With the word “murders” in the title, it’s fair to expect that Only Murders in the Building will spend a reasonable amount of its narrative getting its Agatha Christie in the 21st century on.
And it does, in ways that enthrall and delight and in ways which have more than a passing sense of parodic wonderfulness to them with the killer reveal scene near the end of the tenth and final episode, “I Know Who Did It” among the finest bits of tongue-in-cheek sleuthing the show has ever done. (It’s honestly like Miss Marple or Poirot getting more than a little mischievous and deciding that rather than a straight reveal. they’d throw a bit of theatre into the mix.)
So, if you’re looking for a killer to be revealed, in melodramatically hilarious fashion and for justice to be done, for our intrepid trio of sleuths – Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) – to be exonerated and live happily ever after, and for the podcast that gives the show its name to be go out in its current season in seasonal fashion, then consider all of those comedically rich boxes ticked.
While being in its second season means that the novelty sheen has worn off Only Murders in the Building, the show still possesses the wit, cleverness and rich, heartfelt characterisation of its opening season, with every last one of the elements that make it such a substantial comfort show very much in place in the final four episodes.
In fact, so beautifully expressed are they that while you are definitely hanging on to see who is fingered as the Big Bad of the piece – even this has a surprising amount of heart in it, with the killer far more nuanced in their portrayal than you might expect of a cosy mystery – you are there every bit as much for the characters, big and small, whose life stories are every bit as important as the mystery at the heart of the season.
That’s really what makes this show such a cosy hug, joy of a show to watch.
It knows everyone loves a good murderous mystery and that we’ll watch until our justice seeking eyeballs drop out to see that the evildoer du jour is made to account for their crimes, but that we also need to know that the people investigating the murder get their deserved ending too.
Which is, it will surprise you too, a deliciously happy one.
And good lord, they deserve it after episode seven, “Flipping the Pieces”, sees Mabel reliving the pain of growing up without a dad, Charles has to make peace with his father’s past after an artfully hidden painting surfaces, and Martin finds out that being a dad, the best thing he’s ever done, comes with an unexpected sting in the tail (“Sparring Partners” for both storylines).
The final four episodes feel so confident in the story they are telling and the murder mystery solving landing they eventually stick flawlessly – the confidence is warranted in ways funny and enormously touching – that they are able to spend time letting the three main characters, and even a couple of the supporting ones, including Howard, played Michael Cyril Creighton, who finds love in a blackout and Theo Dimas (James Caverly) who is considerably nicer than we, or Mabel knew, have their moments of making peace with less than ideal parts of their own lives.
The cynics among us might feel it’s all too neatly tied and cotton candy sweet and lovely but the reality is that for all its happy-ever-after moments, and they are manifest and hugely welcome, Only Murders in the Building is prepared to send its characters to some dark and emotionally troubling places.
They escape them of course but only with considerable effort and some pain, proving that while the mystery might be cosy and its solving a comedic joy with Martin and Short with oneliner-quipping superlative form, it has some emotional grunt behind the neatly solved crime moments.
That is really the great strength of the show as a whole, but these four episodes in particular.
Only Murders in the Building realises and expresses beautifully that life can be tough and hard and downright brutal at times, and that as a result we all carry a lot of pain with us, pain that is expressed in all kinds of ways.
For instance, some people murder and some people, ahem, do not, and while this in itself is gleefully simplistic, powering much of what makes Only Murders in the Building such a great pleasure to watch, the show goes beyond that, adding nuance and real emotional understanding to what might otherwise just be a fun mystery to see solved.
Not quite as heavy on the venality of podcasting (for some, like Cinda Canning, played by Tina Fey who does darkly ambitious and cruel very well, not all, of course) or the hilarity of obsessed fandom in its final four episodes, Only Murders in the Building finishes off its second season with its heart very much in the right place, its guilty party right where they should be in the determined arms of the law, and red herrings, once prominent now happily swimming off to the distractionary pool from which they spawned, some comedically and some very serious indeed.
It’s that seamlessly rendered mix that really makes Only Murders in the Building and especially so in these four perfectly-formed episodes that finish off a wholly fulfilling second season, one of the best thing you can stream right now.
It know full well that it’s a cosy mystery with surreal moments, downright silliness and a few, easily dealt with scares, but it also knows that every good mystery is powered by people and people are broken, happy, frightened, content and anxious and it tips its Sherlock Holmes-ian to each and every part of the humanity spectrum in ways that are often truly affecting, while serving up the perfect ending to a beguiling season which offers what life really does – a neat, tidy and happy ending.
Well, almost …
There is a season 3 coming up, which will need to deal with that season ending and a whole lot more besides as Cinemablend explores (beware spoilers for season 2 abound so tread carefully.