Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez reprise their roles of Charles-Haden Savage, Oliver Putnam and Mabel Mora, respectively, who are True Crime aficionados. They solved a murder in Seasons 1 and 2 ( you can read my reviews here and here) and now face a third murder investigation in Season 3. Martin Short is finally directing a Broadway play after his disaster of Splash blacklisted him from Broadway directing for years. Steve Martin, who played a cop on a TV program for 224 episodes, dreads the 8 shows a week regimen of a Broadway show so a murder comes as a relief. Elena Gomez plays a podcaster who specializes in True Crime solutions. Together, they focus on the wacky clues in this 10-episode series.
Guest stars Meryl Steep as a struggling actress and Paul Rudd as an egotistical leading man freshen up the formula Only Murders In the Building perfected over the years. GRADE: Incomplete, but trending towards a B
I wish I liked these more. I like the three leads but the mysteries are neither funny enough or clever enough. It reminds me of a B 1930s comedy. I will give it a C+.
Patti, apparently Steve Martin is involved in the writing of the scripts. That might be part of the problem. I enjoy Martin Short’s zaniness.
We no longer have Hulu, so… I do tend to agree with Patti. The first series wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t nearly as good as it should have been. I liked Short the best. To me, Gomez just doesn’t fit with the other two. I would watch Meryl in anything, though.
Jeff, I think Selena Gomez was included to attract a younger audience. I’m with you on Martin Short: he’s the key actor in this series for me.
I’ve been thinking of trying this since season one, but here we are in season three and I still haven’t gotten to it. I’m taking that as a bad sign. The addition of Streep does up the ante a bit though.
Michael, if you set the bar low, you’ll enjoy ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING. It’s a comedic mystery series that’s pretty silly.