Only Murders in the Building Season Three Review

Boy, Charles-Haden Savage, Oliver Putnam, and Mabel Mora are not three people you want to see entering your life in any way, shape, or form. If they do, the chances that you will find yourself either the victim of a gruesome murder or a prime suspect becomes shockingly high. Because once again, in the third season of Hulu’s wonderful comedy Only Murders in the Building, our trio of podcasting citizen detectives have a murder on their hands. And it’s not quite what you might think following the shocking conclusion of season two which saw Paul Rudd (who is playing Ben Glenroy, a vapid Hollywood star who is also starring in Oliver’s latest Broadway play) seeming to die on opening night. But, you say,  the show is about people who die in the Arconia, not in other places important to our characters! Well, watch and see – because the writers are well-aware of that and take it into account.

I don’t want to say too much about this season’s mystery, since even the earliest twists in the season premiere are pretty stellar, but suffice it to say, this might just be my favorite season of the series yet. I was a bit cool on season two (and didn’t find the ultimate conclusion all that satisfying), but season three (at least the eight out of ten episodes I’ve seen) rights those wrongs and comes up with some truly exceptional storytelling – and some truly funny jokes. Along with Rudd, who is really great at playing the bombastic Hollywood jerk, the other major cast addition is Meryl Streep as Loretta Durkin, another cast member of Oliver’s latest Broadway production – a poorly conceived play revival which morphs into a musical adaptation* later in the season, which means that yes, Streep also gets to sing.

*The songs in the musical version of the show – at least the songs we get to hear – are pretty darn great. Considering they’re written by some major Broadway heavy hitters – Pasek and Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, The Greatest Showman), Sara Bareilles (Waitress), and Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray, Some Like it Hot). One in particular – Charles’ patter song from Shaiman and Wittman – was stuck in my head for a solid day.

What makes season three so great – aside from the wonderful supporting cast – is that the writers now have enough confidence in their three central characters that they feel comfortable enough to split them up into their own storylines. Yes, we all want to see Charles, Oliver, and Mabel (and, by extension, Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez) working together, but it’s really refreshing to get to see what each character brings to the story on their own. And, unlike with some of season two’s solo story arcs, none of the characters feel siloed in their own story – they routinely cross paths and interact with one another – they just don’t spend every moment of the story joined at the hip. And it’s a testament to the writing and character development over the past two seasons that this gambit works as well as it does. After all, if we hadn’t seen each of the characters grow and change into three-dimensional complex characters in that time, none of them would be able to hold up their corner of the series with as much strength as they do.

And this season, Martin is allowed the chance to cut loose a bit more – and Short is asked to pull back and show off his acting chops – in a reversal of past seasons. Gomez continues to be the straight man in many situations, with Mabel often asked to be the only one of the three central characters with a firm grasp on just what might have happened to our unfortunate murder victim. This works incredibly well, and the episodes fly by with smart jokes, taught storytelling, and fun callbacks to past seasons. While watching the eight episodes provided for screening, I never once felt bored and was always eager to see just what might happen next, who might be in the hot seat, and how the fraying relationship between our three protagonists would eventually work to right itself from episode to episode. And that’s not even getting into the fun Rudd, Streep, and the other new supporting actors add to the proceedings this time around. We all know Streep is one of the greatest living actors on the planet, but what she brings to the series this season is nothing short of transcendent. And Rudd takes what could be a one-note character and brings a level of depth to him that one might not expect. We know he has solid comedy chops, but there’s a good dramatic actor lingering there as well.

After season two, I wasn’t sure how much more juice was left in the conceit of Only Murders in the Building. After all, how many more murders could there be in a single high-end condo building in New York City? But I’m now hoping we can get another season to see just what hijinks Mabel, Charles, and Oliver can get up to with a fourth murder. The formula still works, the characters are still intriguing, and the chemistry is still off-the-charts good. I can’t wait to see how season three comes to a close (and if there is a tease for a fourth season), because this is the finest outing of this series to date.

Only Murders in the Building’s third season premieres on August 8. Eight of the ten episodes of season three were provided for review.