Josh Reviews Only Murders in the Building Season Four

In the fourth season of Only Murders in the Building, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) reunite to try to solve the murder of Charles’ long-time stunt double Sazz (Jane Lynch), who was shot in the final moments of the season three finale.  To do so, the three-some must explore the west side of the Arconia building, while also navigating the production of the Only Murders in the Building movie, and the actors — Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria — cast to play them.

First of all, let me say that I offer tremendous praise to co-creator (with Steve Martin) and show-runner John Hoffman, for keeping Only Murders in the Building on an annual release schedule.  There are very, very few other streaming shows that seem capable of accomplishing this feat!  And yet, Only Murders consistently arrives once a year with a new ten-episode season.  This alone is worthy of great praise and hosannas.

And that the show manages to be so consistent in its quality!  Bravo!  Season four is just as fun, funny, and interesting as the previous three seasons have been.  They’ve crafted another twisty, compelling mystery, and they’ve managed to find rich new stories for each of the three leads, brought back many fun supporting cast members from previous seasons, and also brought in a great gaggle of new guest stars!

Let’s work backwards through that last sentence and start with Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria, all three of whom are very funny playing versions of themselves as the actors playing Charles, Oliver and Mabel on the OMITB movie.  I love the idea that our central gang find themselves the subject of a movie adaptation, and the season mines interesting stories exploring how each of the three of them responds differently to the idea of seeing a version of themselves up on the silver screen.  Mr. Levy, Mr. Galifianakis, and Ms. Longoria are all fun playing up the cliche of Hollywood actors as overly pampered and self-obsessed, but at the same time I was pleased that they were written in a way that allowed them to contribute to the unfolding of the mystery.  Seeing Charles, Oliver and Mabel eventually team-up with their Hollywood counterparts, late in the season, was my favorite stretch of the show this year.

I was very glad that they brought back both Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd, both of whom had been so wonderful in season three.  Because Meryl Streep is such a big star, and because Paul Rudd’s character was dead, I doubted we’d see either of them this year.  I’m so happy I was wrong!  I’m glad they continued the story of Oliver and Loretta’s love affair (despite Loretta’s being out in Hollywood now), and the wonderfully silly way they brought back Paul Rudd — and the wonderfully ridiculous accent Mr. Rudd deployed to do so — made me so happy.  I was also thrilled to see many other familiar faces from the Arconia pop back up this season: Michael Cyril Creighton’s pet-obsessed Howard Morris (the sight of him trotting around a pig on a leash was always funny); Da’Vine Joy Randolph (who was so great last year in The Holdovers) as Detective Donna Williams (I can never get enough of her on the show!!); Amy Ryan as the murderous, Charles-obsessed Jan Bellows, and more.

Then, of course, there’s Jane Lynch as Sazz.  Ms. Lynch was so much fun, popping in and out throughout the show’s first three seasons as Charles’ stunt double.  The joke that this skinny lady was playing Charles’ stunt double was always very funny.  It’s a pleasure, then, to get to know more about Sazz’s life and character here in season four.  The blessing and curse of her being chosen as this season’s murder victim was that Ms. Lynch’s character finally got some well-deserved time in the spotlight… though now Sazz is dead and so probably this is the last we’ll see of this great character.  (Though one never knows for sure with this show…!)

New additions this year included the delightful array of oddballs living on the never-seen-before west side of the Arconia: the great Richard Kind (A Serious Man, Inside Out, Tick…Tick…Boom!) as the eyepatch-wearing Vince, Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley, The Big Sick, The Eternals) as the Christmas-loving Rudy, and the Hispanic family of Desmin Borges as Alfonso, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Inez, and Lilian Rebelo as Ana.  I loved this whole new crew, and the way the season slowly peeled back the layers of their stories.  Molly Shannon (SNL, Talladega Nights, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) was a hoot as Bev Melon (great name), the brash executive overseeing the production of the OMITB movie.  Jin Ha is great as Marshall P. Pope, the timid writer of the movie, and Catherine Cohen & Siena Werber are a lot of fun as the film’s directors, the Brothers sisters.  (That’s a very funny idea, by the way.)  I also loved seeing Scott Bakula, Ron Howard, and John McEnroe, who all play themselves!

Steve Martin does a great job digging into Charles’ grief over losing his friend Sazz.  He also gets some great bits of physical comedy, such as the scene trying to cross a window-ledge to save the day late in the season.  I didn’t love some of the TV-cliche-misunderstandings between Charles and Loretta (the only misstep this season), though I did really enjoy the way Martin Short portrayed Oliver’s vulnerabilities and fears that he wouldn’t be able to hold onto his new love.  And it was interesting to see Selena Gomez play Mabel’s struggles with feeling undeserving of the spotlight a movie version of their podcast would give her.  This is a comedy show, but it’s nice when the characters also have some real emotional depth.  The show continues to do a good job of portraying both emotional and physical stakes for the characters — people die every season on this show! — while also being light and funny and entertaining.

Other thoughts on this season:

• I was thrilled when they brought up some plot holes left over from season one that I had forgotten about!  That was a fun piece of continuity that made me very happy.
• The show didn’t dig too deep into this territory, but I quite enjoyed the peeks we got into what it’s like to be a stunt performer.  That brought some pathos to the life of Sazz, who had been an unfailingly upbeat character.
• Oliver’s failed attempt to re-enact the crime in the 12 minutes in which it could have taken place was a very funny gag.
• The true story of what was going on with Dudenoff (another wonderfully named character!) was quite a surprise to me.  I loved how that unfolded, and I liked how that story was ultimately told in the form of a movie.
• I loved episode six, Blow-Up (the title is a fun reference to Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film, and also perhaps to Brian de Palma’s 1981 Blow Out), which is presented in the style of the Brothers sisters’ avant-garde films.  That was a fun surprise and very cleverly done.  In a season about making a movie, these movie-references were fun.  (All of this season’s episode titles were also the title of movies!)

I smiled to see Tea Leoni pop up in the finale… and oh, poor Lester the doorman!  Bring on season five!

Please support my website by clicking through one of my Amazon links the next time you need to shop!  As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  That means I’ll receive a small percentage from ANY product you purchase from Amazon within 24 hours after clicking through.  Thank you!