Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building isn’t just great. It surpasses expectations for a comedy streaming series that, historically, should show signs of fatigue at this stage in the game. You see, death still becomes Hulu’s wickedly fun little darling and Season 4, with its gaggle of A-lister guest stars and yet another compelling murder mystery to unravel, proves that it still knows how to pack in the laughs as much as the intrigue.
In Season 4, our intrepid and ever-befuddled crime podcasters, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel (Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez) head to Los Angeles, where a major Hollywood studio is prepping a film about their Only Murders podcast. But it’s not all glitz and glamour. The trio is dumbfounded by the WTF twist at the end of last season when Charles’ stunt double/ pal (and fan favorite) Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch) was shot and killed on a solo trek in Charles’ apartment. There’s a big twist to the Sazz story early on and the question is: Was the bullet intended for Charles?
Season 4 picks up right where viewers left off, and quickly gets the creative ball rolling, giving nearly every character, even the guest stars, something valuable to offer the popular series. It also suggests that there’s plenty of life — and murder — left in this tale, although as things play out here, we can’t help but sniff a time jump coming in future seasons.
Season 4 Is Packed with A-List Guest Stars
Only Murders in the Building is the brainchild of co-creators/writers Steve Martin and John Hoffman (Grace and Frankie, Looking). Martin and Hoffman executive produce alongside Martin Short, Selena Gomez, and This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman and Jess Rosenthal. Collectively, they know how to corral this season’s litany of major guest stars into something coherent. (Although, there is one out-of-left-field character pop-in that feels totally off. Fortunately, the series quickly moves on from it.)
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Imagine Meryl Streep, Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, Richard Kind, Jane Lynch, Melissa McCarthy, Kumail Nanjiani, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Molly Shannon all packing themselves like sardines into one season of a popular comedy. It could have gone so wrong. It goes so right. Thanks to the series’ sharp writing, its premise more than satisfies, often winking at itself in several running gags.
If you’re hoping for immediate Meryl Streep sightings, be patient. The actress fully enters the scene as Loretta several episodes in. Still, it’s refreshing to see Loretta and Oliver reunite, even though there isn’t all that much engagement initially. You wouldn’t be the first to immediately suspect this is intentional because it could suggest Loretta herself may be a part of some devilish antics. It doesn’t matter if she is. As always, this series likes to keep us guessing.
Some of the best bits come from Levy, Galifianakis, and Longoria, starring as themselves. Levy is tapped to play Charles in the Hollywood production, while Galifianakis takes on Oliver’s persona and Longoria, chewing up scenery at every turn, is to become Mabel. The humor is turned up high whenever our real in-show trio engages with their on-screen counterparts, and sure enough, Galifianakis and Longoria truly elevate their scenes, often giving Short and Gomez more than they care to deal with while getting caught up in Hollywood hoopla and learning more about Sazz’s Hollywood life while they are in town. About that…
The Search for Sazz Turns East vs. West
The series allows Sazz’s whereabouts to be a mystery for our core trio — for a while. Sure, we’ve all seen her get shot at the end of Season 3, but surprise: Charles’ apartment is sans Sazz’s dead body when they get there. They can only conclude she’s gone missing. This allows the show some time for Charles, Oliver, and Mabel to actually go to Hollywood and find out more about Sazz.
Soon enough, the amateur sleuths head back to New York City, where clues lead them to canvas their ill-fated building’s courtyard and dive into the twisted lives of their Arconia West Tower neighbors. A whole East vs. West neighbors thing arises; as convoluted as it can sometimes feel, overall it lands just fine and gives yet another gaggle of guest stars something to nosh on.
Kumail Nanjiani stands out as one of the Arconia West neighbors across the way. There’s also some wonder and delight in the casting of Melissa McCarthy, too, whose character is featured in nearly an entire episode, and boy is it surprisingly poignant and memorable. Without revealing much, let’s just say the scenes she shares with one of our core three are a hoot.
Only Murders Goes Hollywood in a Great Season
Several significant themes and plot threads emerge across these new episodes. For starters, who doesn’t appreciate a kind of Hollywood 101, a not-so-deep dive into showbiz? Seeing our sleuths in the artificially glitzy setting interacting with hotshots — Molly Shannon’s slippery studio exec among them — is pure delight. Once claustrophobic, Only Murders in the Building here makes great use of dreamy L.A. scenery. This also allows the show to circle back to Mabel’s quest to move on with her life, so perhaps the money she’s being tossed by the studio to use her “likeness” is her best path forward.
Steve Martin’s Charles must come to terms with several personal things in his life, from friendship to family. Oliver is still surfing on a high wave of love, thanks to Loretta. The viewer does wonder where the series will take these two characters or whether Streep’s Loretta has fulfilled her character’s story arc. Hopefully Season 4 is not the peak of something that goes downhill from here.
Bottom line: Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building is fun, fast-paced, as playful as ever, and a pure delight. The series holds its own, further defining itself as one of the best and wittiest endeavors to hit Hulu. And maybe beyond. Anything is possible. No doubt moviegoers would eat up a big-screen version in real life. Stay tuned. Season 4 of Only Murders in the Building hits Hulu August 27. Watch it through the link below: