Oh that every home should have a doorman as wise and as kind as Lester Coluca.
Sadly, Lester (Teddy Coluca) was the victim for the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building, and this season’s mystery revolves around our three amateur sleuths finding out who had left him for dead in the fountain at the end of season four.
As many characters have pointed out to our intrepid detectives-slash-podcasters, Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short), their podcast being limited to only covering the investigation of murders that happen inside their apartment building means one of two things: either they are going to run out of material very quickly, or their apartment is going to quickly become a very unsafe place to live. Unfortunately for Lester, the answer was the latter.
Only Murders in the Building is arguably only one of many kinds of shows of this type available, but its clever plotting and use of misdirection meant that when the answer to who killed Tim Kono in season one was revealed, viewers felt as if they could have solved the murder for themselves. The show offered a kind of puzzle, spawning hundreds of theories about each season’s mystery online as the week to week episodes dropped. If you could figure out who the killer was before episode nine each season, you would win the game.
But with each successive season, the show has changed the rules, making it harder and harder for viewers to play along at home. First, there were the networks of secret tunnels in season two. Season four introduced an entire second tower on the west side of the building which somehow no one had ever referred to before. Now, in season five, our heroes discover a secret underground casino, The Velvet Room, which somehow was never discovered – even when Charles’ ex-step-daughter was literally living in the secret passages between all the apartments (and what ever happened to Lucy, anyway?). Speculation about season five before the first episode aired was that this might be the season that finally tied in some of the loose threads earlier years had left behind; but if this happened, I must have missed it.
The plot of season five also relies on a number of other deus ex machina techniques. The inclusion of three billionaire suspects (played by guest stars Logan Lerman, Renee Zellweger and Christoph Waltz) means that literally anything, including technologies that do not exist, are possible. Their characters do make for some interesting commentary on how people feel about billionaires, with the show drawing a connection between the New York mob and the ‘new mob of New York’ – powerful rich people who will stop it nothing to get their own way.
Similarly, the arrival of a robot doorman, LESTR (voiced by Paul Rudd, whose characters have been killed off a number of times in this show to date) allows the show to attempt some sort of stance on AI. Many characters voice their anger at the idea that roles that used to be about people caring for one another can be outsourced to machines. LESTR also plays a key role in uncovering some of the clues as the show pans out, though he (or perhaps I should say it) behaves more like a robot being voiced by a person than an actual robot, especially in the episode told from the robot’s point of view, in which it laments that the other staff don’t like it very much…Um, okay? Not to mention that Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton), once looking like he might become the fourth member of the team, seems to form an unhealthy attachment to the robot – a joke that plays out long after it should have been retired.
This show has always boasted a revolving door of guest stars, and this season might tie with the last as the most star-studded, with Meryl Streep returning as Oliver’s awkward and dorky new wife, Loretta, Tea Leoni playing the widow of a mob boss who has gone missing and Beanie Feldstein playing an old frenemy of Mabel’s who has just made it big as a pop star and bought the penthouse. Feldstein’s portrayal of “Thē” AKA Althea was a highlight of the season, and the rivalry between the two young women helped round out Mabel, whose characterisation seemed to have stalled a little since her introduction.
Say what you like about Only Murders…, but it is a show that is aware of most of its shortcomings. Whether it be Oliver’s narcissism, Charles’s bizarre habit of being attracted to dangerous women, or the growing incredulity of people outside the Arconia at what has been going on, the showrunners rarely miss an opportunity to put potential criticism of their own creation into the show as a joke. On an episode to episode level, most episodes of the show are still entertaining, largely due to the chemistry between the intergenerational leads, Gomez, Martin and Short. I do wonder, however, how much longer jokes about misunderstandings between the three misfits (particularly those about the older two being unable to use their phones) will continue to be charming. I note that this season, the OMITB fan club is conspicuously absent – has their popularity in the world of the show declined as real viewers choose to switch off? Where season five falls down is in the mystery stakes. The inconsistency of episode quality, the lack of a sense of an overarching puzzle uniting the ten episode arc, and the unfairness of the rules of play make the show less of a must-watch than it was, and yet, with the set up of season six laid out in the final moments of episode ten, I find myself still excited to see what will happen next.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
All ten episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 5 are now available to watch on Hulu and Hulu with Disney+.
