Only Murders In The Building Season 3 Review – For The Sake Of A Child

We live in a society…where things aren’t exactly “on time” right now. Yes, I just did that line, but it’s very truthful. Right now, pretty much all of us should be enjoying the “fall shows” that we’ve been waiting for…but we can’t due to the writers’ and actor’s strikes that happened over the last five months or so. For the record, they were JUSTIFIED in striking, and I fully support them. But the “catch” is what we’re paying for right now because there’s almost nothing good on TV, but thankfully, as my Only Murders In The Building Season 3 Review will tell you, streaming has some fresh stuff for you to enjoy.

If you read my review of Season 2, you’ll know that I adore this show very much. I love the main trio, the way they poke fun at Hollywood while also “being in Hollywood” in their own ways, how they have deep arcs and twists that are truly wonderful. The show is just really good, and for Season 3, they took things in new directions and mostly stuck all the landings. Which is something they absolutely needed to do given certain…pitfalls they had this season. But I’ll get to that stuff later. Let’s start with a recap and the good stuff, alright?

So, at the end of last season, after solving ANOTHER murder at the Arconia, Oliver was offered a chance to save a Broadway play, and we fast-forwarded to opening night a year later, where the star of the show, Ben Gilroy…died at the beginning of production. Like last season, we picked up right where that left off, and the show immediately threw in some twists for fans to enjoy. For example, Ben…wasn’t dead. He survived his “death on stage” appearance…only to die within the Arconia a little time later. Remember, the show is called “Only Murders In The Building,” and as Charles said before things hit the fan, “We couldn’t have investigated because he didn’t die in the building.” Way to go, Charles.

And this is arguably where things take the biggest departure from the first two seasons. If you recall, the first season was about Oliver, Mabel, and Charles coming together to make a podcast to basically “liven up their lives” and maybe make some money before things got a little more personal. Then, in Season 2, they were all trying to clear their names after being accused of killing Bunny, especially Mabel (who was the lead suspect). But in Season 3…only Mabel was dedicated to the podcast.

Why? Well, Oliver was more concerned about his “Broadway return,” and Charles was not only a part of the cast but dealing with various “fallout” from his relationship with Joy. This was fascinating to me because it helped showcase a “new dynamic” for the trio and even led to a break-up (for real this time) as Mabel had enough of their games and crap and wanted to figure out who really killed Ben Glenroy. Yes, they did makeup at the end, but it was great seeing the characters with “new directions and motivations” as it helped keep everything fresh.

Easily, the best addition/storyline of the whole season was the inclusion of Meryl Streep’s Loretta. It was a big deal when she was announced for the show, and DEAR GOSH she shines. Loretta is a character we can all relate to, as we all have had dreams that have taken “far too long to reach,” and you even wonder if you’ll ever reach them at times. You were rooting for her from the word go, and when Oliver gave her the chance to shine, she took it. Not to mention, the relationship those two have on camera is SO ADORABLE!!! Easily the best relationship in the series…full stop. My only “complaint” is that we didn’t get more of them together!

And this ties directly into Martin Short’s performance this season because I feel it was his best of the series. I noted in my last review that Oliver sometimes is a bit…too much on camera. But here? With Loretta? He was magic. I never thought I would say that “Martin Short and Meryl Streep have incredible chemistry,” but they do! They totally do! And watching Oliver struggle throughout the season to not just keep Loretta in the play but then struggle with worries about whether she’s the killer? That hit. He was even willing to destroy potential evidence to save her! And in one of the cliffhanger moments of episode 8, we saw just how much he meant to her…and how he almost couldn’t live without her in the literal sense.

Mabel, meanwhile, may not have had as “gripping” a storyline as Season 2, but she pushed herself in many ways this season as she tried to figure out who she really was. You could feel her pain at the beginning when it was clear that she missed seeing Oliver and Charles over the course of the last year and that she still didn’t have a “direction” for her life. Something she struggled with all season. And while she didn’t get an answer to everything she wanted, she did reaffirm her belief in herself, her friends, and how good she was at solving things. After all, she was the one who found the “real killers” in the end in multiple ways. Plus, I love how she stood up to Oliver and Charles when their loyalties and intentions kept getting crossed.

Ironically, of the trilogy of main cast members, my Only Murders In The Building Season 3 Review must come down hardest on one Charles Hayden Savage. Why? Well, while he did have many interesting moments, his story felt “lesser” than the others. He only had a few big story beats and impact moments, and they didn’t carry weight for a reason I’ll get to later. That being said, it was great seeing Steve Martin doing the “Patter Song” in the end and finally getting some recognition for his talents as a performer. But in contrast, there were times when he was a bit too over-the-top with his “fame and status,” and it just didn’t resonate.

But just to be clear, when the three were together? It was still magic. They had so many great moments and riffs off one another that I could watch them do this for many more seasons and not get bored.

Easily, one of the biggest departures for Only Murders In The Building is that the overall “setting” wasn’t the Arconia. It was the musical that Oliver was putting on. At first, I was hesitant about how this would go as the whole point of the series/podcast is about murders that happened in the Arconia. But they made it work by having the play’s stage be a key location while also going back to the hotel for numerous scenes. And I’ll admit, I really liked seeing how things came together from seeing the “vision” of Oliver’s for “Death Rattle Dazzle” to the singing performances by the cast (especially Meryl Streep, she has such a great voice) and then seeing “opening night” going down in the finale, it was a rush!

Plus, the stage setting gave us new characters to see and suspect and added a special “flair” to it all that the other seasons didn’t have. To be clear, they shouldn’t do this again for repetitive reasons and because they did it so well here.

