Only Murders in the Building‘s Finale Solidifies the Show as Criminally Good
Photo Courtesy of Hulu
It’s been a strange thing to recommend Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building as being one of TV’s funniest and most wholesome shows when it’s also unequivocally about murder. Multiple murders, it turns out. But Steve Martin and John Hoffman’s series has been a cross-generational hit not only because it’s wry and warm, but because it understands the genre it lampoons so well. Only Murders is not strictly satire, but it’s also not just another crime series; using the true crime podcast craze as its launch point, it fully understands the obsession over these kinds of immersive stories while—somewhat miraculously—delivering one of its own.
Had “Open and Shut” been a series finale, with Only Murders as a miniseries (and minus that last coda), it would have been a great one-off. That legacy has been put into jeopardy to some degree with its Season 2 renewal, which will presumably see our trio—Charles, Oliver, and Mabel—solving another important murder in the Arconia. Except this time, they are all implicated. Might it be as wonderfully whimsical as the first? Possibly! It certainly answers the questions all of us have had since the renewal was announced: will there be another murder in this building? Will they move to another building? How many murders could conceivably take place in this building??
While the final moments of “Open and Shut” threaten to overshadow the rest of the episode as it sets up another crime and another season, I don’t want to lose sight of the wonderful things that came before that. We saw the trio figure out that Charles’ bassoonist girlfriend Jan was Tim’s murderer, something that Charles didn’t want to believe was true, but knew in his nose it was the case. Instead of playing that as a sad moment, though, we got to see Amy Ryan absolutely ham it up in her final scenes as Jan-the-unrepentant-killer, a deliciously evil portrayal of a serial murderess who thrives in discussing her carefully crafted slayings. And we got to see some excellent physical comedy from Steve Martin, as Charles’ poisoning also had the added benefit of showcasing the callousness of his New York neighbors in his moment of need. (The only thing that Only Murders might understand even better than crime drama is condo drama, and that true evil always lurks in the condo’s board—more on that in a moment).
Action aside—and it was wonderfully madcap—“Open and Shut” also allowed each of our mains to get a hopeful moment regarding their future: Mabel finished her mural and seems happy with Oscar, Charles reached out to reconnect with Lucy in a really lovely depiction of an anxious text exchange, and Oliver got his beloved dog back while bonding with his son and not having to beg for money (sweatshirt sales must be up). It was a lovely sequence that wasn’t the least bit saccharine, and gave some nice emotional closure… before it was all snatched away.