‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4 review: Riotous fun at the Arconia with the perfect blend of smarts and sentiment

Like earlier seasons of the delightful Only Murders in the Building, Season 3 also ended with a murder, foreshadowing what our favourite true crime podcasters, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) will be investigating in Season 4. Season 3 ended with Charles’ stunt double, Sazz Pataki, (Jane Lynch) getting shot and her trying to write a clue on the floor of Charles’ apartment in her blood.

Season 4 opens right after Season 3 ended with Charles, Mabel and Oliver celebrating the successful opening night of Oliver’s musical, Death Rattle Dazzle. Sazz goes to Charles’ apartment to get a bottle of wine. After waiting for her return, the trio come upstairs and there is no sign of Sazz.

A movie option for the first season of Charles, Mabel and Oliver’s podcast, also called Only Murders in the Building, sees them flown out to Los Angeles to meet the team. There is a mention of a flaw in the business plan of the podcast of only investigating murders in their posh Upper West Side apartment, Arconia.

Oliver is happy to go Los Angeles as he can meet the love of his life, Loretta (Meryl Streep). Bev Melon, (Molly Shannon) cue for many fruit name jokes, is a hotshot Hollywood executive who passed up on a chance on Barbie to make the film. There is a writer who suffers from imposter syndrome and the very avant-garde director siblings, the Brother Sisters (har de har har).

A still from ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4
| Photo Credit:
Hulu

After being described as “a homeless, jobless, mumbling millennial”, Mabel is not too keen on the movie deal, though Charles tries to cheer her up by saying Bev described him as an un-fun turtle! At a party in their honour, Charles, Mable and Oliver meet the actors who will be playing them — Eva Longoria (Mabel), Eugene Levy (Charles) and Zach Galifianakis (Oliver).

The actors shadow the three, with bizarre results. Levy is awestruck by Charles and Longoria gives Mabel good advice. Galifianakis, on the other hand, refers to Oliver as a “technicolor cockroach who refuses to die.” An Oliver Putnam story is broken down as “You should want it to be true, it should happen between ‘60s and the ‘80s, it should involve a celebrity you are shocked to discover is still alive and involve a drug that no longer exists.”

From Charles hearing a whistling sound to Arconia resident Howard’s (Michael Cyril Creighton) cadaver dog, Gravey (get the pun?) smelling something off and Sazz not getting in touch, the three rush back to New York to solve the latest murder.

Their investigation leads them to the “Westies”, those living in the West Tower of the Arconia, who seem up to no end of shady business. There is Stink Eye Vince (Richard Kind) who looks out of the window only to give Charles the evil eye. There is the Sauce family — Inez (Daphne Rubin-Vega), Alfonso (Desmin Borges) and Ana (Lilian Rebelo) who are forever stirring pans, and the highly suspicious Christmas Guy, Rudy (Kumail Nanjiani) who has Christmas-themed decorations in his apartment all year round.

That they play a strange game called “oh hell”, and there are a profusion of ham radios, a ham in the shower and a pig in the bath, further complicate matters. The pig’s name is the butt of many jokes including Natalie Porkman and Gloria Swineham!

The investigation is complicated by the possibility of Charles being the target. Some old favourites return including grumpy Arconian Uma (Jackie Hoffman) and detective Donna Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and some pleasant and not-so pleasant surprises, including John McEnroe (definitely pleasant).  

A still from ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4
| Photo Credit:
Hulu

There is poignancy as well as smiles to be had at the stunt people’s bar, Concussion, where we meet a significant stunt double. Stuntmen calling the actor “the Face” and their particular funeral rituals for their peers are a sobering yet fun revelation.

Like in earlier seasons, the murder victim has a substantial role to play via flashbacks and memories. Sazz’ pride and joy, the X-Rays of all the bones she has broken is oddly moving as are her dreams for retirement in a trampoline park.

Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building shows all signs of being a well-oiled machine delivering dollops of thrills, laughs, wit and warmth. The chemistry between the three principals is delightful, the clothes are lovely, as are the titles and Siddhartha Khosla’s music.

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 premiers today on Disney+ Hotstar with weekly episodes dropping till October 29