As for the mystery itself surrounding Ben Gilroy, it was handled pretty well throughout. From the opening episode twist where he “died,” returned, and then “died again,” to certain revelations about Ben and those around him, to a total stunner with Loretta and beyond, it was really fun to see things unfold. Even one of the predictable “cliffhangers” was beautiful to see due to how it was acted. And when the killers were revealed, it worked, and through a twist on a certain “pattern” of the first two seasons.

Oh, and yes, the “meta comedy” is prevalent throughout the season. Charles calls out how they’ve already had two female killers, so it’d be “so passe” to have a third. Or how Oliver had “six heart attacks during this season” to reference their trek, and so on and so forth. They even had Matthew freaking Broderick come in and play a full-on “method actor” version of himself that even Oliver couldn’t handle! It was great! Plus, there were many great moments of comedy that’ll get you laughing, even if you don’t understand why. Two words; “Too soon!”

Sadly, I must now get to the point in my Only Murders In The Building Season 3 Review, where I talk about the bad things in the season. Don’t worry, it’s getting a good score, but there were definitely things that held it back. For example, in the last season, there was a big chunk of the middle episodes that truly felt like filler. We didn’t have that here. However, the beginning, outside of episode one, did feel slow to start. Once you get to Episodes 4-5, things really pick up, but it took a while to get there.

For me, and I’m sure to get flak on this, one of the biggest “fails” of the season…was the victim: Ben Gilroy. It was another “big deal” when Paul Rudd was brought in to be the “over-the-top actor.” and star of Oliver’s play. But by the end of the season, or even the middle of it, I was honestly glad he was dead. With Tim Kono and Bunny, you realized that they were truly sympathetic victims. Tim was trying to right a wrong from his past, and Bunny wanted to have more friends and not be seen as the “mean building owner.” But Ben Gilroy…was a dick! Yes, the show did try to paint him in a sympathetic light at points and with certain characters, but it just…didn’t work for me. In one scene, we find out that his “inferiority complex” was caused by Charles during the early Brazzos days. That would’ve been a fine backstory for his “rivalry” with Charles. But then he turned that into “I have to act this way every time I walk into a room with people,” and Charles replied, “And that’s my fault?’

No…it wasn’t, not even close. Just as bad, he wasn’t just a jerk to Charles. He was a jerk to everyone outside of VERY specific people who had no real connection to everyone else. He was abusive to his own brother, to the cast, and more. Even in his “death scene,” he was being a complete dick, and so when a “certain someone” pushed him down an elevator shaft…I didn’t mind.

This also ties into a problem that Mabel had in the season. You see, one of the reasons that she wanted to find Ben’s real killer was because of how one of his show’s helped her and her mom during a hard period. That is a great motivation…but…at times, Mabel seemed to ignore that Ben was a really big jerk and only saw the “Girl Cop” star she adored versus the fool of a man who honestly caused his own death twice over.

Yes, it’s true that sometimes murder mysteries have “victims no one cares about,” but in a show like this, the characters are driven by who the victims are. If Mabel had simply done an “it’s the right thing to do!” motive versus the “Girl Cop” motive, it would’ve hit better despite Ben being a terrible person.

Another oddity is that while Season 3 was a kind of “reset” for the cast (as noted by the showrunner), some of the “resets” felt inconsistent with the second season. For example, one of the key additions to last season was Lucy, Charles’ “daughter” from another relationship. Those two were great together, and we know that she was at the theater during opening night. But outside of one sentence about her…she never showed back up, and given where things were BEFORE the time jump, it’s odd she never returned.

That goes double when you consider the Joy storyline. When we met her last season, she was the makeup artist for Brazzos, the show, and the man. And she seemed like a really nice lady…until we find out that she’s basically a “crazy fish lady” with numerous quirks and flaws to the point where I literally asked multiple times over, “Why does Charles like her?” And then when they break up, in a way that felt really dumb via a speech she gave, Charles said he was totally alone…except he had a good relationship with Lucy, who would’ve rushed over to be with him at that point.

Another inconsistency with Charles was that he was told multiple times that his “career was in need of rebirth,” and yet last season, he was brought back into the Brazzos reboot and even told that the things the studio wanted him to do would be nixed so he could just be the actor he knew he could be. What happened to that? Plus, there were times when the “moments of kindness” came off as straight-up mean or “wrong. For example, Charles is having trouble with Joy and goes to Oliver, who literally says, “I’m going to be nice here,” only for him to state that maybe Charles is better off alone. Wait, what? Also, Charles was having trouble with his song and came up with a great way to get over that fear…and then Joy nixed it. Why? Why not help him do better based on what works? It was really head-scratching.

There were also many key members of the Arconia who straight-up vanished from seasons 2 & 3 that were missed. And in contrast, Howard…was back…and even more annoying than usual. To the point that in the final episode, he hinted he would take over for his partner and do the show…I was ready to skip the next scene if Howard had gone on stage. Thank you for having Martin Short do it instead!!!!

Going back to Mabel really quickly, I loved that she got a new team with Tobert and Theo to help her out…and then they were just “gone” after she reconnected with Oliver and Charles. Plus, she had yet ANOTHER “done in one season” by all indications. That really struck me as having “bad taste” on what to do with Mabel relationship-wise.

In the end, as my Only Murders In The Building Season 3 Review hopefully shows, the team behind this series still has the magic and was able to take it to new heights. Not everything worked, but not everything worked in the first two seasons, either. The show shined where it needed to, and it gave us one heck of a cliffhanger for Season 4…which has been officially announced! Yep, the besties WILL  be back…and I seriously can’t wait.