For a profession that makes its own labor invisible, stunt performers have turned heads in 2024. First came Ryan Gosling’s “The Fall Guy,” a popcorn movie built around a body double; now comes season 4 of “Only Murders in the Building,” in which the latest victim of the mystery is Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), the longtime replacement for ex-procedural star Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin). Sazz’s disappearance after being shot in the season 3 finale makes for a season that’s just as silly as its predecessors, but more thematically focused on the idea of doppelgängers and what they tell us about ourselves.
A new investigation is par for the course for “Only Murders,” the hit Hulu comedy that centers on a trio of neighbors-turned-true-crime podcasters as they battle both chaos and urban alienation. What season 4 adds to the mix is a good dose of Hollywood satire. Unbeknownst to Charles, theater director Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and aimless millennial Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), their story has inspired a screenplay that, under the crazy logic of this universe, is now a full-fledged production, ready to let the cameras roll. turn. All Beth Mellon (Molly Shannon) needs is our heroes’ signature.
Beth’s pitch necessitates an excursion to the City of Angels in the season premiere, but anyone hoping co-creator Martin is planning a revival of his 1991 opus “LA Story” may be disappointed. Fans who turn to “Only Murders” for consistent comfort food can rejoice: Summer is waning, sweater weather is in the air and we’re back at the Arconia, the palatial Upper West Side complex that is a world unto itself. (The only west coast these Manhattanites recognize is adjacent to the Hudson River.) There’s just some show business types hanging around, and a new corner of the building for Oliver, Charles, and Mabel to explore.
If “Only Murders” won’t leave the Arconia, it can at least add novelty by introducing a new group of townspeople to earn our suspicion. You see, the Arconia has a long-forgotten outbuilding across the street, and the bullet hole through Charles’ window points in their direction. In keeping with the show’s rising profile (Meryl Streep is now just part of the cast!) and escalating absurdity, this latest crop of suspects has even bigger personalities and more famous faces than the co-op committee members we’re used to. There’s the eyepatch-sporting Stink Eye Joe (Richard Kind), an absent film professor (Griffin Dunne) and a fitness influencer obsessed with Christmas (Kumail Nanjiani, whose character seems designed to reflect his post-Marvel physique ). And Mabel, still without a permanent residence, decides to squat in an empty apartment that may be a crime scene.
These so-called “Westies” are nice additions, but it’s the movie that gives season 4 more focus and pathos than the show has had since season 1. It’s not just the inside baseball jokes – including a shoutout to this publication! – or the possibility of casting Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis and Eva Longoria as themselves, looking at the open case as a way to study their future characters. Charles becomes increasingly convinced that Sazz has taken a bullet meant for him, in a final act of taking blows on his behalf. This not only leads to wonderful forays into the stunt community, but also to genuine introspection about what it means for someone else to capture your essence.
“Is that really me?” asks Charles in his opening voiceover, describing the experience of watching himself (or a version thereof) on screen. “Is that how I want to be remembered?” Oliver worries that Galifianakis finds him boring and pathetic, an extension of the insecurities surrounding his girlfriend Loretta’s newfound fame; Mabel is disturbed to hear that she is being dismissed as an unemployed, homeless, directionless young woman. Compared to previous seasons, this season rarely focuses on the ongoing podcast, instead switching up the narrators with each episode. But Charles’ sets the tone for a story that finds the right balance between melancholic loneliness and naming a cute piglet George Swinebrenner. Everything in moderation, especially when it comes to making comedy out of corpses.
The first episode of Season 4 of “Only Murders in the Building” is now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes airing weekly on Tuesdays.