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So delightful and heart-warming was the first season of Only Murders In The Building, that major stars are happy to make guest appearances. Meryl Streep is undoubtedly the biggest draw in Season 3 of the hit, award-winning show. In the sporting spirit of self-deprecation, one of Hollywood’s greats, the multiple Oscar winner, plays Loretta, a failed actress. Paul ‘Antman’ Rudd drops by too, dripping charm and snark in equal measure, but in a smaller role.
A recap for those who have not seen the first two seasons (what’s your excuse?), the three main leads, Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), Charles Haden-Savage (Steve Martin) and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), live in The Arconia, a posh New York apartment building, so gorgeous it evokes instant lust. They are all loners and fans of true crime podcasts. The two older men used to be showbiz celebrities in a very distant past, now living with memories of their glory days; Mabel, their unlikely ally, is still finding her feet, crashing temporarily in her aunt’s apartment, till she figures out her future. There is a murder in The Arconia, the three interfere in the police investigation, solve the murder, make their own podcast and by the end of the series, are accused of murder themselves. In Season 2 they had to clear their names.
The three mismatched musketeers just fit in together, age and other difference notwithstanding, because the show is so well-written, and the actors are simply brilliant without trying to steal the other’s thunder. Season 3 begins where the earlier one had ended, with the star of Oliver’s play, Ben Glenroy (Rudd) dropping dead in the first scene on opening night.
Oliver Putnam, unemployable, broke and refusing to believe that he is no longer a force on Broadway, had found a backer and put together cast for the stage production of Death Rattle, a murder mystery. But his leading man is murdered in mysterious circumstances. In the cast, there is the quiet Loretta (Streep), making fun of herself by putting on accents and she has good reason to kill Ben, but so do many others in the cast—Ben was downright odious, while pretending to be warm and friendly.
Putnam tries to revive the show by turning it into a musical, with hilarious results, while Charles frets. Meanwhile, Mabel, who has kept her sleuthing skills sharp, teams up with Tobert—“Robert with a T”—a videographer, to crack the case.
Underneath the sharp humour, Only Murders…is perhaps trying to evoke nostalgia about a time when New Yorkers did not lead such insular lives. The neighbourhood of The Arconia, with everybody taking an interest in the goings-on around them– even if it is after a death—is what city life is losing out on in the pursuit of privacy.
The first three episodes are out, and the rest will drop at the rate of one every Tuesday… and the true fan cannot but count the days till the next episode drops. It does not really matter who the killer is, the pleasure lies in watching a wonderful show.
Only Murders In The Building Season 3
Created by John Hoffman & Steve Martin
Cast: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd and others
On Disney+Hotstar
