With an amazing cast and an irresistible premise, you’ll lap up every moment of this new streaming series.
Quick question. Do you like fun?
Of course, you do! You’re not a sadist (not to kink-shame sadists or anything).
Created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, playful caper Only Murders in the Building is so fantastically fun, you’ll be as giddy as an 11-year-old girl who just mastered the double hula hoop.
And if you already like cosy, parlour room mysteries, then Only Murders in the Building is going to make you feel like you were a saint in a past life. You must’ve done something right.
Featuring the unlikely but genius combination of Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, the series is set in a ritzy Manhattan apartment complex inspired by those grand dames of Upper West Side New York City co-op living, the Dakota or the Apthorp.
But a stunning central courtyard and gothic architectural features doesn’t stop a murder being committed under the venerated roof of the fictional Arconia.
When a young man named Tim Kono is found dead in his apartment, the police think it’s a suicide – and why not, he left a succinct note on his computer suggesting it was. But Charles (Martin), Oliver (Short) and Mabel (Gomez) aren’t buying it.
The three neighbours are all fans of a Serial-esque podcast produced by the show’s version of Sarah Koenig, a host played by Tina Fey who makes a delicious guest appearance in a later episode.
Their obsession with true crime has fuelled their imagination, convinced that Kono was murdered and one of the Arconia residents did it. So, as you do, they set out to do their own investigation, and launch their own podcast in the process.
The podcast aspect of it works as parody within the larger homage to the detective fiction genre, and the tonal tightrope walk between the two is impressive.
The closed house-type setting of the Arconia narrows down the pool of suspects to its oddball residents, among them a cat-loving neighbour, the hummus king of New York (Nathan Lane) and musical superstar Sting (as himself).
But as much as these eccentrics delight, the 10-episode series’ strength is in the core trio.
And as much as the show is about this amateur sleuthing adventure, it’s also a smart story about loneliness in a packed city of almost 9 million people. Being surrounded by people doesn’t mean you have any meaningful connections.
Charles is a has-been TV star who once starred in a network crime procedural while Oliver is a hustling theatre producer who hasn’t worked in a long time. Mabel is an unfocused artist who is whiling away time renovating her aunt’s apartment.
None of them are misanthropes or unpleasant people, but it’s just the quirks of life that sometimes you’re alone. But just because they’ve found a common purpose, it doesn’t mean it’s not without kinks, especially for three people who fear being hurt.
How that relationship develops – and it’s at different speeds even between them – is the emotional core of a series that probably could’ve have gotten away with not bothering.
Of course, we know Short and Martin are a formidable onscreen pairing – and you’d be astonished at how well the Father of the Bride movies hold up – but the surprise is how seamlessly Gomez slots in with her older co-stars.
Gomez’s drollness is a great match to her more broad and physical comedy co-stars while her asides in injecting a young person’s perspective on things feels natural and not spotlighted and smug.
If there’s anything to fault about the series, it’s that each episode’s voiceover narration changes from character-to-character, and that’s a mixed bag. Some episodes are framed by outsiders such as a podcast fan or Fey’s host and Only Murders in the Building doesn’t do all the work in making those peripheral characters as dynamic or interesting.
Then other times, it works really well, such as the episode that’s anchored by deaf character Theo (James Caverly), and his episode is entirely wordless.
But sometimes you wonder if that POV-switcheroo doesn’t work as well as it should because the main characters are just so strong and all you want to do is be in their presence instead.
Only Murders in the Building, which will debut three episodes on the first day before shifting to a weekly release, is exactly the kind of compulsive storytelling that you want to devour while sitting under a cosy blanket.
Ooh, what exhilarating fun!
Only Murders in the Building is on Disney+ from Tuesday, August 31
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2021-08-30 06:43:00Z
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