A new season that slays us more new stars and more new mysteries.
Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep are the latest additions to the third season of Hulu’s groundbreaking whodunit comedy series “Only Murders in the Building.” Steve Martin is back as Charles-Haden Savage, along with Martin Short as Olivier Putnam, and Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora. They’re the ones who collaborated to form the murder mystery podcast, and they’re the ones who have been able to solve the crimes from the past two seasons.
Season 3 is a magic number for everyone associated with this show, because it wants to push itself further in the mysteries. We’re given a two-episode premiere on Hulu, and we can already tell this season is going to be fresh and daring.
The cliffhanger from the last season features Rudd as an actor named Ben Glenroy, who drops dead on stage the minute the show begins. And now that we’re continuing the story, we’re seeing how Olivier’s show has to be canceled, how Charles begins a romance with his make-up artist Joy (Andrea Martin), and how Mabel needs to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
Streep plays a struggling, would-be Broadway actress named Loretta Durkin, who has been waiting all her life for someone to ask: “Where have you been?,” only to be rejected. Until Olivier becomes to one to ask her, and she joins his latest show, the one Ben was supposed to be the leading man for.
In flashbacks, we see Ben as a cocky, flamboyant jerk, whose introduction says: “Who farted in here?.” He even questions Olivier’s methods in his plays, but he assures him he can excel. Or maybe Ben wasn’t really a dick. It’s all in the mystery.
I’ve reviewed all three seasons of “Only Murders in the Building,” and I must say this is a brilliant series. Again, we’re given a two-episode premiere, but we’re dying (pun intended) to see who the killer is, where the three podcaster will head off into, and the real missing piece of the latest puzzle. It even wants to trick you into thinking someone is a killer or someone isn’t real dead, but you already know it’s too early for us to solve the mystery. But you still think it’s fun the way it’s all handled.
Martin, Short, and Gomez all still deliver the goods with their timing and consistency, and they all have us pondering on how they can overcome their pathos. Rudd and Streep both make charming introductions to their characters, and they both have their own aspects on stage work and which actor is more ambitious.
How are the movie “Knives Out” and the show “Only Murders in the Building” franchises that never run out of gas and keep us laughing and guessing simultaneously? Because on different circuits, they really know how to take risks and have the right stars who are actually committed to their parts.
You won’t find much spoiler alerts in my review, but you can find my positivity and optimism that this is going to be a great season.
Streaming on Hulu
This article was written by me with full support of the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes.
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