Coming off another classic murderous cliffhanger at the end of Season 3, Only Murder in the Building Season 4 puts the hit Hulu original series onto a new murder mystery. The main trio of amateur sleuths, Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), must now move on from the closed murder case of actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) to figuring out who shot Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch) in Charles’ apartment and whether he was the intended victim or not. A close friend, Sazz was Charles’ stunt double from his acting days, which hints at relocating this season to Los Angeles. In reality, their trip west was prompted by a movie deal for the true crime podcasting trio.
Rather than spend the entirety or even the majority of the fourth season in LA, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel bring a little taste of Hollywood’s glitz back to the polished halls of the Arconia in the Upper West Side of New York City to better investigate Sazz’s murder. Regarding this central mystery, Only Murders in the Building Season 4 feels atypical. There is a new list of suspects and the expected trail of breadcrumb clues but a startling lack of strong motivation for this murder, leaving the entire investigation lopsided and lacking. Much of the plot derives its tension from the immediate stakes and danger against the West Tower residents, almost dabbling into thriller territory — if only the tone weren’t so inconsistent.
Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria play themselves as the actors hired to portray Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, respectively, in the film adaptation of the Only Murders podcast, with Molly Shannon cast as the Hollywood studio mastermind behind the entire production. Of all the actors playing actors, Eva Longoria is the most present and makes excellent use of her screen time. This is also the first season in which Mabel doesn’t have a love interest, so Eva inhabits that place in the narrative. However, Eva’s role does little to clarify Mabel’s arc. Only Murders in the Building Season 4 seems to revolve around the everlasting nature of cinema, contemplating how the characters will be remembered after they are gone. Mabel doesn’t know what she wants in a personal or professional sense, so she comes across as passive, and Gomez can’t find the footholds to lift her from the rut.
Charles faces a similar conundrum. He’s wracked with guilt following Sazz’s death and is forced to contemplate how his actions hurt others. The general shape of his character arc has been sketched out; however, it finds difficulty coalescing. If anything, his standout moment this season is shared with Melissa McCarthy, who plays his sister and is styled eerily similar to the Long Island Medium, Theresa Caputo. There are a special handful of guest and cameo actors either debuting or returning to the show this season, and McCarthy is the best of them, hitting an incredible balance of unstable, pitiful, and funny, but not too ridiculous as to lose the sentimentality of her character.
Along with Mabel, Charles is not given a love interest this season. Eugene Levy is hardly present to do anything in the way of bringing out Charles’ sensitive side, though the two share one of the funniest scenes of the entire show. Other new additions like Richard Kind and Kumail Nanjiani both play possible suspects in the murder, with Kind in particular bringing a delightful weirdness to his scenes. Is he the murderer, though? Who knows! While Only Murders in the Building Season 4 isn’t very streamlined, perhaps due to the recent SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes limiting the development time around these latest 10 episodes, it is more twisty than what’s come before. There are a number of revelations that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats. There is less possibility of guessing at the murderer and more of a vested interest in discovering who it actually is.
As always, Martin Short’s flamboyant portrayal of the paradoxical, insecurely confident Oliver is among the strongest of the show. His love interest, Loretta Durkin, portrayed by the illustrious Meryl Streep, has been separated from him by four time zones, and he has difficulty remaining stable in the relationship. This arc has little to do with the overall thematics of the season, but it is a natural progression of the storyline of the show, and Short and Streep are as charming as ever together.
Only Murders in the Building will always be funny, bedazzled with a star-studded cast, and led by legendary comics. It will always play with and infuse the true crime adjacent/murder mystery genre with as much empathy as possible. These are the hallmarks of the series, and it’s why people keep returning to it. The fourth season is no different. It is compulsively watchable with a compelling whodunit plot. It only lacks the strong thematic throughline that set its previous seasons apart. Perhaps all the branching character arcs and subplots will consolidate in a truly satisfying finale, but as of episode 7, Only Murders in the Building Season 4, while still good, doesn’t quite clear the high bar its predecessors set.
Only Murders in the Building Season 4 premieres August 27 on Hulu!
Created by Steve Martin & John Hoffman.
Written by Steve Martin & John Hoffman.
Executive Producers: Steve Martin, John Hoffman, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Dan Fogelman, & Jess Rosenthal.
Main Cast: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Meryl Streep, Molly Shannon, Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Cyril Creighton, Jane Lynch, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Galifianakis, Desmin Borges, Siena Werber, Lilian Rebelo, Richard Kind, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Catherine Cohen, and Jin Ha.
Composer: Siddhartha Khosla.
Production Companies: Rhode Island Ave. Productions, Another Hoffman Story Productions, 40 Share Productions, & 20th Television.
Episode Count: 10 (Season 4).
