Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, and Martin Short are back to solve another murder, this time with a Hollywood twist.
Plot: The amateur podcasting trio wrestles with the shocking events surrounding Charles’ stunt double & friend Sazz Pataki. Questioning whether she or Charles was the intended victim, their investigation leads them all the way to Los Angeles where a Hollywood studio is readying a film about the Only Murders podcast. As Charles, Oliver & Mabel race back to New York, they embark on an even more epic journey — traversing their building’s courtyard to delve into the twisted lives of the Arconia’s West Tower residents.
Review: Since it premiered back in 2021, Only Murder in the Building has become a mainstay of critical and fan adoration. The trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez has produced three consecutive seasons of mystery that balances comedy with quirky characters that do not shy away from a fair amount of drama. While the laughs are typically at the forefront, Only Murders in the Building has been a showcase for the three leads who deliver some of the best work of their careers. As the series has gone from podcast to Broadway, the next logical step is to take the story to Hollywood. Season four follows the development of the title podcast as it is adapted into a big-budget feature film while tackling a case that connects every chapter of the series so far. Only Murders in the Building‘s fourth season is the best entry in the series to date and manages to improve upon what came before it while including new characters and more.
As with each season since the first, the fourth season picks up with the cliffhanger death teased in the prior season finale. At the end of last season, we saw Charles-Haden Savage’s (Steve Martin) stunt double and lifelong friend Sazz (Jane Lynch) shot dead in his apartment. On the heels of solving the murder of Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd), Charles, along with Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) are whisked to Los Angeles by Bev Melon (Molly Shannon), who is turning their podcast into a movie starring Eugene Levy as Charles, Eva Longoria as Mabel, and Zach Galifianakis as Oliver. But, when Charles suspects something may have happened to Sazz, they return to New York and realize she has been murdered. This opens up a new season of their podcast while also sending them on the run when they deduce the bullet that killed Sazz was meant for Charles. This leads them to team up with fellow Arconia resident Howard Morris (Michael Cyril Creighton) as they look into who the killer could be.
Having seen the first seven episodes of the ten that comprise the fourth season, I have never been more invested in these characters. While the quirks and mannerisms that Martin, Short, and Gomez bring to their roles remain key this season, a deeper development of the protagonists makes this run feel more engaging. Mabel is forced to confront how others perceive her and what her future may hold now that she is unemployed and without a home. Oliver’s relationship with actress Loretta (Meryl Streep) takes on a new dimension as their feelings for each other evolve despite being on different sides of the country. Charles must contend with being the intended victim and reflects on his friendship with Sazz and where he finds himself at this point in his life. This also allows us to explore how this phase of the trio’s friendship could change with newfound fame, wealth, and the introduction of their celebrity counterparts who become directly involved in the investigation. There is also the expansion of the Arconia to the West Tower, including several new residents portrayed by Desmin Borges, Kumail Nanjiani, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Richard Kind.
Because the mystery pulls together plot elements from the last three seasons and targets the main characters directly, Only Murders in the Buiding feels more vital and energized than ever before. Steve Martin gets to do some heavier acting, and Martin Short balances the strangeness of his character with more emotional heft. It also helps that the new additions to the cast all fit right in. Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy, and Eva Longoria are hilarious as fictional versions of themselves who manage to serve as mirrors for Charles, Oliver, and Mabel. The Westies are all intriguing additions to the suspect pool, while Melissa McCarthy is phenomenal as Charles’ estranged sister who lives on Long Island. Despite being dead, Jane Lynch makes several appearances as Sazz and is one of many characters from prior seasons who come back to the forefront. The Hollywood side of things is also a nice touch, as it skewers the practice of adapting podcasts and true crime stories for the big screen.
Having not seen the final three episodes of the season, I am still in the dark as to whodunit, but I have my checklist of suspects, and I am dying to find out the answer. Series co-creator John Hoffman continues to lead the series’ writing staff and holds credits for the first and final episode of the fourth season. With a mix of new writers, directors, and returning helmers, including Hoffman himself, Only Murders in the Building maintains a consistent quality that other series would kill to achieve. It would have made for an interesting franchise if this series had focused on investigators delving into unrelated mysteries, like Hercule Poirot or Benoit Blanc. Hoffman and Steve Martin have created a cast of quirky characters central to intricate and layered mysteries and interconnected stories. Only Murders in the Building has now woven four cases into a massive web of murder and deception that never feels convoluted but works as an ongoing character-based narrative and one that works as standalone seasons.
Only Murders in the Building continues to be an exceptional blend of writing and acting that delivers an intricate mystery full of red herrings and misdirections that never feel artificial or pad the season to help it reach ten episodes. Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, and their supporting cast all work well off each other to make this world seem real and full of the weirdest variations of real people. I was pleasantly surprised each successive season to find that this show keeps finding ways to create stories worth watching, and this fourth season is the best yet. Chock full of callbacks to prior seasons, Only Murders in the Building wonderfully rewards longtime viewers while being open enough for newcomers to jump into the mystery and try and solve the title crime. This continues to be one of the best shows on the air in multiple genres.
Only Murders In The Building premieres on August 27th on Hulu.
