Only Murders in the Building: Season 4 Review

To say the fourth season of Only Murders in the Building is a little more muted is to acknowledge the fact the last three seasons have pushed the concept as far as it could conceivably go - and as far as audience's tolerance for the idea overall.

But as the end of the third season seemed to indicate, someone was gunning for Steve Martin's Charles Hayden Savage after a bullet was fired through his apartment window and seemingly offed Jane Lynch's Sazz Pataki aka Charles' stunt double on his Columbo-style knockoff show Brassos.

The fourth season takes up just moments later but sees Charles, Mabel (Selena Gomez) and Oliver (Martin Short) caught up in a Hollywood glow as Molly Shannon's showbiz executive Bev tries to talk them into a big film adaptation of their podcast adventures.

It's here the series takes a step outside of the Arconia building that has homed so many deaths and which in truth has rarely been better than the first season which seemed to catch lightning in a bottle, which it's been trying to chase ever since.

As Hollywood crashes into the show, it brings Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis and Eva Longoria playing Charles, Oliver and Mabel respectively - which given how meta the last season's jokes had become seemed like a step too far this time around, mocking their respective characters and winking at the audience.

But in truth, the slapstick and downright tomfoolery is confined more to the episodes that involve the Hollywood cast - a sign that perhaps the writing has matured a little more this time around.

Certainly, Gomez and Martin's characters are forced more into introspection this time around, with the series pushing a more reflective tone on proceedings as the constant shadow of death in the Arconia stifles the joie de vivre.

Yet, in parts, Only Murders in the Building feels like it's reaching a natural end, its proclivity for showy season-ending cliffhangers beginning to feel strained.

There's a lot of guest stars this time around - Melissa McCarthy, Richard Kind, Kumail Nanjiani, Molly Shannon; the list goes on and in parts, so does the story. Lacking the compunction and urgency of the first season's centrally propulsive story of Tim Kono's death and mocking the plotholes from it, season 4's mystery feels a little more unfocussed this time around - and remarkably is largely the better for it.

Martin relishes a more sombre tone, rising to his character's needs and Short has had some of his more excessively flamboyant touches reined in. But it's Gomez's character who feels less well-served this time around. Described as a mumbling millennial who's homeless sends Mabel into a tailspin, but also seems to signify writers aren't quite sure what to do with her this season - she's been stagnating since the mid-part of season two.

As a whole, it's difficult to say whether the fourth season sticks the landing. Previews only go as far as episode 7, the ending of which doesn't exactly feel like a narrative must-resolve for the final run of episodes, despite everyone's hard work within.

Don't be mistaken though - there are still the same silly puns and easy gags that you'd expect throughout the show's latest run and if it feels more maudlin, perhaps it's just a sign the writers were aware how close to the wind they were sailing with season 3.

Only Murders in the Building is still an enjoyable polished production - but perhaps the time is rapidly coming for this building to be put on the market and rested for a while.

Only Murders in the Building streams on Disney+ from Tuesday, August 27.
7 of the 10 episodes of season four were available for review, and were watched for the purposes of this review.