The Spoils Before Dying

Boozy director Eric Jonrosh (Will Ferrell) serves as onscreen presenter for the IFC-aired jazz-noir follow-up to the faux-epic The Spoils of Babylon. The bearded and rotund Jonrosh suggests late-period Orson Welles (Ferrell's Funny or Die associate Matt Piedmont directed the miniseries). The opening credits recreate the Technicolor variant of yesteryear right down to the bizarre spoof funding sources, such as Le Cartel Columbie. Michael K. Williams, who narrates in a smoky drawl, stars as nightclub pianist Rock Banyon, playing it straight, which allows his costars to do most of the vamping. In the first episode, Rock worries that his lady, Fresno Foxglove (Maya Rudolph), is stepping out on him. The next day, following a night of heavy drinking (accompanied by some fun optical effects), the coppers haul Rock in for Fresno's murder. Convinced that someone is setting him up, Rock borrows the motorbike of his manager (Haley Joel Osment) and splits for Mexico, where he reconnects with singer Dolores DeWinter (Kristen Wiig). When things finally get too hot below the border, Rock, Dolores, and a stray cat named Dizzy (voiced by Peter Coyote) return to the States to try to clear Rock's name. In L.A., Rock searches for the gold cigarette case that will prove his innocence, leading to encounters with Tim Meadows as a morgue attendant and Tim Robbins as a bartender. While not every joke lands in this six-part 2015 series, only people who truly love this genre could get so many of the details right. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)