Since debuting in 2021, Steve Martin and John Hoffman’s (The Larry Sanders Show) comedy-murder mystery Only Murders in the Building has proven to be a beloved series we can count on every summer/fall. There are no staggered release schedules or years between seasons here.
Warning: Spoilers for Seasons 1–3
In Season 3, Oliver (Martin Short) made his big Broadway comeback with Death Rattle, only for the play’s leading man, Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd), to be murdered. Although, he doesn’t die on stage, as we also saw in the Season 2 finale. Instead, the action star makes a miraculous recovery and then is definitively killed at the Arconia later that night.
Charles (Steve Martin) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) put more effort into the investigation while Oliver mainly focuses on saving Death Rattle Dazzle, now a musical, and spending time with his love interest, Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep). By the end, it’s revealed that the play’s mother and son producing duo, Donna (Linda Emond) and Cliff (Wesley Taylor), each attempted to kill Ben — Donna poisoned him on opening night, followed by Cliff pushing him down an elevator shaft.
In Episode 5 of Only Murders in the Building, Charles’ longtime friend and stunt double Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch) suggests that whoever killed Ben might’ve been after Charles. She says, “Well, I’ve been getting some vibes. I also have my ham radio, and there’s chatter of people wishing it was you instead of Ben.”
In the season finale of Only Murders in the Building, she says she needs to talk to him about something “a little sensitive,” but we never hear what that is. While retrieving wine in Charles’ dark apartment, a bullet flies through the window, hitting Sazz in the chest. The final scene closes out with her trying to write something in blood on the kitchen floor.
But did the killer mean to shoot and kill Charles? That’s our Season 4 mystery!
Similar to Season 3’s theater-centric opening, Season 4 begins with Charles’ narration about cinema, which is intercut with real home movie clips of the actors. After Siddhartha Khosla’s (The Horror of Dolores Roach) infectious theme graces our ears, Oliver finds out that Death Rattle Dazzle’s run is (unsurprisingly) over and has a mini meltdown. But his spirits are lifted when he hears a Hollywood studio has already started making a movie based on their podcast.
Mabel, Charles, and Oliver jet off to Los Angeles, specifically the Paramount Pictures lot, where they meet a room full of money-hungry execs, including Molly Shannon’s overly-excited Bev Melon, and eccentric creatives. They’re later introduced to their on-screen counterparts: Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy, and Zach Galifianakis.
There’s a running gag with people pointing out their flaws, boiling their personalities down to “Mabel the Mumbling Millennial” and “two old dudes.” It gets really meta. Like Sting, Amy Schumer, and Matthew Broderick, the three guest stars play heightened versions of themselves, who are self-centered and serious about character study.
While the actors’ pestering of the amateur sleuths makes for great comedy, Eva, Eugene, and Zach offer unique skill sets to help with the case. As Loretta says in the trailer, “Actors are investigators.” They also get much-needed help from returning favorites Howard Morris (Michael Cyril Creighton) and Detective Williams (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). Oliver also gets to see his girlfriend Loretta, who recently made her own journey to LA after she landed a job on the fictional Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, Grey’s New Orleans Family Burn Unit.
Thankfully, we’re not LA-bound all season, as some fans (including this reviewer) were worried about. The trio has their Hollywood moment in the first episode but the movie’s production sets up shop at the Arconia. They also venture to Long Island to see Charles’ sister, Doreen (Melissa McCarthy).
We actually get to explore other parts of the historic apartment building, like the West Tower residents, who are fittingly a bunch of weirdos. Charles assigns the Westies identities based on his window-to-window observations. There’s the eye patch-wearing Stink-Eyed Joe, aka Vince Fish (Richard Kind); the always-making-sauce family aka Alfonso (Desmin Borges), Inez (Daphne Rubin-Vega), and their daughter, Ana (Lilian Rebelo); and Christmas-all-the-time Guy aka Rudy (Kumail Nanjiani), a fitness buff who stays festive all year long.
Like Season 2’s Bunny Folger (Jayne Houdyshell) and Season 3’s Ben Glenroy (but less so Season 1’s Tim Kono (Julian Cihi), Sazz is still very much a part of the season in flashbacks and old footage from her career as a stunt double. Now that she’s the victim, we get to know her better than before, as does Charles as he grapples with the loss of his dearly departed friend, who may have died because someone actually meant to kill him, doubling the list of potential suspects.
Season 3 centered more on the play than the podcast, introduced another fleeting love interest for Mabel and had her drifting apart from her favorite Olds. But like Hoffman teased last year, Season 4 is all about reflection, regrets, and consequences. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he said it would explore “the podcast and everything else that’s happened, and what it all means, and what it could have been meaning all along.”
Only Murders in the Building’s fourth outing gives major Season 1 vibes, keeping the crime-solving trio together and focused on a new case. There are plenty of unhinged Hollywood antics but most of the real fun happens inside the constant crime scene of an apartment building that is the Arconia. It’s a welcome return to form that feels familiar but not tired.
Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building premieres on Hulu August 27, 2024, followed by weekly episodes through October 29.
