Only Murders In The Building Season 4 Review – Too many guest spoil this season’s central mystery

Episode Guide

Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 7  -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 9  -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 10 -| Review Score – 2.5/5

Season 3 of Only Murders In The Building ended (unsurprisingly) with another murder. Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), Charle’s long-time stunt double, was found dead with a bullet wound. Who done it? Well, that isn’t something we find out until the end of this fourth season, with a twist that you might not see coming.

As the season begins, we don’t know if Sazz was the intended victim. As she was killed in Charle’s apartment, there’s a chance that he was the target of the killer due to Sazz’s tendency to dress like him. As the season progresses we, like Charles and his friends Mabel and Oliver, are left guessing. The final reveal in the last episode is as surprising to them as it probably will be to you as there is a frustrating lack of clues to the killer’s identity in the prior episodes. 

But despite the misfire of an ending, this fourth season of Only Murders is still enjoyable thanks to the central trio of Steve Martin, Selma Gomez, and Martin Short, and a neverending string of guest stars that pop up throughout. Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd are two returning faces but this season also throws in Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Parenthood director Ron Howard who all appear as themselves.

At times, the central mystery surrounding Sazz’s death is pushed aside in favour of the guest appearances, which also include Scott Bakula, Richard Kind, Molly Shannon, and Kumail Nanjiani. It’s a pleasure to see such familiar faces on screen but at times, Season 4 is a little overstuffed with celeb performers. Sometimes less is more, especially in the case of Only Murders, which already has an established cast of able and funny actors who can carry the series on their own. 

This fourth season is also burdened with one too many subplots, including a trip to Hollywood for Charles and co where a movie about their podcasts is being made, and a move to the West side of the Arconia where some of the residents are engaged in something shady. Both subplots tie into the main story, but they are mainly an excuse to populate the screen with the aforementioned guest stars. 

At times, you probably won’t mind when the season veers away from the murder plot as we get lots of funny but ultimately extraneous scenes, including an entertaining sequence in which Charles and Oliver become background actors on a sci-fi movie that ultimately ends in their firing. However, when the story then rushes towards its resolution in the last episode of the season, you might feel slightly cheated by the lack of foreshadowing with regard the killer’s identity and motives in the previous episodes.

As such, this latest season of Only Murders slightly disappoints. It’s very amusing at times and occasionally quite emotional too, but the ‘murder’ aspect of the plot needed more fleshing out in the writing room. Still, that doesn’t mean a fifth season wouldn’t be welcomed. As is customary for the series, the ending drops a cliffhanger that will lead into that season, so we haven’t seen the last of Charles and his friends yet. We just hope the mystery they get tangled up in is better thought out than the one they were caught up in during Season 4.

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