I have forced multiple people in my life to love this show as much as I do
I am one of many people whose attention spans have been ruined by TikTok. I used to be able to binge hours of TV, sit through movies, and watch hours of youtube videos. Nowadays I really struggle getting into TV shows, I didn’t even watch Squid Games…but this show caught my attention when I was introduced to it by my amazing Media and Human Behavior class instructor, Maura, during class when she used it as an example for one of our course concepts.
For starters, it has an amazing cast full of names that people from any generation would recognize. The main characters are played by Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short. There are also guest appearances from singer Sting, Tina Fey, Amy Ryan (Holly from The Office) and Jane Lynch (Sue from Glee). Another aspect of this show that I loved was the background music. It was suspenseful but also playful. It matched what was happening in the show perfectly, and was even incorporated into the plot through Charles playing the accordion, or Jan playing her bassoon. It may seem like a minor detail, but the soundtrack really took this show to a whole new level for me.
The plot follows residents of The Arconia, an apartment building in New York City. Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short) become unlikely friends after realizing they all are fans of the same true-crime podcast. One of their fellow residents is found dead, and as crime podcast fans they can’t help but to want to look for clues and figure out if the police are right and it was a suicide, or if it was a murder. They use their connections at The Arconia to not only further their personal investigation, but to also create their podcast that is inspired by the events of the building. In the beginning, there are aspects of each character’s life that are a mystery, but something this show does very well is revealing just enough to answer some of your questions, but also keep you watching in order to know more.
The show also had a lot (and I mean a lot) of twists and turns. Just when you think they have it all figured out, they find another piece of evidence that changes the entire case. It is also funny to watch three seemingly everyday people fulfill crime podcast fan’s dreams of solving their own case and producing episodes as they go. It was a really cool way to incorporate something like podcasts that are a popular media choice into another popular media choice, TV shows.
I would have never predicted the ending of season one. In fact, it left off on one of the biggest cliffhangers I have seen in a while. I highly recommend Only Murders in the Building to anyone who enjoys true crime, comedy and suspense. You can stream Only Murders in the Building on Hulu. I am highly anticipating the next season and am now on the hunt for another show that will capture my attention like this one did.