DETAILS
Only Murders in the Building
Stars: 3.5
Starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez
A STAR Original series premiering on Tuesday, August 31 on Disney+
Well, this is unexpected.
A few years after I personally vowed not to review Disney films or other programming, here I am unavoidable enticed to give some commentary and critique on Only Murders in the Building, the ten-episode Hulu comedic murder-mystery series "from the minds of Steve Martin, Dan Fogelman and John Hoffman."
Those who know me know that they had me at "Steve Martin." When they added in co-star Martin Short, well... they probably could have forced me to pay for the privilege. The Two Martins first entered my heart's humour with The Three Amigos and never left that saddle. Sadly, or thankfully, Chevy Chase does not appear in this yarn that spins itself out of that modern preoccupation with true murder mystery podcasts.
In episode 1, our protagonists can barely stand each other even while standing side by side in the elevator of the Arconia, a higher-end tenement in New York's Upper West Side. That's got to be somewhere away from the boondocks, I'm guessing, judging by the intro voiceover monologue by Charles (Steve Martin), a former actor who lives alone and is somewhat of a fastidiously clean detail-oriented person.
"There's eyes on you all over the place here, and New Yorkers have a special way of communicating. And by special. I mean direct," he says, as he doffs his hat to a woman passing on the street. She, in turn, pushes her eyeglasses up using her gloved middle finger.
Disney? How could ye?
Yes, faithful viewers... the House of Mouse now has swear words and shows the bloody aftermath of murders on screen. Colour me delighted.
Within the first three minutes, we're used to the fact that this is an adult affair. Send the kids to bed, open up a bottle of red, pop some corn, and settle in for what should be grittier but ends up a little too glossy, and a little too saturated. I mean sure, Selena Gomez might have just become one of three female pop performers with four songs that have reached 1 billion streams on Spotify. That's really great for her, really, but what 40-something viewer is going to flip the channel to this show based on that casting decision? What? Was Hilary Duff not available?
I digress, except that by the time Mabel (Gomez's character) offers the F-word, I couldn't help but feel some glee to be watching Disney again. Maybe this will spark the beginning of Red Disney, or some other similar offshoot. I can only imagine what Blue Disney would program.
Again, I digress.
These three strangers soon discover that they are all devotees of a true crime podcast, and this discovery comes swiftly before a murder is discovered in their building. Was the title Only Murders in the Building giving away too much? Find out next week.
Or I could tell you now. With their newfound joint interest firmly established, the murder sends them all into a tizzy. Charles is a former TV detective, Oliver (Martin Short) is a stage director, and Mabel is... something else. Together, however, they combine their collective wits and forces to piece together clues and seek out the answers to all of the questions to why some random guy in the building would get offed.
Also, they start their own podcast as per zeitgeist rules.
Yes, Steve Martin is one of my fave writers and I love his quirky, surreal touches and glints of human pathos. Bravo! 'I hope Disney honoured his contract,' I rhetorically ponder to myself.
That being said, the first episode does bog down a bit with too much backstory on each character, though subsequent episodes do elaborate more on why that was necessary. I'm a critic, but I'm not that much of a critic.
The way the show is written and directed comes off as a bit too 'on the nose' with its hints though.
'Oh look, he's carrying a bag of garbage on the elevator,' we think, as the camera pans down to show him carrying a bag of garbage.
'Perhaps that's something that will be relevant later on.'
Yeah, perhaps. Maybe it's a commentary on how Detective 101-y some of these podcasts can be. I'd never know. My time is too precious.
Regardless, it does make the viewing easier. You didn't think Disney was going to go all Se7en on us now, did you?
Mostly, it's fun and mature television somewhere beyond The Fugitive but not quite as far as True Detective.
