Only Murders in the Building season 5 review: Revived from demolition at the right time

One of the best things that Only Murders in the Building has given its audience to latch on to, is sharing the stories of under-represented employees and their careers in the last two seasons. Last year, Charles Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) were aghast at seeing Charles’ stunt double Sazz Pataki’s (Jane Lynch) murder. What came after was a thoughtful and empathetic montage of Pataki’s lesser-known life of a stunt person who broke several bones to save celebrities’ lives. This season, with the death of Lester (Teddy Coluca), we see Arconia’s life through the eyes of its deeply-respected doorman. The last time I saw a similar moving homage to a doorman was in Modern Love. The current season too packs a punch, establishing the life and dreams of Lester. The cracks only emerge strongly when the trio start investigating his death.

Creators: Steve Martin and John Hoffman

Cast: Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Michael Cyril Creighton, Meryl Streep, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Téa Leoni, Bobby Cannavale, Teddy Coluca, Renée Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, Logan Lerman, Keegan-Michael Key and Jermaine Fowler

The new additions are aplenty, but Renée Zellweger as Camila White, Christoph Waltz as Sebastian "Bash" Steed and Logan Lerman as Jay Pflug are already major suspects on the murder board. The first four episodes are a perfect blend of horror, mystery and humour. The staging is on point and the engagement metre is up high. A particular scene involving them heading to a summer house and crossing paths with Steed's creepy pale-looking son was riot-worthily hysterical. It's also noteworthy that the show dedicates a significant amount of screentime to underline Lester's hobbies and returns it back to the audience in a clever way. This season also features an AI robotic doorman eerily named LESTR as a mainstay character, along with Howard Morris' (Michael Cyril Creighton) desperate need for a companion—right on time when rampant use of AI is replacing essential jobs, and amid New York mayoral elections. The timing couldn't be more uncanny.

It forces audiences to rethink the world where a machine knocking doors and asking for help to climb down and up the stairs could become a soon-to-be reality. What conversations will we have without essential workers like doormen and imagine the crumbling legacy buildings like these would hold if not for humans and the relationship they have with tenants across generations? A man who handles and disposes the tenants' trash comes and says that he knows the people's characters by their garbage. While no one should be allowed to handle trash, what would the world come to be without these quirky and unique characters?

However, Only Murders... has confused unraveling mysteries for dumping red herrings. The show truly stands by, 'If you can't convince them, confuse them' which dilutes the plot to nothingness, reducing Lester to just another character at the end, despite all their positive intentions. This season in particular seems to keeps a bank of characters in their pocket just for its red herrings that they could throw like chillies to the wok when the heat gets low.   

The silver lining they could have perhaps latched on is ‘The house always..’, hinting at and oscillating between ‘knows’ and ‘remembers’, and surely, in Lester’s own words, it has seen maybe three or even four generations of tenants. It would have been ably smart to bring former housemates or long-existing ones to twist a scene to add on to its intrigue with their perspective. Season 4 majorly worked brilliantly as the trio left Arconia to concentrate on the movie that was being made on them, and also to share Sazz Pataki’s story. Season 5 does bring new layers with unearthed secrets about their apartment. However, the sinister-looking, could-kill-you billionaires angle wears out quickly. Meryl Streep as Loretta is woefully underused this season that her storyline could have easily been written out without consequence. To make matters worse, the trio spends precious time obsessing over a finger that could have been sent for DNA testing instead of soaking in a Stanley Cup (Insert nauseating emoji).  The loopholes are one too many, but given the Only Murders… legacy, there aren’t many Stanleys left to give. The police too seem unbothered at this point, leaving the mystery for the trio to solve. Also, what happened to their podcast after their deal from Wondify?

But at this point, we have to admit it. Only Murders in the Building is one of the most effortlessly bingeable shows on OTT right now, with ideas bubbling in its cauldron season after season. Everyone knows The Bear isn’t a comedy by any stretch, despite its official label Similarly, the creators knew the humour was pointed right at them since season 2 when Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) dies on the stage and Mabel screams, “You’ve got to be f*ing kidding me!” Here we are three seasons later, still wondering when the next dead person will fall on their lap. When it does, towards the end, the anti-climactic meta jokes would surely tickle your funny bones—the humour is definitely on us.

Steve Martin and John Hoffman are well-aware of the limitations in the genre, and are happy to thrive inside them, sliding in clever innovations wherever necessary. With the curtains seemingly coming down on their show in a season or two, one can only hope that it doesn’t stumble into the trap of generative AI. For now, the creators might do well to tear down that murder board and finally move out of the Arconia.