Just like all stage actors dream, after a stint on Broadway, Only Murders in the Building is moving onto bigger and better things out in Los Angeles. At least for a moment. Now in its fourth season, the show has done a remarkable job of staying true to its title without that title’s strict rubric stunting its growth. Last season took us slightly farther downtown from the titular building to the world of Broadway, and now we’re traveling even further to L.A., where studio executives want to turn the gang’s podcast into a movie. However, despite going bicoastal, the title still rings true. Because as we saw at the end of last season, this year’s murder did take place in the building. Sazz, Charles’s body double played by Jane Lynch, was shot in Charles’s apartment — presumably by a gunman who mistook Sazz for Charles.
And while the audience knows that Sazz is no longer with us, all Charles knows is that she isn’t answering his texts. When they return to his apartment after her killing, her body is nowhere to be found, and they don’t yet spot the bullet hole in the window. The only one who seems aware that something is amiss is Howard’s new dog Gravey — but more on him later. The trio is more preoccupied with another tragic loss — Death Rattle Dazzle, their musical from last season, is closing. But when one door closes, a window (ideally one without a bullet hole) opens. An email hits their inbox with great news for them and us. The great news for them is that Paramount Pictures is inviting them to L.A. because they want to adapt their podcast into a movie. The great news for us is that Molly Shannon is playing a Paramount executive named Bev Melon.
Though initially hesitant, Charles gets a text from Sazz’s number telling him she went back to Los Angeles herself, so the trip turns out to be a perfect opportunity to check on her. Plus, Oliver can follow after Loretta, who just ditched town to shoot a TV show on the West Coast, too. Mabel, being as rudderless as ever with both no home and no job, might as well join them. So much like an American Idol contestant with a golden ticket in hand, the trio is going to Hollywood.
The show, which already had a field day satirizing both the true-crime industry and Broadway in past seasons, now turns its attention to the movie business. So what better way for this quintessential New York show to introduce us to Hollywood than with a comically cliché re-creation of New York on a studio lot — yellow cabs, thick accents, hot dogs … the works. After walking through fake New York on the way to their meeting, they’re surprised to find that the proposed project is much further along in development than they imagined. Bev Melon introduces them to the creative team, including the film’s directors: “The Brothers†— who are two sisters whose last name is Brothers — played by Siena Werber and Cat Cohen. “And they’re identical twins, which is so neat,†Bev says of the two visibly nonidentical directors.
Most importantly, the trio finds out more about how they’re going to be portrayed, and thus how they have been and will continue to be perceived — which is a great way to sow the seeds of an identity crisis in our characters. Bev explains that Oliver is someone you want to cuddle and strangle at the same time, Charles is like an unfun uncle, and Mabel is traumatized, homeless, jobless, and mumbling. Who among us! Now, they just need them to sign away their life rights.
But only after that identity crisis I mentioned. Mabel, always overly sensitive about her life being in shambles, becomes overwhelmed by the meeting and rushes out. Not only does this movie confront her with the reality of her rudderless life, but she’s worried that committing that characterization to the film will all but cement her as that person moving forward. Oliver, meanwhile, is desperate for this lucrative deal to happen — and so the pattern we’ve seen in past seasons of Oliver’s eagerness clashing with Mabel’s hesitancy continues.
They can figure this all out at the party that the studio is throwing later that night, but in the meantime, they decide to swing by Sazz’s apartment to check on her. So after a pit stop at In-N-Out (c’mon, it’s L.A.), they pull up to the Sunset Swan apartment complex, which Charles (having once lived there himself) waxes poetic about. A storied complex, à la Melrose Place, where celebrities live alongside local eccentrics — making me think the spot could be a good locale for a potential West Coast spinoff.
Despite her mail piling up and Sazz still nowhere to be found, Charles is intent on shaking off the “unfun†reputation that the movie is trying to stick him with and sets his worries aside as they all head to the big party. That’s where they’re formally introduced to the cast who’ll be playing them — Eugene Levy as Charles, Eva Longoria as Mabel (aged up after focus groups found the age gap creepy), and Zach Galifianakis as Oliver. Was that last bit of casting meant to be a nod to the spiritual connection between Jiminy Glick and Between Two Ferns? In any case, we get a taste of that shared shtick when Oliver doesn’t recognize Galifianakis — after which he threatens to walk. But Bev Melon keeps him onboard by promising to green-light his dream project: “Erin Brockovich, but it’s me.†If only Hollywood were so open to making more Erin Brockoviches.
But then the real star arrives — Meryl Streep returning as Loretta, who ditched her signature Willie Nelson braids from last season for an L.A. glow-up. Fresh off the set of “GNOrFBUn†(Grey’s New Orleans Family Burn Unit), Loretta and Oliver waste no time having an adorable lovefest on the roof. Meryl Streep and Martin Short are so good at acting like they’re in a relationship! They’re such good actors! They’re great at pretending and playing make-believe like this! Anyway, Loretta wonders if Oliver might be interested in coming out to L.A. with her, something he seems hesitant about, and despite worrying about watching her take off and fly away, he’ll consider.
While this is going on, Mabel is confiding in Eva Longoria about her own concerns about signing away her life rights, which Eva understands since the script makes her seem like a “sad sack.†Ultimately, Eva Longoria advises asking the studio for a ton of money and then building something with it. This deal might not have to cement Mabel as the sad sack she is, but rather, it could be a ticket to escaping that. So she sits down with Bev Melon and hands her a slip of paper with her ask, and the deal is done. That’s all good and well, but if I were having drinks with Eva Longoria, you better believe I’d be asking about the behind-the-scenes drama at Desperate Housewives. I don’t want business advice; I want stories about Teri Hatcher — but I’m glad this worked out for Mabel.
Speaking of stars, Charles happens to run into Scott Bakula after mistaking him for their mutual stand-in Sazz. But Bakula reveals that he, too, hasn’t been able to get ahold of Sazz, which cements all of Charles’s concerns. The trio heads right back to Sazz’s apartment complex, where they break into her unit for answers. On display is her shrine to her many broken bones from stuntwork, as well as her several replaced joints, which Charles casually mentions are all from Bulgaria. Usually this show is pretty good at scattering bread crumbs organically, but we can tell right away that that shoehorned piece of information is going to come up again later. They also explore her desk, which is covered in vague, ominous clues and notes, one of which reads, “Looking at Charles.â€
However, before we can get a good look at all of the papers, Charles gets a call from the Arconia’s doorman about his request for a new kitchen window — except he never made any such request. That’s when they find out about the bullet hole in the glass, and simultaneously, Mabel finds out from Howard that Gravey used to be a cadaver dog, hence his freak-out at the apartment. So back to New York they go — where Gravey leads them to the building’s incinerator, where Charles discovers metal joints from Bulgaria in a pile of ashes. You know what that means — Jane Lynch won’t even be getting a check for playing a corpse.
Charles texts Sazz’s number, asking who’s on the other end, and they eerily respond, “Not your fucking friend.†Charles doesn’t have all that many friends, so that doesn’t really narrow down who this season’s killer is. If there’s any conclusion we can come to thus far, despite it being famously too early to come to any conclusions, it is that the shooter’s likely target was Charles. After all, Sazz looks just like him and was in his apartment. But what were all of those notes on Sazz’s desk? And will the killer try and finish the job? Was it Eugene Levy seeking a more interesting end to his character’s arc? There’s no way of knowing — yet!