‘No Good Deed’ Star Poppy Liu on Sarah’s Happy Ending & Possible Season 2

Poppy Liu and Abbi Jacobson in 'No Good Deed'
Spoiler Alert
SAEED ADYANI / Netflix

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for No Good Deed, Season 1.]

Netflix‘s newest Liz Feldman project, No Good Deed, brings a star-studded cast together as the show tells the story of a family trying to sell their home amid grief and secrets. Among the interested buyers are Sarah (Poppy Liu) and Leslie (Abbi Jacobson), a couple eager to find their forever home as they attempt to start a family.

While Sarah and Leslie contend with IVF struggles, they also decide to dig into the mystery surrounding Paul (Ray Romano) and Lydia Morgan (Lisa Kudrow), who have a bidding war on their hands with several interested buyers. Ultimately, it turns out that Paul and Lydia’s son died after being shot by someone they believed was their teen daughter, who mistook her brother for a robber.

The season’s twist reveals that it was in fact neighbor Margo (Linda Cardellini), who ejected a bullet seconds before the Morgans’ daughter did. The Morgans had waited three years to put their house on the market because they wouldn’t have to disclose their son’s death occurred in the home.

Poppy Liu in 'No Good Deed'

SAEED ADYANI / Netflix

But lawyer Leslie was determined to uncover anything she could, and Sarah even used the information Leslie dug up to deter other buyers from going ahead with their purchase. When it came to the ensemble and series itself, Liu tells TV Insider, “When I pick projects first and foremost, it’s [for] the script. It has to be something exciting, but also it’s the filmmakers. Are these people that I’m excited about working with? I think Liz is awesome. I think she’s a really unique and specific kind of dramedy voice that’s out there.”

As a true crime fan, Liu admits that in recent years, she’s become less interested in the darkness that’s attached to such subjects, but Feldman’s series struck a good balance. “Now, especially that I have a child, I feel way too fragile to watch any true crime. It can’t be too dark. And I think that Liz finds this fine line between the thrill of a murder mystery, but you don’t get sucked into the throes of the darkest parts of humanity,” she explains.

It’s hard to get too dark when you learn that Sarah’s a doctor towards the end of the season, helping to deliver fellow interested house buyers Carla (Teyonah Parris) and Dennis’ (O-T Fagbenle) baby. When it came to that little twist with her character, Liu tells us, “As a performer, I don’t ever try to play any of the secrets because they’re not a secret to my character. The secrets that my character has from her wife, that’s part of my psyche, but other parts of my life, they’re not secrets to her.”

Regarding her onscreen partner, Liu reveals that she and Jacobson didn’t meet in person until the table read. “Abbi was cast before me, but by the time they cast me, we hadn’t done a chemistry read yet,” Liu says. “I’d only done a tape for it. And so we met for the first time at the table read… I always think that’s kind of a baller move by a filmmaker when they don’t do a chemistry read, and it works really well.”

Leslie and Sarah’s investigative skills and deterrence of Carla and Dennis by revealing a death had occurred in the home land the couple their dream house by the end, but is there more story to tell with these characters? “I feel like everything’s kind of wrapped up in a very satisfying way at the end. And maybe [this] is controversial, but I think in the age of streaming and TV where there’s a hundred seasons of so many things, I find it a little bit chic when something is one and done,” Liu admits.

Only time will tell for certain if there’s more No Good Deed to share with viewers, but for this particular moment in time, Liu says, “It didn’t feel hard for me to get into [Sarah’s] psyche. Her driving motivation is that she really wants to start a family. When we filmed it, my child had just turned one. Motherhood was this all-encompassing feeling and drive and motivation in my life.”

For now, Sarah had seemingly found her happy ending with Leslie as the finale revealed she was finally pregnant and expecting a baby boy. But what do you think? Should No Good Deed return for more stories, or was this a good cap to a strong single-season story? Let us know in the comments section, and stream No Good Deed to see Liu and the rest of the ensemble anytime on Netflix.

No Good Deed, Streaming now, Netflix