Only Murders in the building

Authored by Larry Beard, TV watcher and man about town.

(Author’s note – this review will spoil elements of Episode 1 of Only Murders in the Building – you have been warned!)

It’s rare for something to strike so close to home with me when watching TV, as I tend to go for the more fantastical than then the mundane. Only Murders in the Building, then, was an extremely pleasant surprise to see one of my own passions – not murder, but podcasting – getting time on the small screen in such a fantastic little romp. Only Murders in the Building is a comedic mystery series exclusive to Hulu at the time of this writing, currently looking towards its second season. This outing stars a (to my extreme surprise and delight) still alive Steve Martin, the incomparably talented Martin Short, and in this author’s humble opinion the biggest comeback performance of a career, recording artist/actress Selina Gomez. Sorry about making fun of the shape of your head in my review of Another Cinderella Story, Selina. You won back my heart here.

               Only Murders in the Building focuses on the lives and times of residents of the Arconia, an old NY apartment building that’s something of a self-contained ecosystem, with many of the tenets being part of the community of the Arconia for much of their lives. Our arguably “main” character is Steve Martin as Charles Hayden-Savage, mostly retired former 90’s detective show star with an inflated sense of ego and deep self-loathing. Martin created the show and is one of the executive producers alongside his main costars Martin Short as Oliver Putnam, bombastic and scatterbrained Broadway director of a series of increasingly tremendous flops, and Selina Gomez as Mabel Mora, typical millennial girl with a complicated past. Joining the three in the Arconia are a delightful collection of weirdos including this author’s personal favorite, an occasionally terrifying performance by a one Nathan Lane, who has been in everything good produced in the last 30 years. The musician Sting also makes several appearances as himself, a resident of the Arconia, and Tina Fey plays a typical celebrity jerk as the host of the podcast that brings our main cast together. Amy Ryan (of The Office and The Wire fame) rounds out the main cast as resident and bassoonist Jan, who our heroes continue to cross paths with and takes particular interest in Charles. Something I particularly enjoyed was the wide array of “smaller time” actresses and actors who make up the majority of the supporting cast. The side residents of the Arconia are given more than their chance to shine, especially when playing off the incredibly talented Martin and Short (really guys? Both had to have “Martin” in your names, huh?) as the series consummate goofballs.

As stated above, the series follows Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, three unconnected residents of the Arconia who share a love for a true crime podcast despite having very little else in common. The three share an elevator with douchey fellow resident Tim Kono, who to the shock of everyone in the building ends up dead mere hours later. Our heroes each find themselves unsatisfied with the police’s simple explanation of suicide and being to investigate the crime, quickly crossing paths in the tiny ecosystem that is the Arconia. Reluctantly agreeing to work together, the three contrasting personalities begin to perform their own investigation documented by a self-produced podcast they appropriately title “Only Murders in the Building”. While Oliver is the driving force behind the podcast, everyone has their own reasons for continuing to investigate - Charles in some vain attempt to reclaim his glory years and inject meaning into a life that had nothing, Oliver trying to keep his name in lights and drum up cash to up keep a lifestyle he can’t possibly afford, and Mabel (episode 1 spoilers ahoy!) unraveling the complex past she shared with Tim Kono stretching back a decade before. The season follows the trio as they bungle their way through an investigation of Kono’s death, confident in their belief that he was murdered. Their investigation shows not only the extremely petty, complicated, and hilarious relationships between the residents of the Arconia but the complicated paths our three heroes have which shaped them into who they are. The series is surprisingly deep while still retaining a near constant element of light fun, never seeming too much like “trying too hard”. For example – light spoilers ahoy – at one point Oliver tells the story of his greatest Broadway flop, which ends with a literal flop as several of his actors sustain major injuries in a ludicrous stunt gone wrong. While the retelling is hilarious, it also does a great (and sobering) job of telling us part of who Oliver is, and how he got to be who he is. There are other moments of grief and what I call “human ache” in the show - watch Charles make his omelets and you’ll understand - where we see the sad reasons that left Charles in the state he is in and the reason Mabel closes herself off from the world, but it never detracts from the humor and, importantly, the mystery. The mystery! OMITB does a phenomenal job of keeping you hooked on the investigation. Who did kill Tim Kono? There’s plenty of satisfying twists and turns that keep you guessing as the show progresses.

