Only Murders In The Building: Season 1: Review

Cast: Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, Martin Short

A millennial, a washed up Broadway producer and a former TV detective.

It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it's actually the central characters of a sparklingly witty series that's launching on Disney+ on August 31.

Set in New York in an apartment building, the cult of true crime podcasts and how they've swept the world is cleverly tapped into in Steve Martin's smart and sassy drama series over its 10 episode run.

When the seemingly disparate trio of characters meet after their building is evacuated, they discover they have one thing in common - a love of a true crime podcast that they're desperate to see resolved.

There's Steve Martin's Charles Hayden Savage, an actor who made a career playing a TV detective in a long running series; there's Selena Gomez's millennial Mabel, who's doing up her aunt's apartment and there's Martin Short's Broadway producer Oliver who's never quite able to get a show up and running. All three live in the same building but barely cross paths - until they discover this shared passion.

It's a passion further ignited when they discover someone in their building has been killed and set out to solve the case, believing police were wrong to label it a suicide....

Only Murders in the Building is a blast, a light frothy tonic to an increasinly wearying year.

It's a show that deconstructs the true crime narratives, plays with some of the tropes of the genre and delivers more than enough farce and frivolity over its 10 episodes as the trio discover twists and turns along the way.

In truth, while the show could have easily lost 2 episodes (a Sting-related episode is a real chore, an in-joke that's way too self-indulgent and not at all as funny as the writers believed it would be), the central mystery propels along the show's narrative with ease. (Though, there's a minor argument to be had for a relative lack of diversity in the apartment building's characters - the only sign of any other New York life tends to come from a brief appearance from a police detective).

One episode (The Boy From 6B) is simply one of the best episodes of TV committed to the small screen this year, hinging its entire runtime on a simple hook - of which to say more would be a spoiler of its own. But if this episode isn't nominated for something when the time comes, then it's a major crime of its own which will need investigating.

However, while the narrative, meta touches and jokey atmosphere are more than enough (one episode ends with Short's Boradway producer declaring this would be a perfect line with which to end an episode before cutting to titles), it's the peppy dialogue, caustic asides and repartie between Martin's grumpy loner and Short's effervescent failure of a producer that give the script so much life and joy. 

From witty oneliners to hints of pathos amid the musings of loneliness inside an apartment building, there's enough in the script to deliver on more than the farce that it occasionally employs.

Coupled with a truly iconic opening theme, Only Murders in the Building is perhaps one of the best TV series made in 2021. And while the ending doesn't quite stick the landing and its resolution feels a little too easy, this caper-filled journey is a comedy route well worth taking. With each episode lasting only 30 minutes, and the cast such a delight to watch, it really would be a crime to miss this series.

Only Murders In The Building streams on Star on Disney+ from August 31.