‘Only Murders in the Building’ Lets Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, Martin Short, and the UWS Shine

Imagine finding yourself in the middle of your favorite true crime podcast. A neighbor is murdered and anyone in your insular community could be a suspect. But instead of happening in rural small town America, this mystery is unfolding within the posh walls of a classic Upper West Side co-op. You know, a place where the neighbors truly don’t know each other.

This is the playground of Hulu‘s new comedy Only Murders in the Building. Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez star as a trio of unlikely friends and less likely amateur detectives who take it upon themselves to start a podcast wherein they will solve the mystery of “Who Killed Tim Kono?” The series combines Martin and Short’s effortless wit with an intense whodunit?, meaning it’s irrepressibly charming. But the reason why you’ll fall hard for Only Murders in the Building? It’s one of the most jubilant love letters to New York City’s Upper West Side since the heyday of Nora Ephron.

Only Murders in the Building was created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, and boasts This is Us mastermind Dan Fogelman as an executive producer. The series introduces us to three very different people who find themselves in the same elevator in the Arconia Building one day: former TV detective Charles (Steve Martin), struggling Broadway producer Oliver (Martin Short), and effortlessly chic “cool girl” Mabel (Selena Gomez). Their lives change forever when they are joined by another neighbor, Tim Kona (Julian Cihi), who is angrily chatting on the phone while holding a trash bag. It’s only noteworthy because soon Tim Kono will die and the trio will join together to solve what they believe is his murder.

Only Murders in the Building revels in satirizing the world of true crime podcasts. From a Sarah Koenig-lookalike played by an iconic comic actress to the opening titles designed to look like a new pod episode dropping on your phone, it understands the cliches its mining. The inspired twist is that the show skips any of the moral hand-wringing that often catches up with true crime podcasts — be it the exploitation of victims or accusations of poverty porn — and embraces the comfort of the classic cozy murder mystery. Sure, the Arconia is an Upper West Side co-op and not a tiny British town, but Only Murders in the Building‘s goal is to make you have fun. And it succeeds more often than not thanks to the the lust-worthy locations and all-star ensemble cast.

Steve Martin’s character Charles may be a former TV star, but his ego takes a backseat to his neuroses. Until launching the podcast, he has kept himself locked away from life, smarting from a heartache we hear more about later. Martin Short’s Oliver is the opposite: a gregarious, charming gadfly, he befriends everyone in the building while keeping the depths of his own fall from grace quiet. Finally Selena Gomez’s Mabel is a charming enigma and I’m loathe to tell you more for spoiler-y reasons. However Gomez more than holds her own opposite Martin and Short and gives the proceedings a crackle that might not otherwise be there. (Or maybe I just liked her because I, too, am a millennial loner who spends her free time with retirees on the Upper West Side. We exist! Representation matters!)

The most popular murder mysteries understand that the hunt for the killer often pulls everyone’s secrets to the surface. Only Murders in the Building doesn’t just use the murder of Tim Kona to reveal secrets about the suspects, but the sleuths, themselves. In fact, the most interesting part of the show could very well be how we get to slowly parse out who Oliver, Charles, and Mabel all are behind the images they project. In fact, every episode shifts the focus of the narrator so we understand that part of the appeal of mysteries is uncovering who people really are. Only Murders does this with a mix of humor and humanity (and stellar guest spots including the likes of Sting and Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

But my personal favorite part of Only Murders in the Building was its setting. Sure I literally live in the neighborhood, but the Hulu show understands the idiosyncratic beauty of the Upper West Side. The area’s quirky personalities, love of art, and, most of all, gorgeous architecture are all used to their full glory here. It will feel escapist for folks who live out of town and romantic for those of us who call New York City home.

Ultimately Only Murders in the Building doesn’t break new ground so much as it deftly embraces what makes the mystery genre so universally compelling. Solving the puzzle of a crime isn’t so much about seeking justice as it is finding one way to nail down order in an otherwise chaotic world. Mable, Charles, and Oliver need to believe that all these clues are connected, that there is a reason why Tim Kono was killed. It may be the only thing that can make sense in any of their lives.

The first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building premieres on Hulu on August 31, 2021

Where to stream Only Murders in the Building