The home central to the plot of Liz Feldman’s Netflix sequence “No Good Deed” ought to make you drool — after which query simply how a lot inventory you set in the place you reside. A stunning Spanish revival home within the Los Feliz neighborhood of L.A. would possibly look like a fast repair to numerous issues, however as manufacturing designer Nina Ruscio instructed IndieWire, “Wherever you go, there you might be.”
However good luck discovering the home Lydia (Lisa Kudrow) and Paul Morgan (Ray Romano) are attempting to promote; the outside is actual, however the Architectural Digest-ready inside is pure fabrication.
“ The driving pressure is that everyone needs to have this house,” Ruscio stated. “So how may I create an expertise for folks seeing it that made it aspirational sufficient to cross numerous totally different character sorts?”
As normal, the reply was within the particulars. The Spanish-style home is an instantly recognizable staple of L.A., one which incites home lust in nearly everybody — besides, probably, Linda Carellini’s neighbor, Margo. And by specializing in creating a house that preserves the coveted interval particulars whereas additionally updating it to mirror consolation and a sure style stage within the Morgans, Ruscio crafted a house that’s as interesting to younger professionals Leslie (Abbi Jacobson) and Sarah (Poppy Liu) as it’s to architect Carla (Teyonah Paris) and TV star JD (Luke Wilson).
”It appears like the home has integrity and historical past, and on an emotional stage, it has the entire life and the layers of the lifetime of Paul and Lydia,” Ruscio stated. “However on a seductive stage, it wished to be a home that might fulfill everybody’s goals of the right way of life and the right option to curate your life.”
There’s no such factor, after all, as everybody in “No Good Deed” discovers over the course of its eight episodes. And for Paul and Lydia, the home is a perpetual reminder of the loss of life of their son, a loss that point hasn’t begun to heal. Paul is prepared to promote the home and depart the reminiscences behind; for Lydia, shedding the home appears like compounding the lack of her son. For everybody else, they assume the home might be a swift and simple option to slough off their very own issues on the door. And the quickest option to sign a home is a house is, as Ruscio factors out, a killer kitchen. (No pun supposed.)
“Folks buy homes for emotional causes,” she stated, “and the anchor of what’s alleged to be a wonderful home proper now’s the fireside, and the fireside is the kitchen. A very massive island, lovely tile, lovely artwork, exposing the beans, all lovely cabinetry, a built-in banquette to eat within the kitchen. In order that stuff wanted to fulfill all people’s dream idea of the right kitchen.”
The added layer of the home in “No Good Deed” is that it’s not a precise illustration of Paul and Lydia; it is a home on the market, so the decor is a pared-down model of their lives to attraction to the widest attainable vary of potential consumers.
”We had been selecting at what stage of denuding do you lose the essence of what the particular person is? And do you lose the sort of cues and Easter eggs that train [audiences] who these individuals are?” Ruscio stated. “So we selected to have this half-breed of a curated, cleaned-up model of their precise house. Matt Callahan is a set decorator I’ve had the pleasure of working with for many years. He’s unimaginable. Rode this line between these two info. There’s historic furnishings inside the lounge, inside the eating room. However for me, what I felt was actually necessary was to bejewel the home in such a method that the architectural parts themselves, with out embellishment, may make the house seductive.”
For Ruscio, that meant a deal with beamed ceilings, stained glass, woodwork — and a very fascinating fire. “It’s a sensible fire,” she stated. “And the tile encompass is all custom-made, peppered with Easter eggs concerning the [plot]. There are photos of the mandarin orange tree that Lydia’s so connected to that she planted when her youngsters had been little. There’s a peacock, which will be each fortune and dangerous luck.”
Examine the Morgan’s home and all the main points that make it a house to the chilly expanse of open-concept rooms throughout the road, the place J.D. and Margo stay. That one Ruscio noticed in March 2023, shortly earlier than the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes shut down manufacturing. On the time, the home (which Ruscio described as “like a UFO had landed within the neighborhood”) was below development; by the point filming resumed, it was not solely full, however the homeowners had been amenable to letting “No Good Deed” movie in it.
“ That house labored rather well for the emotional, static nature of Margo and JD,” Ruscio stated. “But it surely’s actually Margo’s home. And Margo is soulless. So what can be Margo’s aspirational showiness? It might be the trendy discount of emotional household house and a garish aesthetic, the pink piano, the white couches, the mirrors in every single place, the marble flooring. To current ostentatious extra to point out the world that she’s made it, proper? In order that a part of the character drove the search.”
TV magic out the 2 homes throughout the road from each other, but it surely was Ruscio’s abilities that made the Morgans’ home into a house (nearly) value mendacity for.
“No Good Deed” is now streaming on Netflix.