The Show Must Go On

After two seasons of Only Murders in the Building the question becomes: how do you keep the conceit going? For the show to work, people would have to keep dying in the building (since, you know, only murders can happen there). But the finale of season two of the show gave us a seeming murder happening not in the building but at a Broadway show. Would that count for a murder to cover (via the title not only of the show but also for the podcast-within-the-show)? Or is it fine if the show stretches itself and pushes beyond its locale?

This might seem somewhat pedantic to debate where something can happen on a show, but the thing about Only Murders in the Building is that its central location, the Arconia, was built up as a kind of character on the show, just like the actual characters we’ve been following. It’s a building of intrigue and mystery, with a secret past and hidden treasures. Two seasons of the show built the Arconia into a location of substance, where anything can happen because of its architecture as well as its long history. If you have a murder somewhere else, does it even really feel like it’s appropriate for the show?

Only Murders in the Building tries to have it both ways. Yes, the murder is initially started at a Broadway show, but it isn’t properly completed until all of the characters are back at the Arconia. “See?” the show is saying. “The murder took place at the building it still counts!” And while that’s true, so that the title of the show can be fulfilled, by starting the mystery elsewhere, and letting the focus drift from the Arconia to the Broadway show, something special about the show is lost in the process. It still works, it still has a lot of that same fun with its characters and dialogue it’s had in the past, but something has shifted and changed and the show doesn’t quite feel like itself now that it’s moving beyond its central building.

A year after the release of season two of their podcast, Only Murders in the Building, the central trio of Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) have come together on the opening night of Oliver’s first new Broadway show in years, Death Rattle. Charles is in the production, and he has tense words with the show’s star, Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd). But then the curtains rise, Ben goes out onto the stage to give his opening lines… and collapses to the stage, blood gushing from his mouth. Seemingly someone has murdered him.

Except, no. While all of the cast gathers at Oliver’s apartment for what would have been the opening show party and is now something of a wake, in comes Ben. Somehow he survived whatever happened at the show, and is alive and well with a seemingly renewed vigor. The show will go on, much to Oliver’s relief. Except, again, no, because hours later, as Mabel, Charles, and Oliver are riding an elevator back down, Ben’s dead body falls through the roof of the elevator, revealing that someone came back to finish the job. Who wanted Ben dead so bad they had to do it twice? That might just be the perfect topic for another podcast.

Going through the third season of the show (in preparation for the upcoming fourth season), I was struck by the fact that this season especially feels uneven. I’d noticed in the second season that the show felt like it was straining a bit to try and keep its concept going when everything about its original mystery was wrapped up in season one. A new cast of characters had to get introduced, a new mystery had to be solved, all the pieces had to be rearranged again. The show had a formula and it needed to go through the motions of its Agatha Christie-meet-a comedy of errors storytelling, but the second time around some of that spark was missing. That’s still the case in the third season, which feels like it’s drifting even further, in certain regards, as the show continues to struggle to keep everything together.

There are two things that really work this time around. The first is the central mystery. Unlike the second season, where I felt like the show kept introducing different red herrings and throwing everything at the wall until it could come out of nowhere with its murderer, this time around the murder at the center of it all feels tight and well plotted. There are small clues introduced at the beginning of the season, little things that I questioned but set aside because of how the show built everything, but those clues were then rewarded in a satisfying, and tightly plotted, conclusion. Clearly I’m not spoiling anything here because this is a mystery show and I want you to be able to enjoy it freely on your own, but I did feel like, this time, the mystery storyline came to a conclusion that was well earned.

I also think Oliver’s Broadway show is amazing. It’s absolutely ridiculous and would be absolutely terrible as a real play. Within the first couple of episodes Oliver watches his lead get killed and his show get canceled because of it, only to then come up with a desperation ploy: turn it into a musical, Death Rattle Dazzle. It’s so dumb, and much of what we see of this show (from the sparkly outfits to people in actual crab costumes) looks beyond terrible. But you also know it would be the most amazing train wreck and you can’t look away. That’s the Oliver Putnam magic (as the show puts it) and this feels like one of the truest plotlines for the season.

Although legitimately, one song from the production works. “Look for the Light,” a lullaby sung by Meryl Streep's Loretta Durkin, is an absolute show-stopper. Durkin is introduced as an actress who, for decades, has been waiting for her big break, finally getting it when Oliver sees something special in her performance. We’re left to wonder just what that is, since after her initial audition we don’t see much good acting from the character… but then she gets this song, and she blows everyone away. It’s an amazing performance, and this is one of those times where you can really see how Oliver could have been a big-time, successful Broadway producer for years (before the spectacular failure of Splash: The Musical).

This actually helps to show a great strength, and weakness, for this season. Loretta Durkin is a great character and her growth into a spectacular actress feels earned this season. But there are so many other characters on the show that we’ve been following who get sidelined for the new cast this season, and along with them their plotlines disappear as well. There was that storyline about how the building manager for the Arconia was going to renovate and modernize the building (in rather garish ways), and while it seemed like last season she was having second thoughts about the project, nothing is ever mentioned here. We also have the budding relationship between cat-lover (and now assistant to the production) Howard Morris (Michael Cyril Creighton) and neighbor (and now lead understudy) Jonathan Bridgecroft (Jason Veasey). They’re still together here, but it hardly feels like they’re actually together from their interactions, and there’s no actual development of these characters, or their relationship, this season.

I think the strangest instance of this, though, is with Charles’s step-daughter, Lucy (Zoe Colletti). She’s mentioned a couple times in the first season, and then properly introduced in the second season, where she and Charles become family again. She’s even seen in the audience of the show at the end of season two, in the lead up to the murder that’s about to happen. But then, in season three, she vanishes. She doesn’t even show up at the party that should have taken place that night, and she’s never mentioned again. Off on a bus to Mandyville (that’s a West Wing reference) as if she never existed at all. Which is weird since she added a lot to Charles’s whole storyline and character. A cameo, a couple of appearances, would have made it seem like she was still a factor in his life at all.

The show does try to push one of its characters forward, Mabel, but even here I’m not sure where the series is going. Her aunt sells the apartment she’s been working on, forcing Mabel to move out of the Arconia. At the same time she’s struggling to figure out what she wants to do with her life going forward. A lot of things are thrown up in the air for her, but she does feel disconnected from many of the events this season since she’s not in the Broadway show, she’s just investigating the murder around out. Not a lot is resolved for her come the end of this season, making it feel like much of what she goes through this season could have just not happened and it wouldn’t have really changed her character at all. It’s weak plotting without resolution and it holds her back.

Only Murders in the Building is a show that lives and dies on its characters and it doesn’t feel like, in the third season, the show really has a handle on them as well as it could. There’s much that’s raised but not resolved, characters that show up and then disappear, and people that you expect would be essential that vanish entirely. All of this with storylines that feel slight and long term plots that are dropped without a word said. Loretta becomes a big focus for much of this season, and her storylines are great, but this isn’t the Loretta show. Charles and Mabel feel stuck in amber, while Oliver is there to put on the show and wait for Loretta, while all the action happens at the Broadway theater, not in the Arconia.

All combined together, this felt like a much weaker season of Only Murders in the Building than what we’ve gotten before. I do still enjoy the show, from its comedy to its main characters and its performances. But as a tight, cohesive whole, this season was lacking that certain magic that makes the series sing.