In the fourth episode of Only Murders In The Building season 4, our trio hangs out with some of Sazz’s fellow stuntmen. Our review:
The pub is a British institution. The significance of going for a drink after work can’t be put into words; the pub isn’t just a place, it’s a way of life.
And that’s where Charles, Mabel and Oliver are off to in the new episode of Only Murders In The Building. The trio visit a pub where Sazz and her fellow stuntmen hang out after work. I can’t speak from experience, but I bet a pint of lager hits different after being hit in the face or thrown from a car continuously at work.
The episode actually starts with a strange voiceover. The voice feels distinctly familiar and has a bit of an Irish twang to it. We won’t reveal here who it is, but it’s a pleasant surprise. The episode is full of physical comedy and the stuntmen are a fantastic addition to the series. It gets the action away from the Arconia, which makes for a pleasing change of scenery.
We also get a funny sequence in which Charles offers his body up to the stuntmen. No, nothing dirty in that, it’s just that without Sazz’s body – she’s now a pile of ash – the stuntmen can’t give her a proper stuntman burial. Four episodes into season 4 and Only Murders In The Building has never been funnier.
At the same time, there’s a surprising amount of depth to the characters. Charles is getting frequent visions of Sazz and it’s clear that the murder has hit close to home for him. Not just because he might have been the intended victim, but because he and Sazz were close and she reminded him of the good ol’ days of working on Brazzos.
Meanwhile, Oliver contends with feeling like a failure after Loretta (Meryl Streep) has her new career in Hollywood. Short is able to balance the character’s tragic edge with the comedy really well here, and Oliver comes across as perhaps the most three-dimensional character of the central trio, or at least the most interesting.
Last week, after seemingly having bonded with his actor counterpart Zach Galifianakis, Oliver overheard him telling his agent on the phone what he really thinks of him, calling him a narcissist. Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton) defended Oliver, only to somehow insult him even more, which made Galifianakis consider the role of Oliver a potentially award-winning breakthrough for him.
Selena Gomez’s Mabel seems to have drawn a slightly shorter straw this season. Both Charles and Oliver have meaty narrative strands going on, but Mabel is mostly contending with being homeless and squatting in the Dudenoff apartment, even though a mysterious voice told her to leave or she’d be the next one to die. I’m hoping we get more insight into Mabel’s thoughts and feelings later on as the case develops.
As for who might have killed Sazz, we still have no clue and no suspects. The episode ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. We’re intrigued to find out what’s going on in next week’s episode as we hit the season’s halfway mark.
Join us again next week for another episode review of Only Murders In The Building.
