"No Good Deed": Four lesbians, a gay realtor, a gay son, Oedipus, some murderers, and Phoebe from "Friends"

   Link to n*de Luke and Denis

Braxton Alexander recommended No Good Deed, a Netflix tv series, so presumably he's in it. The trailer shows Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Lisa Kudrow (Friends) spying on the couples interested in buying their house, no doubt planning something nefarious.  Plus I thought I saw a lesbian couple, so here goes, Episode 1.1:

Scene 1: Establishing shots of Los Feliz, the gentrified L.A. neighborhood. near Dodger Stadium. A Spanish Colonial house for sale.  The swishy real estate agent (Matt Rogers)  tells various couples that the homeowner is very invested in selling, while Ray Romano and Lisa Kudrow watch on their cell phone.  Uh-oh, they're up to no good.  Are they trying to find the perfect buyer to kill?

There are four stories, not interconnected, so I'll go through each separately:

The Soap Star:A scary unshaven guy with dark glasses signs his name in the register as John Smithe, but he's not a villain, he just plays one on the soap opera Rising Tides.  A shady handyman who cheated on his stepdaughter and was killed off. The first incest reference.  There will be more.

He's played by Luke Wilson, left.

Later, high-heel shoes enter the house.  I hate that cinematographic cliche.  Then a woman's back, like it will be a big shock when we finally see her face.   Gasp!  It's someone I never saw before!  What a shock!

Swishy Real Estate Agent Greg criticizes her for being a Lookie Louise, looking at houses but never buying one, but her real name is Margo.  

Ray and Lisa, watching from their secret lair, criticize her purse: "She looks like an AI-generated bitch."   They definitely don't want to sell to her, unless she pays cash: "Then I will bend over and take the cash up my *ss," Ray says.  

Cut to the Soap Star talking to his manager on the phone. Back story: he's so deeply in love with his wife that he bought her an expensive house, some cars, and a boat, and now he's going bankrupt. But he can't help it: she wanted them, so what else can he do?  "Maybe buy a house you can afford?"  So that's why he was looking at the Spanish Colonial.

In bed, John's overbearing, painfully elitist, super-snob wife turns out to be high-heel Margo!  They discuss why Ray and Lisa are selling their house. 

Oedipus: A m-f couple, the man O.T. Fagbenle, the woman an architect and highly pregnant, tour the kitchen.  They discuss how much they love each other and smooch a few dozen times until Mom tells them to knock it off.  Way to go, Mom!  

She also complains that they didn't have a wedding, when her son has dreamed of it since he was a kid.  Really?  I thought just girls planned their weddings.  When I was a kid, I was imagining my future career as an astronaut or Indiana Jones-style archaeologist.

Cut to Oedipus and Mom staking out the house.  Mom complains that they used to spend every moment of the day together, but now she sees him barely twice a year.  He explains: she used to be his whole world, his reason for living, but then he fell in love with someone else.  Be thankful for twice a year, Mom.  Some guys don't want to see their ex-lovers at all.

What's going to happen when the baby comes, and they both need to work?  They'll need someone to stay home with the baby, hint hint.  Dude, don't hire your mother/ex lover as your nanny!  She'll try to murder your wife to get you back.

In their next scene, Oedipus tells his wife that they can't afford the house on his novel royalties and her architecture, so why not have Mom chip in?  She is loaded.  Of course, she'll want to live with them.   Wife hates the idea.  Her husband's ex-lover, right there in the house with them? 

The First Lesbian Couple: Leslie, forceful and practical, and Sarah, quiet and mystical, examine the upstairs.  Sarah thinks it's "more of a family house," and it has a "dark vibe." 

They find a locked door.  It leads to the room where Ray and Lisa are hiding out and spying on everyone.  So, they're going to murder whoever buys the house?

On the way out, Practical Leslie is ready to make an offer, but Mystical Sarah doesn't want to spend all their money.  Besides, the neighborhood has a dark vibe.

Back story: They've been trying to get pregnant with IVF, but it doesn't work.  

That night, Practical Leslie drives through the neighborhood to prove that it is safe.  She sneaks into the garden of the house, planning to climb to the secret room's window and look inside, but instead she sets off the security alarm and the sprinklers.  Hiding in the bushes, she sees Homeowner Ray hide a gun in the piano. 

Meanwhile, at home, Mystical Sarah injects herself with something in secret.  She's either dying or a drug addict.

