"Only Murders," Year Three

Minor spoilers ahead.

There was never a more star-studded season of "Only Murders in the Building."  Not only do we have a victim played by Paul Rudd and a major suspect played by Meryl Streep, but the show's habit of having guest stars playing fictionalized versions of themselves is very much still a thing.  This year, Oliver Puttnam is back in the director's chair, and the big mystery revolves around the Broadway production he's determined to make a comeback with.  However, when the lead actor, Ben Glenroy (Rudd), turns up dead, Oliver, Charles, and Mabel have to figure out whodunit while making sure that the show doesn't fall apart.  

Our long list of suspects include cast members like Loretta (Streep) and Kimber (Ashley Park), producers Donna (Linda Emond) and Cliff (Wesley Taylor), an obsessed fan (Adrian Martinez), Ben's brother and manager Dickie (Jeremy Shamos), the camera guy Tober (Jesse Williams), a tough theater critic (Noma Dumezweni), and more.  Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton), a recurring Arconia neighbor from the first two seasons, becomes a series regular this year.  As for our intrepid trio, they're juggling mystery solving and Oliver's show with new love connections and some competing interests - which may spell the end of their podcast.  

Speaking of Oliver's show, the best part of this season is following the evolution of the nutty murder mystery musical "Death Rattle Dazzle" as it goes through rewrites, recasting, rehearsals, and all kinds of other behind-the-scenes chaos on its way to opening night.  "Only Murders" has always been a very New York show, and it makes sense that they should go full Broadway for a season, and make use of some of the local talent.  "Death Rattle Dazzle" is a ridiculous mystery where infant triplets may have committed the murder, and it's fun to see bits and pieces of it being performed throughout this season.  It also gives Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Meryl Streep a chance to sing on camera, which I appreciate greatly.  Quite a few other Broadway actors make appearances, and veteran songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman were recruited for the musical numbers.

I like that there's less emphasis on the trio's personal lives this year.  The show-within-a-show provides plenty of melodrama, so there's less pressure to make Charles, Oliver, and Mabel the source of the big twists and turns.  All the romances are kept to the background and play a fairly minimal part in the plot.  However, I will say that the flirtation between Mabel and the cameraman doesn't really work, because she clearly has much more chemistry with Theo Dimas (James Caverly), a season one suspect who returns for a guest appearance.  Also, the show's creators clearly took pains to give Streep and Rudd plenty of the spotlight - they're clearly both having a ball, and I hope other actors of their caliber will show up in future seasons.   

And I'm glad that there will be future seasons.  After year two, I was a little worried that the show was starting to run out of steam.  As much as I love the cast, I prefer "Only Murders" when it's about solving murders and less when it's about the main characters muddling through bad relationships, dark secrets from their pasts, and other things that feel like filler.  I noticed that almost none of these past issues played any part in the current season, and there was almost no mention of characters like Oliver's son, Charles' ex's kid, or any of Mabel's exes.  The writers had no trouble keeping things interesting this year though, and this season had no pacing problems or dull subplots, like there have been in the past.   

Crime podcasts may be on the ebb, but I hope "Only Murders in the Building" has a few more seasons left in it.  Onwards!

---