Only Murders in the Building dropped on Hulu today! As a true-crime fan myself, this show has had me intrigued since news of it first hit my IG feed. There are 3 episodes currently available to stream, so those episodes are what I’ll be reviewing here.
Part of this review will contain spoilers for Only Murders in the Building, but they will be clearly marked as you approach them.
Meet the Detectives
We meet our cast of characters with voiceovers that sound like they could be narration for their own podcasts. In retrospect, since Charles’ narration (Steve Martin) ends up in their actual podcast, it’s possible we’ll hear those same snippets again later.
Charles comes off as very old-fashioned, and out of touch. He may love true crime podcasts, but he lacks interpersonal skills of any sort and seems to only have a faint grasp on how technology works. He’s likely the touchstone for the more conservative boomers in the audience- whereas Oliver (Martin Short) is there for the more liberal audience members (at least in theory).
Oliver is out of touch in his own way. He has wonderful interpersonal skills in some cases (his relationship with building manager Ursula) but doesn’t know how to shut off the director and act like a human being. He also has terrible judgment, based on the fact that he told Nathan Lane’s character NOT to invest in Les Mis, Mamma Mia, or Hamilton.
Then we have Mabel (Selena Gomez). She’s seemingly our millennial stand-in, with a dry sense of humor and serves as a foil for her older compatriots. I will say I enjoyed her introduction the most. Possibly because I could relate to it more, but I digress.
The Only Murders in the Building
We’re introduced to our victim shortly after we meet our protagonists- Tim Kono. He arrives in the elevator with our trio, and mystery fans will immediately clock the fact that he’s bringing his trash upstairs rather than downstairs. Our true crime loving cast notices too, thankfully. I loved the instances where we are rewarded as viewers for noticing possible clues or hints- it makes you feel more active in the show rather than just as a passive audience member.
Each of our characters come with their own secrets to uncover and mysteries that will (hopefully) be solved in due time; But for now the story has latched onto Mabel. Mabel whom we know very little about at the start.
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The reveal not only that she knew Tim but knew him well made me want to watch the next episode even more. The fact that all the (what we assume are stolen) goodies are hidden in Hardy Boys books was fascinating. It makes me wonder, why did he buy a ring if he still had all that stolen jewelry? Was it intended for Mabel? For someone else? Or did he buy and sell jewelry as a way of supplementing his income?
Then we also have Oscar, who’s now out of jail after Tim could have set him free years ago. Oh what a twisted web we weave- one that I can’t wait to watch unravel as the series continues.
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Final Thoughts
Only Murders in the Building has enough compelling twists and turns to keep even a non-true crime fan interested, I’d wager. It’s well-acted on all fronts, and personally, I love the costuming of the main trio of characters. I could write a whole piece on that alone. But anyway- Only Murders in the Building is worth a watch. The first 3 episodes are now streaming on Hulu, and they’re only 30 minutes apiece. I will say one thing though: if they killed that dog I will never watch another episode of this show again. I swear it.
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