Only Murders In The Building – Season One

When a grisly death happens in the posh Arconia Building, three tenants with a passion for true crime podcasts decide there is more to his death than what the police have dubbed a suicide. As they dive into their OWN investigation into the murder of Tim Kono – all while creating their very own true crime podcast – they’ll not only hope to solve the mystery, find the killer, and survive… but learn to face their own inner demons and accept new friends into their lonely lives.

This wasn’t a show I had heard much about prior to checking out Season One just recently. In fact, I think I recall seeing the name thrown out once or twice in our Discord group(which if you are interested in a fun hangout to chat books/movies/series, you should totally join us, just click this link!), but otherwise I sat down for dinner one evening and my wife was watching it. It looked interesting and she offered to start it over from episode one as she was just a few episodes into the season, so we could watch it together.

There’s something highly enjoyable about going into a film or series knowing virtually nothing about it.

You get to bypass all the hype, there are no unrealistic expectations built up in your head due to the buzz you keep hearing about it, and it TRULY FEELS like an exploration and discovery of a story.

This series DIDN’T blow me away… but it’s fun

Here’s the thing about Only Murders In The Building.

It walks the tightrope so beautifully between a cozy feeling murder mystery and a gritty thriller with plenty of colorful language that also doesn’t shy away from violence at times.

In many ways it reminds me of a much less intense version or experience of the fantastic Who-Dunnit film, Knives Out.

The pacing is largely a slower burn approach to building tension, with tons of little clues and hints through each episode to pull your guesses first one way and then another. With tons of misdirection and fun, twisty plotlines. It does a great job of making you want to hit that NEXT EPISODE button.

I will say, both my wife and I had guessed the killer correctly by the 2nd or 3rd episode, though we changed our thoughts a few times during the season only to come back to the same guess by the end. So the clues ARE there for those paying attention.

What makes this series worth your time?

• A twisty-turny plot with a mystery that sucks you in
• An all star cast
• The premise of the show being focused on the true crime podcast trend was a lot of fun
• It’s beautifully shot and the sound design is top notch. (Special nod to the episode mid-season that takes place from the viewpoint of a character that is deaf, such a unique approach to the episode that really ratcheted up the interest.)

There’s just a couple problems I had that lowered my enjoyment though…

• That all star cast. (I’ll expand more on that later)
• Some REALLY far fetched leaps of faith, both in terms of their attempts to solve the murder AND in what we as viewers just have to roll with in terms of any semblance of believability.

Let’s talk about that cast.

We ALL know Steve Martin and Martin Short are extremely talented. There may not be a duo that is more well known for their real life persona’s, which are already larger than life. Selena Gomez isn’t as well known as those two, but still she’s a star many will recognize.

And therein lies the problem I had.

Particularly with Martin and Short, though to a degree with Gomez as well, I just COULD NOT get invested in their characters because they are so well known for their real life personas that all I could see was Martin and Short pretending to be some characters for this series.

Had the show cast them as their real life persona’s vs fictional characters, I would have believed it more.

But so often this series felt like I was watching Martin, Short, and Gomez participate in some sort of live action, improv version of a game of Clue that was being filmed and scored beautifully. Almost reminded me of the Netflix series Murderville with Will Arnett.

Of course, I’m not even going to get into how extremely unbelievable it is that the police would even ALLOW these people to investigate like this, let alone take their podcast as any sort of evidence what-so-ever!

All that being said, I still enjoyed it. Just not as much as I might have in different circumstances.

If you are looking for a cozy feeling, adult themed, murder mystery to get sucked into this is a great option. Everyone I’ve talked to about the show since I’ve watched it have all seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe it’s just me that had the issue with the casting – it wouldn’t be the first time a casting issue like this has taken me out of a film/series and it might just be a strange issue that only I struggle with.

We are given some pretty solid character development for all of our main trio, with each having secrets they are hiding and each forced to come to terms with their own loneliness. In each other, a beautiful friendship blossoms through their shared passion for true crime podcasts and their desire to solve the murder in their OWN building.

Only Murders In The Building is quirky and fun, beautifully shot with a terrific vibe that serves to pull you in and make you feel invested in solving the mystery. However, for me, I felt like I was “playing along” with a game at times MORE than being invested in the characters and plot. But if you want a cozy, quirky, mystery with just enough adult language and grittiness to avoid the “cutesy sitcom” territory then I’d very much recommend this series.

Only Murders In The Building – Season One gets 3.5 out of 5 Stars ⭐️ 

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