Only Murders in the Building Season 4 review: Formulaic and lame sums up show about podcast trio

2.5/5

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 story: Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), Charles Savage-Hayden’s (Steve Martin) trusted stunts person on his TV show Brazzos, is murdered, just as the Only Murders in the Building podcast is set to become a movie. Why was Sazz murdered? Was she the real target, or was it Charles?

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 review: Four murders in a building – it’s a surprise that anyone would still want to live there, unless, of course, rentals have tanked and how. Only Murders In the Building (OMITB) had a great opening season, something it has struggled to keep up with since. So much so that the last couple of seasons have been about cameos from well-known Hollywood celebrities.

Only Murders in the Building Season 3 review: So many stars yet so underwhelming  

If it was Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep in Season 3, this time around, they are joined by Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria and Zach Galifianakis, with director Ron Howard, Kumail Nanjiani and Melissa McCarthy also chiming in. Amid all these characters, a movie development on the podcast, and the actual investigation of the latest murder, a lot was happening on Only Murders in the Building Season 4, much of which had no real bearing on the final outcome.

This season, Gomez’s Mabel has no love interest but Short’s Oliver more than makes up for that with his relationship with Loretta (Streep). He spends more time stalking Loretta on social media and wondering if she will ditch him for the hot co-star, than he does investigating the death of Charles’ closest friend. Mabel’s a tad more invested in finding out what happened to Sazz, but also has to deal with being homeless and jobless and unsure of signing over the rights to her life for the movie.

When they finally have a suspect, or rather suspects, in the Arconia’s West Tower, there is much ado about nothing there too. All that balderdash about Dudenoff, Oh Hell, the Westies, Concussions, and the final reveal turns out to be about the script of the Only Murders in the Building movie? That’s really lame, honestly, which made Season 4 a painfully tiresome watch.

Only Murders in the Building review: A whodunit that’s such fun you don’t want it to end 

The appeal of Only Murders in the Building was the chemistry between the lead trio and this season, there was very little of that. The format hasn’t felt very effective since Season 2, and yet, the show keeps getting renewed. In fact, a 5th has already been commissioned. Yet again, there’s been a death at the Arconia – it’s not a resident, but someone who’s spent far more years in the Building than perhaps even Charles, Oliver and Mable, which should throw up some interesting tales. Perhaps, a shorter 6 episode run could do the trick?

Only Murders in the Building Season 4 verdict: Yet another flawed season of Only Murders in the Building, overstuffed with characters and plots that led nowhere. The laughs were few and far between and not everyone of the lead trio was obsessed about investigating the case at hand. If being formulaic was not bad enough, Only Murders in the Building is also increasingly finding it difficult to shake off the smell of stale.