‘Only Murders in the Building’ review: Hollywood comes calling in Season 4
With the return of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” for Season 4, the podcasting, murder-solving trio of Charles, Oliver and Mabel try to figure out who killed Sazz Pataki, Charles’ old friend and stunt double from his TV stardom heyday.
Nothing seems amiss at first. There’s no body or obvious crime scene. But Sazz hasn’t been answering calls or texts, and once Charles and his pals start poking around, they realize there’s been another murder in the building. Slowly but surely, they piece together the clues.
In an amusing twist, Hollywood has come calling. A studio wants to turn their podcast into a movie. So off they go to the Paramount lot in Los Angeles to sign away their life rights. This is such an enjoyably meta idea, because both Steve Martin and Martin Short have a rich history of satirizing show business in general, and the vapidness of Los Angeles in particular. Unleashing Charles and Oliver’s neuroses and egos in a Hollywood setting works as well as expected, largely because Selena Gomez’s Mabel functions as a splash of vinegar. She is less dazzled, and skeptical about the whole thing.
But all the pieces are already in place, including a script, a cast and a directing duo who are fresh off a “heart-wrenching, deeply, deeply viral Walmart ad campaign.” The directors are sisters whose last name is Brothers. They are the Brothers sisters. The show’s delight in wordplay remains intact!
I’m generally less enthusiastic about the show’s (over)reliance on A-list guest stars to fill out its world, with the exceptions of Shirley MacLaine (Season 2) and Meryl Streep (Season 3 and a brief return in Season 4). But you can’t argue with the lineup this season. Molly Shannon is the sharklike studio exec who has hired Eugene Levy to play Charles, Zach Galifianakis to play Oliver and Eva Longoria to play Mabel, whose character has been aged up by a couple of decades because apparently focus groups found the real age gap creepy. (Since when has Hollywood cared about that?!) Galifianakis is especially prickly about the gig and proposes a risky take on the character: “I was thinking about maybe playing him talented.”
At the studio, our New York threesome stumble upon a Hollywood backlot version of their home city — an old-school rap beat plays as a guy pushes a hot dog cart and a mother leans over the fire escape to holler at her kid — and it’s funny because this blatantly and hilariously corny depiction of a quasi-Washington Heights neighborhood is no less stereotypical than the show’s own depiction of New York’s Upper West Side.
They don’t stay in LA for long. Back at The Arconia, their glorious apartment building, they find proof that Sazz (Jane Lynch, who is piquant in all the right ways) is indeed dead. Even so, she shows up as a ghostly apparition who accompanies Charles on his quest to solve her murder — or, she tells him, maybe she’s just a “manifestation of your rapidly declining mental state.” His grief feels more poignant this time and losing his friend seems to cut him deeper than the previous tragedies he’s weathered.
The show’s great balancing act — between humor and moments that hit you in the gut — has always been its strength. Melissa McCarthy’s comedic instincts fit right in, as Charles’ over-the-top sister, with whom they temporarily bunk at her house on Staten Island. She is somehow melancholic and exuberant all at once.
A bar frequented by stunt performers is called Concussions and it’s the kind of throwaway but memorable joke that has you think: Please let this silly-smart show continue for a few seasons more, with its vulnerable, sardonic, wonderfully screwball outlook on life and death and everything in between.
“Only Murders in the Building” Season 4 — 3 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: Hulu
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.