Let’s check the scoreboard. Season 1 was for the podcaster kids. Season 2 was for the true crime kids. And Only Murders in the Building didn’t leave us wondering what’s next. The third season is for the theater kids, and it goes deep—Broadway to the bone.
“Who are we without a homicide?”
No one expected Only Murders in the Building to be the hit it has become. The trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez solving murders in an old NYC apartment complex while making a podcast wasn’t a set-up you’d come up with in your wildest game of mad libs. But it was just so good, so ridiculously campy and inventive. We had no resistance.
Now, three seasons in, the gag still hasn’t worn off. Charles (Martin), Oliver (Short), and Mabel (Gomez) might be ready to add themselves to the list of our favorite super-sleuths and detectives. They’re far more bumbling than brilliant, but they’re what we needed during the pandemic and in the current era of ‘Could This Be the Preamble to a Dystopia’?
This time, the murder happens outside of the Arconia. Or so we thought, but the same corpse our Trio watched take its last gasp on the stage turns up on their home elevator. And this time the body stays dead. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know the stiff is Paul Rudd. Complicating the matter, Rudd’s Ben Glenroy is the leading man in Oliver’s new Broadway show. And if you know Oliver, he can’t let another corpse mess up his comeback. So the three podcast detectives go to work under the motto “The Show Must Go On” flag.
The best thing about Season 3—other than guest stars like Rudd, Meryl Streep, Ashley Park, Jesse Williams, a couple of kings of B’way, and the return of Da’Vine Joy Randolph—is the music. Apparently, if the team behind OMITB is going to make a season about a musical, then they go hard. Songs by the composers behind La La Land (Justin Hurwitz), Waitress (Sara Bareilles), and Hairspray (Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman) make it clear that: If Hulu doesn’t put “Death Rattle Dazzle” on stage then they’re missing the plot. I’m not sure who wrote what, but the two showstoppers are “The Lullaby” performed by Meryl Streep, and “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It” by Steve Martin. If you can stop singing either one, you’re better than me.
Beyond the music, the series continues to talk about friendship in every form. Romance may be ephemeral at the Arconia but friendship never dies. The only way a series this campy works is if its emotional intelligence is as high as its hijinks and Only Murders in the Building is on the case.
RIOTUS 