Only Murders in the Building Season 3 review: So many stars yet so underwhelming
If it were not for Meryl Streep and Martin Short, this season would have been unredeemable
2.5/5
Oct 03, 2023
Meryl Streep and Martin Short in a still from the show
Only Murders in the Building Season 3
Story: On the opening night of Oliver Putnam’s (Martin Short) Broadway Production, lead actor Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) dies, presumably killed by someone on the cast or crew, with the suspect list including Charles Haden-Savage (Steve Martin) and Loretta (Meryl Streep). But with Oliver obsessed with ensuring his Broadway return doesn’t turn into a damp squib and on his budding romance with Loretta and Charles dealing with his own demons, Mabel (Selena Gomez) goes solo on this investigative trip, with some help from videographer Tobert (Jesse Williams), who was documenting Ben’s Broadway stint.
Review: Let’s cut to the chase – the third season of Only Murders in the Building was most excruciatingly boring. And that’s despite the addition of Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep to the main cast and Matthew Broderick thrown in for a guest role. After two seasons of solving deaths at the Arconia, where the podcasting trio of Oliver Putnam, Charles Haden-Savage and Mabel Moira live, season three gets a change of scene. This time, the murder is at a theatre, although Ben Glenroy also lives at the Arconia. In keeping with the spirit of theatre, there’s a lot of singing and other theatrics and, literally, no podcast.
There’s a lot of fluff about Oliver trying to save his show and finding love with Loretta, Charles’ commitment phobia and stage fright, with Mabel the only member of the trio still invested in figuring out what happened to Ben. Turns out, one of Ben’s most popular shows, CoBro, holds sentimental value to her. She gets some help from the boy from 6B, Theo Dimas (James Caverly) and Tobert in piecing together Ben’s movements between his almost death (when he was poisoned), to his actual demise and even brings out one episode of Only Murders in the Building - #BloodyMabel for the kill. That’s about all the podcasting we see or hear of this season.
With pretty much everyone on the cast and crew having an axe to grind with Ben, it was cakewalk for the showrunners to stretch Season 3 to 10 episodes. But that also means that until episode 9, Oliver, Charles and Mabel are no closer to finding out who pushed Ben to his death than they were at the start of the season. At the end of each of those painful to watch 8 episodes, I shook my head in disbelief that the show had plummeted to such depths. What’s sad is that in those episodes were some absolutely stellar moments featuring Martin Short and Meryl Streep, and yet, at the end of it all, it’s not something that will linger. What a lost opportunity.
Well, it seems that Season 4 is on the cards, with yet another murder in the building. Someone’s out to get Charles, only problem is that he/she got Sazz (Jane Lynch), his body double instead. Well, Charles' earlier murderous girlfriend, Jan (Amy Ryan), is behind bars, but may want to avenge Sazz, since they were in a relationship. Then there's makeup artiste of many years and most recent love interest Joy (Andrea Martin), but besides these very likely suspects, who else would want old Brazzos gone?
Verdict: If it were not for Martin Short and Meryl Streep, Only Murders in the Building Season 3 would have probably been totally unwatchable. If you are a fan of the show, you’ve probably already seen all 10 episodes, but if you haven’t yet, the suggestion is to really lower your expectations. Then, perhaps,
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