 The Second Lesbian Couple:  In bed, they discuss the house:  They could fix it up, put in a pool, and make a fortune off it.  They hatch an evil scheme to get it for under market value, and smoochify. 

More secrets after the break

Ray and Lisa:   While spying on the prospective buyers, they discuss how sad they are to be selling the house where Lisa grew up.  Wait -- I thought they were going to do something sinister to the buyer.  They just want a buyer who will "love the house as much as we do"?  How is that the premise for a tv series?  Somebody better get stabbed to death.

More back story: they're struggling financially; they took out a second mortgage, and now they're in arrears.  Lisa can't work, because she's a concert pianist with some sort of disease that makes her hands tremble.  

Lisa decides to go down and meet some of the prospective buyers, but Ray zooms in on an Old Guy, is horrified, and tells her "Don't go out there!"  Why, is Ted Bundy downstairs?

Later, the open house over, Lisa returns some photos to the mantle, showing her and Ray getting married and having a son and a daughter.  She sees them running through the house, playing "tag."  This memory makes her cry.  I'll bet the son and daughter died.

Nope, she calls her son Jacob (Aubrey Wyatt), and gets his voice mail.   Aubrey is playing her son, but when you google them, they look female.  Maybe they're trans.

 Cut to Ray doing macho-grunting woodworking.  A carpenter can afford that house?  I guess Lisa's concert-pianist job paid well.  

Ulp, the Old Guy shows up. He may be played by Denis Leary, left

"What are you doing here?" Ray asks, terrified.  "That's the reception I get, after all this time?"  They're either ex-lovers or estranged father-son.  But he's too old to be Jacob.

Ray nervously offers him a beverage and asks how prison was. "Make any nice friends?"  Gay joke, har har.   

Old Guy wants to know why he never visited. "I've been busy." 

"I helped you when you needed it the most, and now I need $80,000.  By tomorrow.  If you don't  give it to me, I'll tell people what really happened in your house."  He slams Ray's hand into his saw and leaves. 

Instead of going to the Emergency Room, Ray just goes home and bandages his wound. The camera follows the blood down the drain, through the sewer, and out onto the street.

Meanwhile,  Lisa is talking to the Piano Tuner.  Back story: the piano was her grandmother's.  She taught Lisa to play, which is why she became a concert pianist. But Lisa hasn't played for five or six years. The Philharmonic hasn't been the same without her.

All tuned up.  He asks her to try it out.  She hesitates, sits down -- and doesn't play.  She has a hand condition, remember?  

At dinner time, Ray is getting drunk, as usual, but Lisa is making chicken marsala, so they'll be eating tonight, too. He wants the lesbian developers to get the house to avoid the escrow and such, but she's against it: "No, we want someone who will love the house as much as we do."  She starts gesturing with a knife in her hand, which scares Ray.  Did she kill someone? 

Then he reveals that Old Guy is out of prison: "He knows everything.  He could destroy us." 

The Big Reveal comes at this point: Their son died in the house!  Then who the heck is she calling?

In bed that night, they hear the security alarm going off.  Ray goes downstairs to fetch the gun he has hidden in a plastic bag in a pipe.  

Meanwhile, Lisa goes through Jacob's stuff in his room, including his very prominent rainbow flag -- the son was gay!  Also a lot of baseball memorabilia.  She calls him again, and gets his voice mail.  Why isn't that account closed?

The light flashes on and off.  A sign!  He's in the room!   

Ray sees that there is no one outside, so he puts the gun inside the piano and flashes back to a scream and his son lying dead on the floor.  The end.

Beefcake: An occasional chest.

Gay Characters: Two lesbian couples, the gay son, and the swishy Realtor, played by Matt Rogers, who is gay in real life (far left, with the hat).

My Grade:  I like the various mysteries and the gay son, but the Oedipal storyline is cringy, and I didn't like being jerked around by the "sinister spying" misdirection.  B.

Update: The son is straight: his affair with ___ led to his death.  The Pride flag was just a queerbaiting misdirection.  But with five other gay characters, I can't really complain. 

And no Braxton Alexander.  Still a B.

See also: Simon Rex: From gay-ish movies to homophobic comedy. With Ray Romano

Gideon moves out of the friend zone: A Gideon/Keefe romance

Fire Island: Miles Clohessy takes off his clothes, erases gay people.  With Matt Rogers

Braxton Alexander: Three heterosexual boyfriends, three serial killers, one saxophone, and five bare bottoms.