After two years of showbiz capers, this year's "Only Murders in the Building" murder sticks closer to home. Lester (Teddy Coluca), the beloved doorman of the Arconia is found dead in the courtyard fountain, and someone's severed finger is found in Oliver's shrimp cocktail. This means the "Only Murders" gang gets to dig into the history and secrets of the Arconia. Potential suspects include Lester's widow Lorraine (Diane Wiest), new doorman Randall (Jermaine Fowler), local mobster Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale) and his wife Sofia (Tea Leoni), a trio of billionaires, Bash (Christoph Waltz), Camila (Renee Zellweger), and Jay (Logan Lerman), Mayor Tillman (Keegan Micahel Key), and a pop star named The (Beanie Feldstein). With Meryl Streep and Da'Vine Joy Randolph still making occasional guest appearances, you don't need to have won an Oscar to be in this season, but it certainly helps.
There's a lot going on this year, which means that none of our intrepid trio really gets much of a personal subplot, and I think that's for the best. Oliver is a newlywed, but Loretta's career keeps her busy without much time to have any relationship issues. Charles has a new love interest in Sofia, but she's not a very serious one. Mabel knew The back when she was known as Althea, and spends most of the season trying to get over their past falling out. It's all very low stakes, familiar territory, and our leads don't spend quite so much time feeling gloomy or in crisis, which is nice. There is a bigger, looming threat that affects all of them in the second half of the season, but it's a threat to the Arconia rather than any of them personally. And arguably, it's the Arconia that gets the most fleshing out this time. Last season revealed the lives of the tenants living on the west side of the building, and this year reveals other secret parts of the Arconia that we haven't seen yet. The second episode, which covers Lester's entire time as doorman over three decades, is easily the highlight, especially as it gives us glimpses of many familiar characters before we knew them, sometimes in surprising circumstances.
It feels like the show is getting more gimmicky. There's an episode told from the POV of a robot. There's an episode that suspiciously resembles a "girls' night out" episode. However, "Only Murders" remains consistently entertaining, and it always feels like everyone involved is having a blast. Other highlights of this season include a spoof of the rich billionaire getaway weekend plot, and everything involving Sofia Caccimelio's pack of overgrown, cheerfully lunkheaded sons. I'm a little surprised it took "Only Murders" this long to dip a toe into "The Sopranos" territory, but they did it right. The Caccimelios are involved just enough that they're a fun break from the norm every time they appear. I expect that if the whole season had been built around them, it wouldn't have worked half as well.
The performances remain the best part of the show, and this year's guest stars are a great bunch. You've got Christoph Waltz and Logan Lerman as two different versions of rich egomaniacs, with Renee Zellweger as the evil Martha Stewart in their midst. You've got Tea Leoni radiating untrustworthiness as the mob wife, but understand immediately why Charles is attracted to her. Teddy Coluca as Lester is wonderfully warm and charming, and I wish we could have gotten more of him. However, he's not the only performer I wish got more screen time. There definitely wasn't enough Diane Wiest, Jermaine Fowler, or Bobby Cannavale.
I'm already looking forward to next year's mystery, which is supposed to take place in London and will hopefully give some UK acting talent the opportunity to join in on the murder mystery hijinks. As is tradition, next year's murder happens at the end of the current season, and it's delightfully silly, self-aware, and tongue-in-cheek in all the right ways. Just like the rest of the show.
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