Good Morning Friends! Over the weekend I wrapped up the series Only Murders in the Building and I thought this morning I would talk a bit about it. I used to talk about the media I consume quite a bit but have not really in a while. I have to be honest, I am very late to the punch here because this is a show that was the talk of the town… last year. It is one of those shows that I filed away in my brain not by name, but by the cast of actors. Instead of remembering it was called Only Murders in the Building, I remembered it as “That Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez show”. So when my wife was hunting for suggestions of things to watch, and a friend of hers suggested this show… I had no recollection of it. A quick google produced a flood of “oh yeah I wanted to watch that” feelings however and here we are having consumed it over a few nights.
I would not exactly call my wife and me true crime junkies, but we do consume quite a bit of it. I think in part this is due to the fact that our taste patterns do not have a ton of overlap, and true crime is one of those topics we can always both agree on. When we take a long trip it is often our entertainment to throw on a podcast as we drive and have absolutely consumed shows like Serial and S Town while doing this. I actually got bit by Serial when I co-worker suggested the show, and caught up about halfway through the original run. We’ve also been drawn into a number of Netflix series like Making a Murderer or The Staircase. I think honestly the attraction to these shows is less about the experience of watching them, but more about the experience of having the conversations for months after the fact positing our theories.
What makes Only Murders in the Building interesting is it has a self-aware quality to it. Instead of being a mystery, a dark comedy, a crime drama, or a documentary on the creation of a podcast… it is all of these wrapped up into a quirky package. It is both a show for fans of the true-crime podcast genre, but also a show that pokes gentle fun at those same fans. The entire show centers around an unlikely trio of characters played expertly by Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. The latter two of those are extremely foundational characters in the mythology of my childhood. The Jerk is still to this day one of my favorite movies, and for whatever reason, as kids, we latched onto The Three Amigos as an epic film that we parroted lines from constantly. The thread that brings these characters together is their shared love of a podcast set in Oklahoma that seems to be referencing S Town. When a murder takes place in their building, they get the idea of turning it into a podcast.
Charles-Haden Savage
Steve Martin plays Charles-Haden Savage a washed-up actor whose major claim to fame is playing a hard-boiled detective character named Brazzos. I did not realize until I actually looked up the character that the hyphen was in the wrong place on his name. He lives alone in his apartment and laments the loss of love as well as a general loss of relevancy. The universally likable character that you end up feeling a bit sorry for over the course of the show.
Oliver Putnam
Then you have the Martin Short character of Oliver Putnam who is a failed Broadway producer. I always associate Martin Short with these deeply manic characters, but while highly neurotic this is actually a subdued portrayal. Oliver is most well known for a series of failed musicals including Splash!… where he got the grand idea of converting the stage into a giant pool which caused many injuries. He is a man looking for the next big thing, so when the podcast idea comes along he grabs hold with both hands for dear life.
Mabel Mora
Then we have Selena Gomez’s character of Mabel Mora, who is in the building refurbishing the apartment of her aunt. Mabel is really the centerpiece of the show and is the character that changes the most over the course of the entire experience. Additionally, she is the most nuanced character, and to talk much about this… would give away way too many plot points. The portrayal of the character by Selena is phenomenal and her dry wit effortlessly upstages the more physical comedy styles of Steve Martin and Martin Short.
The entire show centers around the idea of trying to solve a murder that happened in the building, while at the same time recording a podcast. This plays with the notion of the true-crime podcast nature being a slow reveal of details when the producers understood the conclusion from the very start. Serial doled out information in pieces specifically to build tension, but I clearly feel like all of the evidence had already been gathered well before the first episode was released. Only Murders in the Building also plays with the notion of super fans, who end up being camped out in front of the building hoping for a glimpse of the cast of characters set forth in the show. I am being purposefully vague in talking about this show because it takes some turns, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the experience.
I seem to have chosen the ideal time to get into this series. On June 28th the second season of the show is premiering on Hulu, and I am certain that my wife and I will be tuning in. The first season runs 10 episodes with runtime for each episode of roughly thirty minutes. I am largely throwing this out there in case anyone else missed this show so that they might have time to catch up before the next season hits.