Currently there’s ten episodes, all around the 30-minute mark. Folks, I watch a lot of TV, and few things have stuck with me like this show has. Every minute of OMITB is used to its absolute fullest. It never feels like there’s a wasted second, and yet it never feels rushed. The music is light, creepy, and goofy, a perfect encapsulation of everything the show tries to be. I want to heap particular praise on the relationship between the three main characters. Martin and Short (again, fellas, you’re killing me here) are both elder statesmen of comedy in their 70’s while Selina Gomez is only approaching 30. Charles and Olvier squabble as Charles is a stuffy old man who generally wants to be left alone but also can’t bear being left alone while Olvier needs to be the center of attention in every room, and Mabel seems constantly low-level irritated at her fate of hanging out with two weird old men, but the three rarely let that get in the way of their goals. The series does a great job of expressing the gap between their ages while not taking agency from any of them. Selina is young, yes, and the elders feel some sense of responsibility for her, but the show doesn’t make her a damsel or uninitiated – nor does it make Charles and Oliver bumbling fools with no skills to contribute. Well, the boys may be a tad bumbling, but it gives all three a chance to shine in their own ways. When they come together the group really feels like a partnership, and the show is all the better for it. Of other particular note is episode 8, “The Boy from 6B”, which follows Nathan Lane’s in-show son Tim, who is deaf. The show is shot with no audible dialogue and often has nothing but slight muffled sound throughout. In addition to being a marvelous take on what an episode of a TV show can be, and how one can use a single sense or perspective to embody who a character is or what the takeaway is (Bojack Horseman’s brilliant “Fish out of Water” comes to mind, especially with the parallels to lack of dialogue), the episode spends a lot of time on the prideful Nathan Lane as Arconia resident Teddy Dimas’ relationship with his son’s disability, and the struggle father and son – two arguably minor characters – have relating to one another.

The show is not without its pitfalls. A few scenes didn’t really hit their mark with me. For example, the series’ opening 3 minutes commits something I personally can’t stand – showing us scenes from the final minutes of the series, including Selina Gomez knelt before a corpse telling our other stars “I can explain,” before cutting to two months early prior to our heroes ever having met. Frankly, I hate this trope. Flash forwards stink; how can I have any concern for the safety of these characters if I know that at SOME point in time they’ll be in this position the show opens for? No matter how many guns get drawn or dangers may be confronted, at some point there’s always going to be Selina crouched over that body with Martin and Martin (there, take that boys) stumbling upon her. In a post Game of Thrones world, I think there’s a certain excitement in television that hey, a fan-favorite character COULD die if things go wrong. Flash forwards are, in my humble opinion, a thing of the past. Additionally I find that with later context the lynchpin scene in the elevator where the cast meets Tim Kono before his demise doesn’t make a whole lot of… I want to say “emotional sense”, looking especially at the interactions between Mabel and Tim. As the show goes on I have a few issues here and there with story beats and certain reactions, as well as the ridiculously overused TV trope of “I didn’t tell you this thing I knew which would have really made the last few episodes pointless, plot wise” thing that every writer falls for (admittedly myself included) that I feel is one of cinema’s most tired tropes. My last note is the show features Jane Lynch, costar of Selina Gomez in Another Cinderella Story, and despite her seemingly beloved status some small part of me dies every second she’s on screen in any project she’s involved with. Sorry Jane. At least her part is small, and that’s a decidedly Larry complaint. Overall, I have very few issues with the show at all.

This show has probably been my favorite TV watching experience of the year. There’s ten episodes available on Hulu right now, and I could have watched all ten in a single sitting. I had to force myself to split it up just to keep the experience going. A season two is coming, and I admit I’m a tad worried at how they can keep this going and be just as good as season one, but I’m still eagerly looking forward to it. It helped that I discovered this show not long after the disaster that was the live action Cowboy Bebop (expect THAT review soon, maybe in podcast form), and Only Murders was such a breath of fresh air. Watching this series about a group of bungling, burgeoning podcasters makes me think fondly on Isaac and my OWN bumbling podcast experience, and nothing makes me want to gush into a microphone more than watching three weirdos come together to try and solve a murder. 9 out of 10 from me!