator Liz Feldman.

Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano lead the star-studded cast as Lydia and Paul Morgan, a grief-stricken married couple who put their Spanish-style home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles on the market several years after a family tragedy. It's been three years since their teenage son, Jacob (Wyatt Aubrey), was killed inside of the home, meaning they no longer have to disclose the death to prospective buyers. Three couples vie for the abode: novelist Dennis (O-T Fagbenle) and his pregnant wife Carla (Teyonah Parris); lawyer Leslie (Abbi Jacobson) and her doctor wife Sarah (Poppy Liu); and washed-up soap star JD (Luke Wilson) and his trophy wife Margo (Linda Cardellini).

Through flashbacks, the details surrounding Jacob's death are slowly unraveled: the Morgans believed that their daughter Emily (Chloe East) unwittingly shot and killed her brother one evening after believing that he was an intruder breaking into their home. But it wasn't Emily's bullet that killed Jacob. It was the deceitful Margo who fired that first fatal shot before Jacob tumbled into his home. Feldman unpacks that surprise ending and more — including a potential season 2! — below.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: At what point did you establish that Margo would be behind Jacob’s death?

LIZ FELDMAN: We talked a lot about how this night unfolded, and initially I didn't plan on Margo being literally the smoking gun. It was something that we all came to as a writer's room in the desire to give the Morgan family, believe it or not, a happier ending. We wanted to take the onus off of them and put it on someone who, for their own selfish, ill-intended reasons, used her firearm to get what she wanted. So it was a process to get there. The more we dug into Margo, the more we leaned into the fact that this is somebody who was really capable of absolutely anything, because she's a narcissist and a bit of a sociopath. That might seem like a larger-than-life person, but I think we know that these people exist and sometimes they are given power. We always knew that Lydia and Paul thought it was Emily, but we kept digging because in order to make this family whole again, there has to be this missing layer. It’s all about finding the dark and light in the tone of the show; there are some things that feel like a bridge too dark.

I love when comedic actors do dramatic work. It was moving watching Lisa and Ray navigate grief in different ways. What conversations did you have about bringing that to screen?

I feel the same. I love to not just challenge actors to show parts of themselves that you don't normally get to see, but to challenge myself and the writers to write things that are hard to write and to really go there in the human experience. Life is a series of unfortunate experiences with a lot of humor and surprises along the way, and so that's sort of the ethos for the show. There is more than one way to deal with loss. For Paul, he’s not really dealing with it at all; he kept saying he likes to spackle over his feelings. And for Lydia, she doesn't feel that she deserves to move on. She's dwelling in her dwelling.

Lisa was a little reticent to wear the grief on her sleeve. I think that's part of why her performance ends up being so touching, because she's trying not to be overtly emotive, but you feel her pain constantly. Also, she let me know from the very beginning, like, “I'm not going to cry a lot.” And I said, “OK, I totally get that. Let's just do what feels authentic at the moment.” And I think she surprised herself with how deep she was able to go. Her performance is incredibly moving.

With Ray, I was really surprised at the depth that he was able to reach. I wasn't shocked. He's such a deeply lovely man, but he really doesn't like to talk about his feelings very much. But boy, when he had to go there, specifically in the finale, that was 100 percent Ray. They were both excited to show this different side of themselves. I know we know them as these absolutely iconic sitcom actors, but to give them material that allows them to be seen in a different light and go in a more vulnerable direction was so rewarding.

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Additionally — and thank you for not really killing him off — what conversations did you have with Denis Leary about his complicated arc and potentially being murdered by Lisa Kudrow?

We had a lot of really good and deep conversations about his arc because he really wanted to approach Mikey from a very authentic perspective. So we had conversations about addicts that we both knew, about family trauma, and we really went there in terms of digging into who this guy was. This guy who always feels no one believes him, no one trusts him; he can't trust himself, a guy who comes from a lot of trauma. Denis did a beautiful job of making him feel like a real person. He really approached Mikey from a place of empathy, and the result is a three-dimensional, surprising, heroic character that you think at first is the villain. 

What are your thoughts on a potential season 2? Is there room to expand the story?

Oh, please. Of course. All I think about is a potential season 2. I have a really clear idea of what I'd like to do. I think it'll be really informative for the show to come out and see how people react and who people are rooting for. But yeah, I have a really clear idea and I would love to do it. 

What can you tell me about the idea?

I will leave it as a mystery because we should probably talk about it with Netflix first. I’ll just say that it would involve a whole new house.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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