#108 Gold In Its Pocket
29/08/24 08:37
Ah, Autumn. Season of mists, mellow fruitfulness… and Only Murders in the Building. I’ve come to associate this show with my favourite time of year, when the nights tighten, conkers litter the ground along with drunken wasps, and mince pies make their premature debut in Sainsbury’s. We’re tipping into the Nigella-twilight season, full of flickering candles, pumpkin spice lattes and cashmere ponchos. I’m feeling cusp-of-cosy, and ready for the finest cosy crime.
Except that Murders is more than that. It’s not Only anything. The term is limiting for such an ambitious, inventive and preposterous show. It’s cosy, yes; comforting, warm, buoyant. But it’s also daring, cheeky, gruesome, weird, unnerving and mind-bogglingly clever. The plotting is fiendish, the language salty, the humour barbed, the content meta, the energy sky-high. There’s a lot going on. For you Murders-virgins out there, I wrote a blog about the second series which lays it all out for you.
OMITB is also – perhaps primarily - incredibly funny. Not gently amusing or mildly droll, but LOL, farcically, honkingly funny. There’s a scene in the new series opener where Steve Martin struggles to push a piece of paper across a table, and I genuinely thought my pelvic floor was in peril. But then, having initially been oblivious to the actual killing, our crime-busting trio start to suspect something untoward, and the action turns spooky, disturbing and sorrowful. This death is a sad one – Charles’ stunt double Sazz was a great character, played with typical brio by the wonderful Jane Lynch. Exactly what happened to her is a conundrum, but one which our probing podcasters will puzzle out as the episodes continue. That’s the other impressive thing about this show – the storylines are proper whodunnits, peppered with juicy clues and red herrings, never entirely derailed by the jokes. Whatever Murders does – mystery, madcap, musical, menacing – it does it supremely well, balancing all the elements beautifully.
In this series, as well as the hidden homicide, Paramount Pictures are making a movie about the now-notorious team’s shenanigans, so we have the added intrigue of them meeting their ‘fictional’ counterparts, played by Eva Longoria (Mabel), Eugene Levy (Charles) and Zach Galifianakis (Oliver). There’s a delicious moment where Oliver - either unwittingly or very wittingly - refuses to recognise ‘Zach Gallifragilistic’: ‘Are you the little boy from Home Alone? What have they done to you?’ The star cameo count is off the scale, and you could be sniffy about that – The Times review certainly was – but I just like seeing famous people sending themselves up, so I’m happy, and looking forward to later episodes featuring the fabulous Melissa McCarthy as Charles’ sister. Also loving Howard’s new Labrador Gravey (sic), who is integral to the narrative. Everything is integral to the narrative – there are some devilishly neat set-ups and stitch-backs, and no matter how many guns are lying about, you know they will be fired.
I suspect that some of the shots are homages to iconic movies, in a Stranger Things/80s way, but I’m not enough of a film buff to pin any of them down. It all adds, though, to the splendid cleverness of it all – the sense that we’re in capable hands, directed (and misdirected) by people who know exactly what they’re doing, and are having tremendous fun doing it. And maybe that’s why it ultimately feels ‘cosy’ – we’re cocooned in the safety and surety of joyous expertise.
My only quibble is that Paul Rudd was in the last series, only he got killed off, which means he can’t be in it anymore. I think Paul Rudd is very *talented* and would like to see more of him. It’s a real shame.
Oh well. Bring on Season 5, starring… George Clooney and Stanley Tucci? Why the fuck not.
Except that Murders is more than that. It’s not Only anything. The term is limiting for such an ambitious, inventive and preposterous show. It’s cosy, yes; comforting, warm, buoyant. But it’s also daring, cheeky, gruesome, weird, unnerving and mind-bogglingly clever. The plotting is fiendish, the language salty, the humour barbed, the content meta, the energy sky-high. There’s a lot going on. For you Murders-virgins out there, I wrote a blog about the second series which lays it all out for you.
OMITB is also – perhaps primarily - incredibly funny. Not gently amusing or mildly droll, but LOL, farcically, honkingly funny. There’s a scene in the new series opener where Steve Martin struggles to push a piece of paper across a table, and I genuinely thought my pelvic floor was in peril. But then, having initially been oblivious to the actual killing, our crime-busting trio start to suspect something untoward, and the action turns spooky, disturbing and sorrowful. This death is a sad one – Charles’ stunt double Sazz was a great character, played with typical brio by the wonderful Jane Lynch. Exactly what happened to her is a conundrum, but one which our probing podcasters will puzzle out as the episodes continue. That’s the other impressive thing about this show – the storylines are proper whodunnits, peppered with juicy clues and red herrings, never entirely derailed by the jokes. Whatever Murders does – mystery, madcap, musical, menacing – it does it supremely well, balancing all the elements beautifully.
In this series, as well as the hidden homicide, Paramount Pictures are making a movie about the now-notorious team’s shenanigans, so we have the added intrigue of them meeting their ‘fictional’ counterparts, played by Eva Longoria (Mabel), Eugene Levy (Charles) and Zach Galifianakis (Oliver). There’s a delicious moment where Oliver - either unwittingly or very wittingly - refuses to recognise ‘Zach Gallifragilistic’: ‘Are you the little boy from Home Alone? What have they done to you?’ The star cameo count is off the scale, and you could be sniffy about that – The Times review certainly was – but I just like seeing famous people sending themselves up, so I’m happy, and looking forward to later episodes featuring the fabulous Melissa McCarthy as Charles’ sister. Also loving Howard’s new Labrador Gravey (sic), who is integral to the narrative. Everything is integral to the narrative – there are some devilishly neat set-ups and stitch-backs, and no matter how many guns are lying about, you know they will be fired.
I suspect that some of the shots are homages to iconic movies, in a Stranger Things/80s way, but I’m not enough of a film buff to pin any of them down. It all adds, though, to the splendid cleverness of it all – the sense that we’re in capable hands, directed (and misdirected) by people who know exactly what they’re doing, and are having tremendous fun doing it. And maybe that’s why it ultimately feels ‘cosy’ – we’re cocooned in the safety and surety of joyous expertise.
My only quibble is that Paul Rudd was in the last series, only he got killed off, which means he can’t be in it anymore. I think Paul Rudd is very *talented* and would like to see more of him. It’s a real shame.
Oh well. Bring on Season 5, starring… George Clooney and Stanley Tucci? Why the fuck not.
- Only Murders in the Building, Series 4, Disney+
