Like any good true-crime podcast, Only Murders in the Building has become a guilty pleasure. Not only because the cast continues to deliver great comedic performances, but because the story is actually getting, dare I say, good?!
Mabel's misleads - mainly by omitting the fact that she knew "tie-dye guy" - of Charles and Oliver have been discovered, and the two old guys certainly aren't shy about overstating how hurt they are by this. I suppose their backstories thus far have given the audience just enough to sympathize with their lonely states; they'd be friends with anyone who paid enough attention to them, right? And they (Charles more than Oliver) have opened up to Mabel and shown a vulnerable side to justify the shakiness in their trust of her. But their hurt does come across a bit pathetic and comedic and less emotional than I would prefer. Still, the trio's little hiccup made for some good drama, so much so that they even agreed to let the podcast go.
That is, until they make more major discoveries! Seriously, the cliched writing is so good. They have no shame whatsoever in coming up with big reveals in the final scene of each episode. At the end of Episode 4, titled "Twist," Mabel dumps out a huge bag of jewelry she found in Tim's apartment, which lines up with other clues she and her long-lost tie-dye guy friend discovered (he somehow seems more like a guy who cheated on his girlfriend with Mabel back in the day when they were all friends, but that's a working theory). At the end of Episode 5, titled "Protect and Serve," Mabel is delivered a strange package (more on that in a moment) that has Tim's phone in it. Ka-ching!
To make this whole situation even more tenuous, Cinda Canning does their podcast its biggest favor yet. Canning, if you remember (played by the wonderful Tina Fey), created the murder podcast that our trio all listened to in the first place, and she also apparently just landed a huge signing back in Episode 3. Now, she's appearing on Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show, and she mentions the "Only Murders in the Building" podcast! Sure, it was in condescending fashion, but hey, no such thing as bad publicity, right? The podcast goes from 17 subscribers (no, that's not a good number apparently; seriously, that was one of the funniest deliveries of a joke yet) to thousand and thousands of hits overnight. They're big, now!
So much so that Oliver's friend Teddy (played hilariously by Nathan Lane, whom I thought was great as Pepper in Modern Family) all of a sudden wants back in. Interesting how the tides turn in investment deals, huh? First he scorns Oliver for asking for a handout a few weeks ago, perhaps still a bit remorseful about his last deal with Oliver that left him burned (I still say Teddy shouldn't be mad at him for that; I mean seriously, how could having a giant pool in the middle of a theatre be a miss?). But after the podcast gets a shoutout on TV, suddenly he wants back in, and he manages to come across as the nice guy in the process. Although on the surface, any connection between Teddy and Tim makes for a great curveball (and sets up a perfectly cheesy outro line), I'm not as surprised to see Teddy painted in that light. Maybe I'm supposed to foul off his shadiness like a bad pitch, but I'm not sold on Teddy whatsoever. Maybe there's a revenge play on Oliver in the works, who knows.
The other part of the final scene was the package Mabel brought to the table. Apparently the woman cop who was in charge of Tim's investigation (back in episode 1) didn't do her job well enough the first time around. I don't like this cop. A lesbian whose partner is expecting a son, this woman has a particularly disgusting pottymouth, and quite unnecessarily so. Her significant other apparently also likes listening to true-crime podcasts (much to the cop's chagrin, of course), and she just so happened to be listening to "Only Murders in the Building"! The cop is surprised because that was her case, and it was supposed to be shut. Later on, she realizes Tim's cell phone was never sent to the IT department, nor was the toxicology report ever submitted, both of which are highly irregular and against protocol. So what, now I'm supposed to give this cop a good moral compass because she decided to help with our trio's investigation anonymously? No thanks. She's the crankiest, rudest person.
Another character I hope we don't see again is Mabel's mother. She randomly decides to track down her daughter despite not having worked to be a part of Mabel's life for a long time; yet somehow, she still thinks she has the right to take Mabel's choices upon herself instead of acknowledging her daughter is plenty old enough to run her own life. The mother seemed completely useless, though I'm sure she'll provide some timely insight into Mabel's past or psyche that will prove invaluable to the story later on. Whatever, I'd rather go without that angle altogether.
The comical writing of the show is still good. The writers aren't overdoing the heavy-handed, obvious jokes, though they're getting close. They still squeeze in a cringy pun or two, and this week's age-gap reminder involved mansplaining the word "rando" among other jabs here and there. Now that we're halfway through the season, I'm hoping the jokes don't lose their charm. Yes, this is a comedy show at its core, but I still maintain that, in this case, less is more.
Notes:
-No mention of Jan, Charles' dating interest, in the last episode.
-I already don't think Selena Gomez is a great singer, but man, even her normally talking voice is difficult to listen to for me.