In ‘Only Murders’ and elsewhere, Jackie Hoffman always kills it
I was satisfied with the third season finale of “Only Murders in the Building,” even while the mystery plot wasn’t the series’ best. It was a fitting cap on the season as a whole, with its always goofy, and sometimes droll, tone, with its game regular and guest casts, and with the Broadway elements that moved the action out of the Arconia for a change.
One of my favorites on the show is Jackie Hoffman, an actress you’d likely recognize even if you don’t know her name. Her face and her comedic style are unmistakable. She has a small but choice bit in the finale, as she has in the entire series, as Arconia resident Uma Heller. She’s the sour lady sitting in the audience for the opening of “Death Rattle Dazzle,” enjoying mocking the show with Matthew Broderick, who is sitting next to her. Uma is a real pill, and proud of it. She’s the one who sold murder victim Ben Glenroy’s blood-soaked handkerchief for $7,000. Whenever she pops up on the show, it’s a unique treat.
And whenever Hoffman pops up in general, it makes me smile. A Second City alum, she has done a lot of stage work in New York, including the original Broadway cast of “Hairspray” and many onewoman shows, and she has recently been in the movies “Glass Onion,” “Shiva Baby,” and “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.” But I know her best from her many memorable TV one-offs on some of my favorite shows. She was the arsonist in the “Funcooker” episode of “30 Rock,” she was Billy’s sister-in-law Rucchel on “Difficult People,” she was Joan Crawford’s housekeeper Mamacita in “Feud” (for which she got an Emmy nomination), and she was Chase’s standin an episode of “The Other Two.” More Jackie Hoffman, please.