Eight Thoughts on Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building”

1. The show's layered mystery narrative - chock full of red herrings and dead ends - gets more than a little convoluted, especially in the escalating illogic of the second season.  But you're not going for the plot.  You're going for the effortless charm among the three leads and the way the show peels back the layers of their characters.  As clumsy as the overall story may get at times, the writers take great care with their characters' sad backstories.
2. Steve Martin, as one of the Cheese Fry’s OG fans recently put it, is a genius.  His unique brand of dry, sophisticated self-mockery is baked deep into this show.  As long a career as Martin has had, he still feels underrated somehow.
3. Great shows all have great theme songs.  You ever notice that?
4. For us, a little Martin Short goes a long way.  He’s a bit... much.  That he’s so engaging here is completely surprising.
5. To put it mildly, all these popular true crime podcasts can be very overwrought, which makes them a very worthy (if very niche) pop culture phenomenon to satirize.  Ms. Cheese Fry loves the “Dateline NBC” podcasts and it’s hard not to roll our eyes just hearing occasional snippets of that show.  Keith Morrison's "you'll never believe this" style this of narration is a genre onto himself.
6. There’s something strangely cozy and inviting about this sort of upper-crust Manhattan story where everyone lives in posh apartments, wears stylish clothing, attends swanky parties… without ever having an actual job.  And those who do have jobs are working on Broadway or owning art galleries.  They’re not from our world.
7. Selena Gomez is a big surprise here as well, even more deadpan and dry at times than Martin.  She more than holds her own.  The show predictably mines great humor out of the generation gap between her and her costars.  It’s what you expect, but executed so well.
8. Brazzos totally would have aired on NBC, don’t you think?

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