Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Review: Episode 1-2 Confirms Itself As A Real Gem, An Ironic And Intelligent Series

Cast: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Amy Schumer

Creator: Steve Martin, John Hoffman

Streaming Platform: Hulu and Disney+

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four stars)

From June 28, the most unlikely trio of detectives that TV has ever offered to thriller-loving viewers returns to Hulu and some countries on Disney+ Only Murders in the Building Season 2 returns for a second cycle, multiplying the suspense, the fun, and even the intuition of Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), who are in better shape than ever.

Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Review: The Story

The open ending of the first season had left us with bated breath, with the discovery of a new corpse and with our protagonists stuck in all respects. This second season plays the relaunch, therefore, because if on the one hand, our trio will have to solve a murder case again, they will also have to try to exonerate themselves from the accusation. The murderer, however, seems to be a step ahead of us, constantly putting them in difficulty and proving to know their past and their secrets well.

It is characteristic of every TV series that extends beyond the first season to deepen and develop the characters whose stories we see told. Only Murders in the Building Season 2 is no exception, going to fish in the past of the protagonists and at the same time laying the foundations for future stories, making the mythology that surrounds the Arconia and its tenants become more robust. The elegant building as well as the protagonists tell each other, and reveal themselves, through discoveries and revelations that make the story come alive, enrich it, and give depth with their stories and their anecdotes. In this way Only Murders in Building 2 becomes a choral and dense tale, which is based on a thriller but which at the same time also bases on other plots, reinvigorating an already successful story.

Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Review and Analysis

Martin, Short, and Gomez confirm themselves as close-knit as unlikely, lost in their respective worlds yet capable of finding a common language which, as glimpsed in the first season, goes far beyond the surface of the investigations and delves into these personalities who, each in their way, they suffer and seek the comfort of a family they have lost along the way. Their podcast, their research, and their questions become a fixed point, an act of caring for others, a comfort in a world that perhaps has not treated them as they deserved.

Only Murders in Building 2 also multiplies the number of special guests and illustrious faces. In particular, in two very well-characterized roles, we find the icon Shirley MacLaine who puts her incredible comic talent at the service of the show, as she did for Downton Abbey, and Cara Delevigne, who plays a character who seems very much in her strings. and who promises to wreak havoc on Mabel’s life. After Sting’s cameo in Season 1, it’s up to Amy Schumer this time to play the part of herself as the Arconia’s new tenant. Her character opens the door to a series of meta-textual references that make the writing of Only Murders in Building 2 even more brilliant and fun. It goes without saying what Amy tells Oliver at the beginning of the first episode, in which she says she is a big fan of their podcast and sets out to shoot a TV series based on it!

The writer’s room of Only Murders in the Building Season 2 expands further compared to the first season and the wealth of points of view becomes an important value of the story, together with the always light and ironic tone that is dictated by the three main interpreters, charismatic and funny, a trio that welcomes their characters, structures them and gives them a second life by adding more and more elements to their construction. In the Hulu offer, Only Murders in the Building Season 2 is confirmed as a real gem, an ironic and intelligent series, which involves not only the crime thriller component but also and above all the lives of these confused, broken, and yet extraordinary characters. All taking care to give the viewer a smile and a witty joke.

The TV series was a success with audiences and critics in its first season (although on the audience side considering the absence of numbers by Disney+/Hulu are mostly guesses) so in the second season, nothing changes. leaving the magic of the series intact. Of course, there are new formulas, new characters, and new situations but the basic structure of the series has not changed on the other hand nobody would have wanted it. The series works precisely for the trio of absurd protagonists who populate the New York building: an elderly actor, an elderly director always in search of success and a millennial. What do they have in common? the passion for true crime.

The best moments of Only Murders in the Building are precisely those in which the 3 interact with each other or with other characters. Their exchanges of words never fast and frenetic, always calm and moderate to settle the dialogue, are the strong point of the series. The series works when the absurdities of the protagonists are inserted into reality. On the contrary, it loses vigor in the most absurd situations and when Tina Fey and her competitor podcast enter the scene. Her character and the whole context built around her is too exaggerated, constantly over the top.

On the main and secondary points of the plot, it is better to overlook, that the time is not yet ripe for a third crime, this time behind the scenes. On the new characters, the considerations to be made are somewhat the same; mouths are sewn about the appearance of Shirley MacLaine, by Cara Delevigne it can be said that she is a British artist and that she crosses the step with Selena Gomez, while Amy Schumer makes up, having fun, cynical and unbearable. For the rest, the humor goes in tandem with the gorier aspects, the old-fashioned (and sweetly self-deprecating) charm of Martin and Short binds perfectly with the ease in step with the times, but punctuated by dark pages, by Selena Gomez. The series is, it remains, a mockery of loneliness and a sincere homage to friendship, especially the one that seems most unlikely at the starting line. An underlying lightness which is then the hallmark of the entire operation links laughter and crime, the romantic idea of ​​New York and its dark alleys.

Only Murders in the Building Season 2 Review: The Last Words

Only Murders in the Building Season 2 confirms itself as a real gem, an ironic and intelligent series, which involves not only the crime thriller component but also and above all the lives of these confused, broken and yet extraordinary characters. All taking care to give the viewer a smile and a witty joke. The ability to limit yourself is a sign of humility and intelligence. One cannot help but contest a little, from time to time, this humility, this intelligence. Without exaggerating, because the offer is top quality and as it gets older it also improves.