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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
123
Mixed:
15
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Aug 26, 2024
Season 4 Review:
While Season 3 spit the trio apart as they each got pulled in their own directions, this season finds them stronger than ever. As they work together to solve this case, they bounce back and forth in hilarious and zany ways, allowing Martin, Short, and Gomez to really thrive beside one another. And they continue to elevate the series’ newest additions as well.
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TV Guide MagazineSep 17, 2024
Season 4 Review:
The whodunit storyline is solid, with plenty of authentic twists and surprising revelations. But it's the character comedy that keeps us coming back. [16 Sep - 6 Oct 2024, p.11]
Aug 31, 2021
Season 1 Review:
"Only Murders in the Building" works because it embraces such entrancing details, but even more so because its creators recognize what grants any piece of art the potential to become classic: it's in the marriage of old and new. ... Any show can string together a decent whodunnit, but examining loneliness as a universal mystery is the more captivating concept enriching the three-part harmony wrought by Gomez, Martin and Short's combined performances.
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Jun 20, 2022
Season 2 Review:
Only Murders’ second season feels more like a seamless continuation of its first rather than a whole new case, which—along with the show’s incredible sweaters, coats, and sports jackets—adds to the overall cozy and familiar feel. Essentially, everything you loved about the first season is still fully intact here, and while not perfect, it’s still a charm and a half.
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Aug 27, 2024
Aug 9, 2023
Season 3 Review:
While season three’s premiere is jam-packed with nuggets about the case, it never loses focus away from the comedy. The one-liners and banter continue to flow smoothly between Charles, Mabel, and Oliver.
[The score is the average of the grades for the first two episodes.]
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Jun 24, 2022
Season 2 Review:
The good news is the show’s second season, streaming Tuesday, is more like the back half of season one: funnier and more involved because we’re dealing with established characters and because the writers, led by showrunner John Hoffman (“Grace and Frankie”), have a firmer grasp on the show’s tone and a more confident hand in its plotting.
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IndieWireAug 7, 2023
Season 3 Review:
A TV series that revolves around its characters putting on a Broadway show demands to be a showstopper in and of itself. “Only Murders” pulls it off. Anyone who sees Season 3 and doesn’t walk away convinced that the actors deserve a share in its success, well, you’re clearly one of the would-be thieves.
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The PlaylistJul 27, 2023
Season 3 Review:
The addition of great guest stars this year gives each of the leads new character beats to explore. Even the case this season feels less made-up as it goes along than it did in season two, which ended with something of a thud in its final reveal. Most of all, season three doesn’t feel like a repeat of the first two, amplifying the strengths of those seasons in a way that allows the performers to shine again.
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Jun 20, 2022Aug 31, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Only Murders In The Building engenders curiosity, first and foremost, whether it’s about your neighbors, what’s in the cultural zeitgeist (be it a podcast or the latest murder mystery show), or why someone might keep others at arm’s length. If you find personal revelations as thrilling as the resolution of a crime, it could even become your next TV obsession.
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Sep 8, 2025
Season 5 Review:
These side stories give you too much time to think, which means you spend more sussing out potential red herrings than paying attention to the action (Lester’s widow is played by Dianne Wiest, and heaven knows that nobody with a voice like that can be trusted in a murder comedy). And maybe this is all the point.
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The Observer (UK)Sep 10, 2024
Season 3 Review:
Obviously, Only Murders… will be too soft-core/fluffy for some, but it manages to remind everyone that TV crime doesn’t have to mean 24/7 gritty realism and thinly veiled torture porn. If the murders are markedly less alarming than the jazz hands, that’s all part of the charm.
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Aug 27, 2024
Season 4 Review:
“Only Murders in the Building” is still one of TV’s best comforts. It may take a while to find its stride (which it does, by the seventh episode) and lack any addictive hooks like last season’s surprise Broadway banger “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” But it still gives us plenty of motive to stick with it, overwhelmed though we may be by its amplified dazzle.
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Aug 27, 2024
Season 4 Review:
It’s wonderful to see Only Murders return to such great form. There are even traces of an evolution: If you squint, you can see a manic and unhinged quality to some of the jokes and set pieces that feels distinctly new. But what’s truly welcome is how the show has recentered itself.
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iAug 27, 2024
Season 4 Review:
While there are still laughs – particularly involving Sazz Pataki’s stunt pals, Eva Longoria embracing life as a would-be super sleuth, and a getting-to-know-you montage involving Galafianakis and Oliver that’s borderline romantic – season four has a lot more heart, and it works.
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SlashfilmAug 26, 2024
The TelegraphAug 26, 2024
Season 4 Review:
The pace dips somewhat toward the middle of the eight episodes and there isn’t nearly enough Streep. But there are lots of twists – including a cameo that Disney+ is keen to keep under wraps. All of which adds up to a killer season from a streaming sensation that has taken on a life of its own.
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Aug 9, 2023
Season 3 Review:
[Streep's] performance and Rudd's meld with that of the rest of the excellent cast. .... All these moments compensate for the softer corners this season manifested in the usual physical farce and misdirects, and the questionable choice to make Andrea Martin's Joy as campily vivacious as she comes across. Ultimately, however, that matters less than the vibe weighing on our trio.
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Aug 8, 2023
Season 3 Review:
Does the third season, of which I’ve seen eight episodes, go on too long, like so many streaming shows these days? Probably so. But there’s such warmth afoot, in our cross-generational Mod Squad and in the fun that all the cast members seem to be having. Along with silliness, the show has heart.
