Murder Is Far From Its Only Mystery

A review of 'Only Murders in the Building'.

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As one of The Dispatch’s podcast producers, I felt a moral obligation to review Only Murders in the Building, Hulu’s new, original, murder-mystery series starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. You’ll find out why me being a podcast producer matters in a minute.

But first, I need to level with you. I am a huge Steve Martin and Martin Short fan. I love everything Martin and Short do, respectively, and whenever they team up I can’t get enough of it. How can you not love a two-man show titled An Evening You’ll Forget for the Rest of Your Life, their Netflix special? And, frankly, the Three Amigos is consistently underrated as one of the best comedies ever made. Plus, I may or may not have had a small celebrity crush on Selena Gomez when I was a kid. So when I saw these three were joining together to make a comedic murder mystery I could not wait to see it. 

Now, Martin and Short being in a show together makes sense, but throwing Gomez into the mix? My first thought was, “What is going to link all of these characters together?” That question is answered quickly. Within the first 10 minutes, we find out that not only do they all live in the Arconia, a beautiful (and fictional) old-school New York apartment building—but they are all listening to the same true-crime podcast about a murder in Oklahoma. 

Then, disaster, or as the characters soon realize, opportunity, strikes when a possible murder happens in their own building. The trio decides there’s only one thing to do: produce a podcast about it. 

The show successfully pokes fun at the never-ending true-crime podcast craze, with a jaded cop complaining about their annoying questions and late night scrummaging through a dumpster to find evidence. 

The light-hearted comedy and juxtaposition of different personalities is what grabbed me right away with this show. Short’s character, Oliver, is a washed-up Broadway director with a knack for one-liners, and his friendly banter stands in contrast to Gomez’s standoffish demeanor. But what seems like a relatively heart-warming comedy takes a turn, and once the show gets going viewers become aware that the murder in the building is far from the only mystery in this show. In fact, it may be the least interesting mystery of them all. 

The mystery is fun, and it’s enjoyable to try to guess who did what, when, and all the details in between. But the real personal problems the characters are dealing with and working through by trying to solve this crime are what make the show worth watching struggles of loneliness, financial hardship, and trying to find a sense of belonging upstage the mystery. 

But it is, after all, a comedy. One starring Steve Martin and Martin Short. So expect to laugh when you’re supposed to laugh, enjoy the beautiful, old New York apartment building shots and the random (very New York) cameos, but don’t get so lost in all of that that you lose focus from the main point of the show: human connection.

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Comments (23)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Jason Gibson

    Ryan........as a co-host of a podcast would love to hear some feedback from a legit producer

    "Max and Jason Watch a Movie" Available now on podbean and apple podcasts

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    Jason Gibson

    *reading the combination of "three amigos" and "underrated"........contemplating how those english words have never been used together before*

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      Jason Gibson

      But you sold me.......i want to watch this program

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    Pboyd

    We watched two episodes. I think that while there's not huge guffaw type of humor, it was a good, subtle start. Have never been crazy about Martin Short, but I think this is one of the best things he's done. And I think one of the best things IS the comedic timing. It has just the right amount of "bite."

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  4. CatoTheElder

    Okay, I’m back. I watched two episodes. I am reminded once again of David Foster Wallace, who wrote an excellent long magazine piece for Harper’s, The Atlantic, The New Yorker—one of those—entitled “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”.

    My wife said I chuckled once for every ten or twelve sighs. I recall chuckling once, but no more than that. I am sure, though, that sighs were numerous. The show is both sigh- and cringe-inducing. Not at all consistently funny, its heartwarming moments are too few, and, as murders go, we remain hard-pressed to care, though we’re clubbed about the head and shoulders with hints that we should.

    Martin is easily the best (least bad?) of the trio of main actors, and Short, in his badly missed over-the-backboard shots, lays claim to worst, but that goes instead to Gomez, whose performance is consistently not really good at all. At least Short has the occasional moment of pathos, though he usually fumbles it and then kicks it into his own goal. With Gomez, there’s just…nothing. As if she didn’t really know what she was doing there, how she got roped into this, and was just mailing it in as a result.

    The writing is formulaic and flat. The pacing, like that for a good (running, not movie) marathon, is monotonous. Once a viewer has been introduced to the show, the entirety of what follows is a collage of predictable scenes and characters. Then it hits us: this is like a bad idea for a skit, poorly written and then drug out over hours. Prolonged, continual exposure to the show seems very much like what a Broadway director would think of as good threat to terrorists to get them to talk, except the Broadway director, being in cahoots with the developers, would be raving about it.

    This is a bad show.

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    1. Avatar photocircle-angle-nib
      Ryan Brown vertical-nib Author

      I love the thorough review and take some of your points... but overall are we sure we're watching the same show??

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      1. CatoTheElder

        I readily admit that the very same question occurred to me. After a moment’s perusal of same, I was considering our perspectives on the matter. I think they might be the key to understanding such different takes.

