If a fourth season of Only Murders in the Building has taught me anything, it’s that I never want to live in this fictional building.
At the end of the third season, we find out that Charles’ longtime stunt double, Sazz Pataki has been shot to death in Charles’ apartment. Seems like a quick way to find the next murder. Only, when our podcasting trio head to the apartment to celebrate the play’s opening night, nothing really seems amiss. It’s only when Charles can’t get ahold of Sazz that they start putting their antennas up. I love seeing more of Jane Lynch this season, so even though she’s been murdered, I’ll still take this as a win.
Things get more complicated for the trio when they learn they are the subjects of a new Hollywood movie. They get whisked away to LA briefly to meet their silver screen counterparts, along with a crazy producer, two bizarre directors, and one meek screenwriter. Though I did enjoy seeing Eva Longoria, Zach Galifianakis, and Eugene Levy as the three playing Mabel, Oliver, and Charles, it all felt a bit too much. I will give it this, it did set it apart from other seasons. And while for a second I thought most of the action was going to take place in California, they are quickly brought back to their beloved apartment building.
But it’s there that they are also introduced to a cast of characters in an apartment building across the street. Similar to our podcasting trio’s own odd relationship, the patrons in the West building are equally bizarre. There’s Alfonso, Vince, Rudy, Inez, and Ana, who all make up a weird, make-shift family of sorts, who we all learn are benefitting from an old tenet by the name of Dudenoff who has more connections to the vast cast of characters this season than initially suspected. But, like most of the other seasons, there are plenty of red herrings. Aside from all of these new characters, we also meet one of Charles’ sisters, along with the stunt double of last season’s murder victim, Ben Glenroy.
Everyone seems like a viable suspect, and our trio feel like chickens running around with their heads cut off for most of the season. Despite wasting most of the season not getting concrete answers and instead just stuffing as many guest stars as possible into ten episodes, I will say I really enjoyed the found footage episode. Not that it gave us any more answers than prior episodes, but I mainly just really liked the switch up. And to be fair, I know it seems like I’m being harsh on this season of the show, but it did make me laugh a lot, and it’s neat to see how the writers try and tie everything together. My biggest complaint about the show is that the murderer has hardly ever been someone of real weight. The same goes for this season.
Whenever people do stop getting murdered in this building, I’d like the writers to really go for it in the last season. But at this point, there is already a fifth season on the books, and I imagine there will be more. Still, this series continues to be a fun watch, so keep tuning in.