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Aug 8, 2023
Season 3 Review:
It’s no longer a surprise that Gomez enjoys such unlikely platonic chemistry with Martin and Short, or that Hoffman and Martin keep finding new ways to expand their characters’ insular world. It is a surprise, and a pleasant one, to see how that expansion takes shape, and who stops by to help fill the space.
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Aug 4, 2023The TelegraphJul 27, 2023
Season 3 Review:
The play’s the thing, and when you’re having this much fun, the show says, who’s going to get pernickety about plotholes? Because if Only Murders is anything, it is splendid fun. There is something delectably arch about the whole thing, a piece of well-worked stagecraft that nonetheless feels unorthodox at a time when so much TV takes itself so very seriously.
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iJun 29, 2022
Season 2 Review:
The characters are more lived-in, their quirks more fleshed out, and the concept of the show feels more assured – we start to find out more about Oliver’s background through flashbacks, and Mabel’s chance at finding love gives a new dimension to her moroseness. But this character-building doesn’t distract from the show’s main plot and fortunately, season two dives straight into the whodunnit.
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Jun 28, 2022
The Daily BeastJun 27, 2022
Season 2 Review:
[The second season] isn’t as playfully meta as its predecessor. Yet in every other way, it’s as mysterious and witty as before. A fast-paced whodunit that captures the spirit of New York City and its colorful denizens and diverse communities, it’s a pure delight, led by a Short performance that reconfirms his standing as the funniest person alive.
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Jun 27, 2022
Season 2 Review:
It’s mostly for the best that they’ve decided not to fix what wasn’t broken.So, aside from the fact they’re now trying to clear their own names—and Mabel’s in particular—fans can expect more of the same charming, intergenerational citizen-detective stuff they fell hard for last summer.
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Sep 28, 2021
Season 1 Review:
This ten-episode charmer, streaming on Hulu, is a fine sendup of media culture, in particular the true-crime genre. ... No deep feelings are stirred, yet the laughs come steadily, especially because of Short, a master at embodying the helpless narcissism of Broadway’s show-biz denizens.
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The TelegraphAug 31, 2021
Aug 30, 2021
Season 1 Review:
In pitting Martin and Short’s established routine opposite her [Selena Gomez's] wild-card casting, the show evolves from a straightforward parody of true-crime podcasts and their devoted listeners into a goofy yet endearing examination of the generational divide. ... The detective work is satisfying, but watching the investigation force the characters to reveal themselves and build an unanticipated bond is the real reward.
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Aug 30, 2021
Season 1 Review:
“Only Murders” delights in its many (rather predictable) twists, but moreso in the chemistry between its three leads. ... The intricacies of the people and setting of “Only Murders” are what ultimately make the show such a pleasure to dive into, and so easy to marathon without necessarily intending to.
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Aug 30, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Effectively, but not effortlessly — you can still sense the moments where Only Murders works better in concept than in execution, the places it leaps and then lands with a bit of a wobble. But its flaws do not make it any less charming. For a show that seems born out of the spirit of “wouldn’t it be fun?”, the answer is clearly “yes.”
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Sep 8, 2025
Aug 28, 2024Aug 9, 2023Jun 30, 2022
Season 2 Review:
“Only Murders in the Building” mashes up high comedy and carefully observed human moments and Season 2 is a continuation, and deepening, of that. All three leads are aces at this, and the show is directed with a particular appreciation for Short’s symphony of facial expressions.
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Jun 27, 2022
Season 2 Review:
Not every subplot works — there’s a storyline involving Charles that makes him seem naïve, even for a self-involved TV actor — but each episode of Season 2 has at least a couple of scenes that are pure comedic gold, thanks to that sharp writing and memorable triple-threat of Martin, Short and Gomez.
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IndieWireJun 20, 2022
Season 2 Review:
The humor is heavily meta. Deferential jokes about how difficult it can be to make a successful sequel work to acknowledge the obvious bumpiness and, hopefully, excuse some of it. All of these adjustments, both subtle and glaring, may grind on viewers seeking the same cozy experience they remember, but growing pains are part of the process in an ongoing series, and “Only Murders in the Building” still sports the simple joys of Steve Martin and Martin Short’s incredible skills.
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Aug 31, 2021Movie NationAug 26, 2021
Season 1 Review:
It’s all more a series of chuckles and surprises than farcical big laughs, with only as much melodramatic menace as Woody Allen’s similar “Manhattan Murder Mystery.” But this trio clicks, and everything “Only Murders in the Building” lightly mocks — New York living, New Yorkers, modern “relationships,” podcasters, podcast fanatics, snooty celebrities, snootier wannabes — is funny because we’ve been laughing at this or that for decades.
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Aug 23, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Only Murders delivers above-average laughs, a clever mystery, and a starry cast. But it's hard to shake the feeling that the show missed an opportunity to be something special, if only Martin and Hoffman had allowed it to be a little less kooky and a little more thinky.
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RogerEbert.comSep 8, 2025
Season 5 Review:
All of these people are great comic performers, and the truth is that’s often enough with “Only Murders in the Building.” Again, it’s comfort food, something that goes down easily through a blend of breakneck plotting—there’s a new twist every episode—and remarkable starpower. Could it be better? Sure. But sometimes, good enough will do.
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Screen RantSep 8, 2025
Season 5 Review:
The writers have got the formula down to a fine art: assemble all the suspects and persons of interest on the chessboard, shuffle them around with each new piece of information that comes out, and give the audience just enough clues to keep them guessing while they try to figure it out.
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