        I have never been an ardent fan of any member of the starring trio. Gomez, in fairness, is someone whose work has never enthralled me, but that may be as much a matter of exposure as anything else. Perhaps I’ve simply not seen her best work. Short has commonly, though not consistently, been able to produce laughs from me, but his movie and television performances have suffered from an omnipresent blanket of angst; instead of performing being his security blanket, it’s as if his performances carry a blanket of personal insecurity that the camera cannot ignore. That has been both part of his shtick (I think almost necessarily so) and an occasional feature. When he’s willing to let the mask slip and then let it ride, sometimes he produces excellent work. More commonly, however, he produces contortions aimed at keeping the mask in place at any cost. When he feels the attention too greatly, he very often resorts to his own version of the little kid knowingly playing his repertoire of potty humour for the crowd, betting that that if he can get enough laughs, the grown-ups won’t make him go to bed early.

        Martin has always been somewhat enigmatic. He is clearly capable of vision and deep understanding, and his willingness to allow a bit of exposure of the tender bits inside have pushed some of his performances to greatness—it’s this, alongside a similar effort from the ever-underappreciated John Candy, that pulled “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” up over the crest to movie greatness. But he’s also shown that he’s willing to take a simple, easy, formulaic performance from the shelf and mail it to the crowd while he moves backstage with his banjo and imagination. Like Short, Martin is never going to be mistaken for an acting chameleon. He cannot become whatever is needed and subjugate himself to the exigencies of the work as can the greatest masters of the craft. But given a role that fits him, he is able to see the subtleties thereof and play masterfully from them. It’s as if he’s a concert pianist unparalleled in his playing of Chopin—but only Chopin. Set him down in front of a score from Beethoven, Mozart, or most anyone else, one gets a passable but never sublime performance.

        Thus, I approach such projects as “Only Murders in the Building” with my own biases very much in play. I think those biases in many ways confirmed by what I watched, but I must admit that they no doubt prevented me from seeing more. And that is my shortcoming, not theirs.

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    C C Writer

    "Scrummaging"?

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    Dguaspari

    "Three Amigos is consistently underrated"

    Correct. The rest of the sentence ("as one of the best comedies ever made") goes off the rails and unintentionally contradicts this.

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  7. Jason Runyan

    I'm on episode 3 right now. So far, it's great.

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      Ryan Brown vertical-nib Author

      You have good taste, Jason

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    Todd T

    The Dispatch is the perfect group to get to the bottom of a couple of mysteries. They need to investigate when both Steve Martin and Chevy Chase became not as funny. There has to be a spot on a timeline that we can pinpoint. They still do things that are funny from time to time, but they were power houses that used to be consistent. Maybe it’s just age I don’t know.

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      CP

      Oh, I think this happens to all talented actors who "make it big" at some point. The hype becomes something unsustainable and impossible for a real person to measure up to. Will Ferrell, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Carrey, Dana Carvey, Mike Meyers, etc.--these people who were consistently and dependably funny in their early work just couldn't stay in step with the zeitgeist (because nobody can--and who would want to? It's exhausting). Almost nobody stays funny.

      It is hard to find exceptions to this rule, though I think Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Danny DeVito all managed to tap back in by accepting their "has-been" status and essentially re-starting their careers (mostly as the butts of 'old man' jokes--but funny ones). I've never enjoyed Martin Short, but Steve Martin's early stuff (especially "The Jerk") will always endear him to me. It just must be as depressing as anything to feel like, as an artist, your best days are permanently behind you and you're just clocking in now. Hopefully they don't feel that way.

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        CP

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-eKIZQ4_Gw
        By the way, William Shatner's song, "Has Been" (which is itself at least a decade old) is worth hearing on this front.

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      Adam Bridge

      I see a distinct change in Martin's work once he was published by "The New Yorker." He because "seriously arty." I still feel that "LA Story" is one of the great comedies and along with "Roxanne" mark his best work. "The Housesitter" was funny as well.

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  9. CatoTheElder

    With no disrespect intended to the reviewer, it’s hard not to see this review as boiling down to, “I’m a big fan of everything Martin and Short do, everything they do is great, and they’ve made this series, and it’s fun, and it’s great.”

    In fairness, I must acknowledge that the reviewer does include a bit more than mere fan-boy cheering, and that on that basis, I may be willing to give this a go. But my expectations are tempered by the unevenness of the performances of both Martin and (especially) Short over the many years of their careers. And if they too readily and needlessly stoop to the puerile humor so adored by adolescents, I’ll be quick to abandon ship.

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      BillAZ

      The biggest problem appeared to me was that the camera work or the comedic timing were off... way off. What should have been humorous takes just kind of fell flat.

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      1. CatoTheElder

        Oy. I can easily visualize exactly what you describe. Maybe I’ll have to watch an episode or two just for the “gotta watch the train wreck” experience.

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    Rev Snow

    "How can you not love a two-man show titled An Evening You’ll Forget for the Rest of Your Life,..."

    I forgot it.

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      Adam Bridge

      I did not. I got a part way through it, said "nope" and made a note to remember so I didn't hit these two again.

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