KEEPING TV FUN ALIVE
SELENA GOMEZ, STEVE MARTIN AND MARTIN SHORT ARE STILL KILLING IT IN THE SECOND SEASON OF ‘ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING’
I have a confession to make. When “Only Murders in the Building” debuted on Hulu last summer, I committed the TV offense of dismissing it, sight unseen.
In my defense, I had my reasons. After more than a year in the pandemic-enforced company of my AirPods and my podcast app, the last thing I wanted in my entertainment life was a TV series about truecrime podcast obsessives and their fictional murder-mystery adventures. I already felt like I was living in a nesting-doll world, so why would I move into another one?
But the zeitgeist wants what it wants, and what it wanted last summer was for me to fall in love with Mabel, Oliver and Charles and their quest to solve a murder in their swanky New York apartment building. So I folded like the easy pop-culture mark that I am and tuned in. And they got me.
On Tuesday, “Only Murders in the Building” — which star Steve Martin co-created with John Hoffman (“Grace and Frankie”) — is back with a rollicking second season of murder, whimsy and friendship. And not only is resistance futile, it’s criminal.
Season 2 starts not long after the cliffhanger event that ended the first season. The one that turned our crime-solving pals — Mabel (Selena Gomez), Oliver (Martin Short) and Charles (Martin) — into suspects overnight.
Caution: Season 1 spoilers ahead.
After solving the murder of fellow Arconia-dweller Tim Kono, Mabel, Oliver and Charles were suddenly on the hook for the death of Bunny Folger (Tony Award winner Jayne Houdyshell), the building’s allpowerful, always-cranky board president. Given that the dead Bunny was found in Mabel’s apartment and Mabel was found covered in Bunny’s blood, things were not looking good for our favorite deadpan millennial.
Once Season 2 kicks off and incriminating evidence also begins turning up in Oliver and Charles’ spiffy apartments, things aren’t really looking good for them either. Not legally, anyway.
But in one of the new season’s best plot turns, the trio’s DIY “Only Murders in the Building”
podcast has become a hit, and the person-of-interest podcasters are reaping some surprise benefits.
Charles, a TV actor whose claim to fame is a long-canceled police procedural and a longforgotten catch phrase, is suddenly buzz-worthy. Oliver, a theater director whose Broadway career was tanked by the disastrous “Splash: The Musical,” makes a career-changing deal with the famous star who moved into Sting’s old apartment. And thanks to a killer hashtag, the aimless Mabel could be embarking on the art career she’s always wanted.
The lost souls who started Season 1 in various stages of life limbo might be getting a second chance at success. All they have to do now is find out who really killed Bunny, before the building’s latest murder gets pinned on them.
Three oddball friends, one mystifying murder and an Upper West Side full of suspects. In some ways, it’s Season 1 all over again, and thank the TV gods for that.
With its star-stuffed cast, witty dialogue and scripts that weren’t afraid to mix “Clue”-style camp with surprising pathos, the first installment of “Only Murders in the Building” was firstclass all the way. And in the trouper spirit of its two leading
men, it was built to last.
As the shamelessly showbizzy Oliver and the hopelessly timewarped Charles, Short and Martin have the easy, daffy chemistry you’d expect from two comedy pros who have been working together for decades. (Their most recent live show, “You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today!,” stopped at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park last week.)
Like her glamorously gloomy character, Gomez helps Short and Martin keep their inner hams on the shelf. Mabel’s melancholy balances Oliver’s mania, and her snark gives throwback Charles a much-needed wake-up call. In return, Charles and Oliver
give Mabel a support system, and Martin and Short give Gomez room to really shine.
From plot twists you won’t see coming to juicy guest turns by Shirley MacLaine and Amy Schumer, the second installment of “Only Murders in the Building” has enough new blood to keep things lively. That includes the Arconia itself, which is given a backstory that helps explain why this building is such a prime piece of murder-friendly real estate.
This season also has an old pro’s gift for taking what worked before and kicking it up a notch. That means high-impact returns from some of last season’s most
memorable characters, new vulnerabilities in our sleuthing friends, along with continued smart commentary on truecrime voyeurism and the warping power of hashtag fame.
“I was never that into murder before,” Schumer tells the newly famous friends. “You guys made it feel so … cozy.”
She’s right, of course. And one of the great things about “Only Murders in the Building” is it that it knows there is something a little bit wrong with that.
The second season of “Only Murders in the Building” debuts Tuesday on Hulu.