5 days ago
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Only Murders in the Building (season five) ★★★★
It has been four years since Only Murders in the Building skipped onto our screens, matching long-time friends Martin Short and Steve Martin with It girl Selena Gomez. On paper, it was an odd proposition: the two comedy legends in their 70s would star with Gomez, a (then) 20-something child actor turned pop star, as unlikely podcasters digging into murder mysteries in their building.
Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building.
But it worked. Seamlessly, delightfully and now, five seasons in, the trio is still going strong in a comedy that has rarely missed a step and instead continues to be funnier, sillier and more moving each year.
Yes, it’s cosy crime – set firmly in knitwear season – but it also meaningfully deals with fatherhood and failure (Short’s Oliver), loneliness (Martin’s Charles) and difficult childhoods (Gomez’ Mabel) and then lands a joke or three for good measure (“There is very little I won’t do,” says Oliver. “A musical about 9/11? I took that call. But the mob, nope, I don’t do the mob.”)
The set-up remains the same: there’s murder in the building, and this time it’s Lester (Teddy Coluca), the Arconia’s beloved doorman, who has been found dead in a fountain in the courtyard.
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Despite the police and the building’s security cameras confirming his death was an accident, a severed finger points to the mob (“very mobby”, confirms Oliver), who could also be involved in the disappearance of the “dry-cleaning king”, Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale).
This leads Oliver, Charles and Mabel to Staten Island, where they meet with Nicky’s wife, Sofia, and the couple’s very mobby five sons – (“I’m Johnny, these are my brothers – Tony, Mikey, Vinny and Braden”). There are other high-powered criminals/billionaires in the offing, too, played by Renee Zellweger, Christoph Waltz and Logan Lerman, while Dianne Weiss, steps in as Lester’s widow Lorraine and Keegan-Michael Key is the slippery mayor.
Only Murders in the Building knows home is where the heart is. It may occasionally stray out of the well-heeled Upper West Side, but it always returns to the Arconia (aka the real-life Belnord at 225 West 86th Street), where it has built a wonderfully layered existence for its characters.
Charles, Mabel and Oliver may be the main event, but we are now just as familiar with their cat-obsessed neighbour, Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton), the deliciously sweary Uma (Jackie Hoffman), the worn-out Detective Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and Oliver’s wife Loretta (Meryl Streep).
Unlike the Arconia’s many victims, Only Murders in the Building revels in its longevity. After five seasons – an increasingly rare feat these days – familiarity does not breed contempt. Instead, it’s a shorthand that allows the writers to pile on the jokes knowing, for the most part, viewers have been there from the beginning.
Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are back to investigate another murder in their building.Credit: Disney
A scene showing Oliver sucking the cocktail sauce off day-old wedding prawns doesn’t need to be explained because we already know he only eats dip (a trait he has in common with David Puddy from Seinfeld, another deeply layered comedy: “Why is it only a snack, why can’t it be a meal, you know?”).
The same goes for each season’s celebrity penthouse-guest-in-residence – this time it’s Althea (Beanie Feldstein), Mabel’s childhood friend who is now a famous pop star – we know it’ll be ridiculous (hello, Sting!), but that knowledge makes it all the more delicious.
Gomez, Martin and Short are screen magic. I could watch their nonsense, their snark, eye rolls and schtick roll on forever.
Only Murders in the Building is now streaming on Disney+.
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