Penn Badgley is playing a man whose whole family has killed someone

Now here’s one for the murder mystery crowd: Penn Badgley – yes, the bloke who played stalker-turned-murderer Joe in You – is heading back to the genre, but this time with a bit of grim comedy thrown in. Amazon MGM Studios have just signed him up as the lead for Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, an adaptation of Benjamin Stevenson’s bestselling novel. If you like your whodunits with a side of awkward family tension, this one’s shaping up nicely.

The Premise

So, what’s the story? Badgley plays Ern Cunningham, who makes his living as a mystery expert (meta, but it works). He heads to Vermont to see his brother Michael return from prison. Here’s the kicker: Ern himself was responsible for putting Michael there in the first place. Just the sort of reunion you’d want to bring a bottle to, or possibly a lawyer.

But things get even messier. A body turns up in the snow, and a blizzard means the whole dysfunctional clan is stuck together — and people start dropping dead. As the title suggests, everyone in Ern’s family has already knocked someone off, one way or another. Lovely bunch.

Every person in Ern’s family has at least one body on their record. Some accidents, some not so accidental.

This is where it gets almost tongue-in-cheek: the series seems just as interested in how murder ruins a family dinner as it does in who actually did it.

Behind the Scenes: Writers and Credentials

Not just anyone’s steering this particular sleigh of misfortune. David Hemingson is in as showrunner and executive producer. He’s written on everything from How I Met Your Mother to Black-ish and Family Guy, but most recently he was behind the Oscar-nominated script for The Holdovers. Apparently Amazon liked his ‘darkly hilarious family drama’ so much they wanted it with a bit more murder.

Hemingson’s very much up for it, too. In the announcement, here’s what he had to say about the gig and about working with Badgley in particular:

“And we are so lucky to have Penn as our lead. I can’t think of any actor better suited to bring Ern’s intensity, brilliance and hilariously dry sense of humor to life.”

Badgley’s got plenty of thriller mileage on his CV, not just with You. He had major roles in The Stepfather remake back in 2009 and the financial collapse chamber piece Margin Call in 2011. If anyone knows how to play intense and funny at the same time, it’s him.

As for Hemingson, if you saw The Holdovers (and you should have, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the entirety of last Christmas), he’s proven he can wring both meaning and proper laughs out of a dysfunctional family setup. Add Badgley to the mix and, well, at least murder should finally get the dry wit it deserves.