Who would have guessed we’d see a fourth season of “Only Murders in the Building,” which premieres Tuesday on Hulu? The people who made it, possibly, since they’ve ended each season with a new mystery to solve in the next. But the idea of Steve Martin and Martin Short embarking on a TV series in their 70s, with Selena Gomez, then not quite 30, as their co-star, seemed as wonderful as it was improbable — and wonderful is what it turned out to be. Each successive season has felt like a little unexpected gift.
The waning energy of elder statesmen has become a hot topic this year, but “Murders” continues to make the case for long, productive lives. Short, who turns 74 this year, remains in touch with his inner Ed Grimley, and Martin, now 79, remains funny in a specific Steve Martin way (there were moments watching the new season when I expected him to end a sentence with “and I’m a wild and crazy guy”), including subtle physical humor. Gomez, solemn and understated (who no one could have predicted would become the linchpin of a May-December comedy trio) provides the perfect balance.
Let me briefly introduce our heroes, whom we met as lonely people who find each other through a shared love of true-crime podcasts and the fact that they all live in the Arconia, the grand old Upper Manhattan building that gives the book its title. They are Charles-Haden Savage (Martin), a largely unemployed actor who starred in a hit late-’80s crime series, “Brazzos,” about which he takes pleasure in reminding anyone who sits still long enough to be reminded; Oliver Putnam (Short), a producer of serial theatrical flops, whose apparent success with the musical “Death Razzle Dazzle” quickly turns sour at the start of this season; and Mabel Mora (Gomez), a smart and artistic but aimless young woman. (She’s currently homeless and staying at Oliver’s house; the scenes where the trio are in bathrobes, discussing the new mystery, are quite charming.)
Their relationship, which has had its ups and downs over the previous three seasons, has now evolved to a point of stability, both as friends and collaborators, clearing the way for action. It's a season of clean slate; aside from the welcome return of neighbor Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton), Da'Vine's Detective Williams' Joy Randolph and Meryl Streep as Oliver's actress girlfriend, Loretta Durkin, there are few faces from years past. Personal relationships do not interfere with the investigation.
At the end of Season 3, Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), Charles’ former stunt double and lifelong friend, was shot through the window of her apartment on the night of the triumphant opening of Oliver’s play. “Is she dead?” is a question the writers want you to ask. And also, “Was she the target?” dressed identically to Charles. These are just the first of many questions this zigzagging season will take time to answer.
This season features a comedy of stunts, acrobatics, and the like. Hollywood is knocking on the door to make a movie based on our heroes’ podcast, under the half-crazed aegis of executive Beth (a delightfully unhinged Molly Shannon). Even before our trio sign off on anything, there’s already a script, a cast, and artistic twin directors — “fresh off their Grand Prix at Cannes and their super viral Walmart ad campaign” — in place. Whereas Season 3 played with theater tropes, the current series satirizes, or self-satirizes, movies and movie actors. The conceit of characters relating to people who’ve been assigned to play them isn’t new, but it’s particularly charming here, with Zach Galifianakis radiating a bored contempt for Oliver, Eva Longoria all but begging Mabel to consider her an equal, and Eugene Levy an enthusiastic fan of Charles’ work in “Brazzos.”
The sense of melancholy that sweetened earlier seasons, with stories revolving around the first victim, Ted Kono, deli magnate Teddy Dimas and his deaf son Theo, and Charles’ virtual daughter, Lucy, is absent this year in favor of satire and farce and a collection of even stranger characters than usual. These include Richard Kind as an Arconia resident with a supposedly ineradicable case of migratory conjunctivitis and Kumail Nanjiani as his neighbor, whose apartment is filled with Christmas decorations year-round. They belong to the building’s less exclusive West Tower, across the courtyard, a different world, where Charles’ serial-killer girlfriend in Season 1 lived, Jan (Amy Ryan), on which Charles, Mabel and Oliver spy like James Stewart in “Rear Window.”
Melissa McCarthy, whose character is apparently a spoiler, will have a lot to do when she arrives and, as could be said of the season as a whole, she's wonderfully funny.
There's a short trip to Los Angeles, for archival footage, scenes on the Paramount lot and a party in Hollywood; a New York stunt bar called Concussion; and another longer trip to suburban Long Island. Only seven of the ten episodes have been offered for review; I can't say whether other locations or characters will be included. Or what Portugal has to do with it all.
I can say that I regret not having sent you those last three episodes. We will wait together.
