The number of murders in Only Murders in the Building’s building has gone from surprising to ridiculous. Yet the further it stretches its conceit, the more Steve Martin and John Hoffman’s show embraces the imaginative absurdity that makes it TV’s most joyful offering.
Between its witty dialogue and plotting, and the peerless performances of Martin and Martin Short (paired perfectly with Selena Gomez), Hulu’s comedic mystery is a ray of sunshine in today’s streaming landscape. As it’s continued to integrate guest stars into its mix, its warm and inclusive humor has grown.
Simply put, there’s no television series that’s as consistently apt to bring a smile to one’s face.
Martin and Short remain at the absolute top of their game in Only Murders in the Building’s fifth season, which premieres Sept. 9. Funny and clever action continues to revolve around its central trio, all as it expands its purview to reveal the secret lives of some of the myriad people that comprise the Big Apple.
The setting of Martin and Hoffman’s ongoing saga, the Arconia, serves as a microcosm of a metropolis that’s brimming with diverse and private careers, experiences, and relationships, and the genius of the show is its ability to tap into (and intertwine) those tales for whodunit hijinks. It’s as inherently New York as any Woody Allen film, and its curiosity and generosity of spirit is its trump card, allowing it to spin crazy yarns about the enigmatic men and women who populate its streets, its diners, and its high-rise Upper West Side apartment building.
Only Murders in the Building is a half-hour homicide comedy that’s fundamentally about family and home. In its latest go-round, podcasting sleuths Charles-Haden Savage (Martin), Oliver Putnam (Short), and Mabel Mora (Gomez) are as tight-knit as ever in the immediate aftermath of Oliver’s wedding to kooky actress Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), who’s now in New Zealand for work. Post-nuptial bliss is short-lived, however, since their beloved doorman Lester (Teddy Coluca) has been found dead.
More intriguing, while basking in the glow of his wedding, Oliver makes a shocking discovery that the three agree seems “very mobby,” and could be related to the fact that during the festivities, they were approached by “femme fatale” Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni), who asked them to locate her missing mafioso husband Nicky (Bobby Cannavale). Thus, a two-pronged case is born in an introductory scene that has more laugh-out-loud jokes than any given season of [insert network sitcom].
During a lobby memorial for Lester, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel meet NYC’s running-for-reelection Mayor Bo Tillman (Keegan-Michael Key), who loves their podcast; Lester’s widow Lorraine (Dianne Wiest), who’s heartbroken about her spouse’s passing; and Lester’s trainee Randall (Jermaine Fowler), whose job is endangered by the arrival of a robot doorman that Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton) dubs L.E.S.T.R. (and is voiced by an unexpected A-lister).
This automaton proves to be a source of tension throughout Only Murders in the Building, since it’s a threat to Randall and his ilk and, by extension, the hard-working individuals (and human connections) that make the city so vibrant and welcoming. That’s not the sole way in which old New York is in jeopardy this season, and the proceedings once again root themselves in the push-pull between yesterday and today—here epitomized by the friendship between its two elder statesmen (Martin and Short) and their sarcastic millennial BFF (Gomez).
Following a loopy visit to the literal Godfather house, Charles, Oliver, and Mable find a heretofore-unknown locale that, clues indicate, was the scene of lethal wrongdoing that might be related to Lester’s demise and Nicky’s disappearance.
By the conclusion of Only Murders in the Building’s premiere, Nicky has turned up, thereby doubling the material’s mystery. And although suspects are initially scarce, a trinity of shady characters soon materialize in the form of Sebastian “Bash” Steed (Christoph Waltz), Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman), and Camila White (Renée Zellweger), three billionaires—based, amusingly, on Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Martha Stewart—who are connected to Nicky and his businesses, and have a vested interest in keeping their names out of Charles, Oliver, and Mable’s hit podcast.
There’s much more crammed into Only Murders in the Building’s new season, including pop star Althena (Beanie Feldstein), who goes by “The” and was once friends with Mable; grouchy Arconia garbage man Miller (David Patrick Kelly); standbys Vince (Richard Kind) and detective Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph); and multiple novel and returning faces.
These all-star players contribute to the series’ rambunctious energy, and perfectly complement Martin, Short, and Gomez, whose well-established dynamics are breathlessly sharp and uproarious. As usual, Martin and Short’s old age is a regular topic of humorous conversation, and fittingly so, given the show’s focus on New York’s ever-changing landscape. Yet there’s also plenty of out-of-left-field nonsense, with inspired one-liners practically toppling over each other, and droll narrative twists keeping the lunatic momentum brisk.
Each episode of Only Murders in the Building assumes, to a certain degree, a specific character’s perspective, but it never forgets that, above all else, Martin and Short are its main attraction. Equal parts scathing and loving, their rapport is still in tip-top shape, with Short a fount of hilarious pronouncements, insults, and asides, and Martin a clownish goofball who knows precisely how to elicit a chuckle from random inanity (some of which winds up having to do with his forays into online dating).
Oliver frets about being thought of as a “narcissist,” Charles struggles with loneliness and mortality, and the two squabble like a married couple who can’t help cutting each other down or being apart. Alongside Gomez’s sardonic Mable, who’s dealing with her own insecurities, they’re TV’s best duo by a country mile.
Over the course of its 10 episodes, Only Murders in the Building bounces around with playful confidence, its every twist and detour leading to daffiness. Its heroes may be worried about the passage of time—and the unpleasant changes it breeds—but here’s hoping that Martin, Short, and Gomez keep this peerless show running for as long as is humanely possible.
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