Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Episode 1 and 2 review: The mystery of the missing ‘priceless’ painting

With no evidence to hold the Arconia podcast trio, the police let Charles, Oliver and Mable return home. Instead of keeping their heads down and maintaining a low profile, they decide to go all out to solve the mystery and clear their names.

Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez in a still from Season 2

Only Murders in the Building Season 3

Story: Only Murders in the Building Season 2 opens where we left off, with former TV star Charles Haden Savage (Steve Martin), artist Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) and theatre producer Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) celebrating the success of their first podcast and solving Tim Kono’s death and the mystery of the grave-thieving Dimas family.

When Mabel doesn’t return quickly enough after being sent to her apartment to grab more champagne, Charles and Oliver turn up at her door, only to find her kneeling over the dead body of building president Bunny. Mabel’s got blood all over her and Bunny appears to have been stabbed with Mable’s knitting needles, making her the prime suspect.

Review: Only Murders in the Building Season 1 spent a lot of time establishing who and what the lead trio – Charles, Oliver and Mable are. With that out of the way, Season 2 has the liberty of diving straight into the murder investigation. Bunny’s dead, but with the cops unable to find the real murder weapon – a kitchen knife – the trio is declared persons of interest in the police investigation.

Although they are explicitly told to not make Bunny’s murder their latest podcast subject, there is, of course, no stopping this inquisitive trio, for who it is now imperative to clear their names. Season 2 opens with two episodes and then eight more to drop on a weekly basis and jumps straight into the action of the aftermath of Bunny’s death.

Obviously, Mable didn’t kill her, although Cinda (Tina Fey) is suggesting as much on her rival podcast, Only Murderers in the Building. So, it’s up to the three of them to figure out who would want Bunny dead, for real, and was not just making silly threats like Oliver.

Turns out, the murderer was after a painting that’s worth millions that Bunny owned. And it is missing, only to then turn up at Charles’ apartment. Someone’s really screwing around with Arconia’s resident sleuths. The painting, by an artiste who mysteriously disappeared years ago causing the value of her works to skyrocket, features Charles’ father – a very naked version of him - interestingly. Charles is, of course, conflicted by this. When the trio then decides to return the painting to Bunny’s place, it is revealed that is a worthless forgery. So, now we have a missing painting, the mystery that is Charles’ father, and, of course, Bunny’s murder, clues to which her pet parrot may just be able to spill.

The first two episodes set up the narrative and introduce us to the new members on the cast, namely Amy Schumer has herself, the new occupant of Sting’s flat, Cara Delevingne as an artist with a special interest in Mable and Shirley MacLaine as Bunny’s mother. Although the writing is still top notch and there are a lot of call-backs to season 1, the first two episodes did not feel half has funny as last time around. It’s still early days, but considering how wickedly hilarious season 1 was, expectations are sky high this time around.

Verdict: Only Murders in the Building is a show that is best watched after all the episodes have dropped. If you can resist the temptation and stay away from reviews/recaps, wait till August. But if you loved season 1, it is highly unlikely you will be able to do that. Steve Martin and Martin Short are brilliantly funny men who feed off the energy of the other and somehow, Selena Gomez manages to match up to that, even though much of her acting is only in the way she says her lines and not so much with her face.

The Hulu original is streaming in India on Disney+Hotstar

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