Only Murders in the Building

Toggling between sorrow and joy is the register of life itself as well as Only Murders in the Building. It feels like a show that could run forever, even though it can’t. For now, just enjoy the ride.

It's fifth, silliest and most enjoyable season.

Don’t worry: it’s still brilliantly put together and fun for all the family. It’s just that, like the building itself, Only Murders is now revealing hidden depths.

Only Murders In The Building continues to be funny while presenting solid mysteries for Mabel, Charles and Oliver to solve.

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.

Overall, Season 5 cleverly ties together the present mystery with the very beginning of the series, making the first season even more impactful than before.

A fast-moving and typically energetic Season 5. .... This season, like last year’s Hollywood-set Season 4, operates more like comfort food.

So even when the mystery sags, Only Murders In The Building reminds us that its purpose has changed from offering takes on the true-crime industrial complex to simply mining comedy from its capable stars. And on that front, it remains delightful as ever.

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.

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.

Something about this season feels like a step down. .... Well, details-schmeetails. The jokes always land.

Even the most irksome and overwrought moments of "Only Murders in the Building," even five seasons in, are still sort of charming, and a few jokes got genuine chuckles out of me across the nine episodes provided to critics. Still, I'm worried about this show's future, because it's truly just spinning its wheels at this juncture.

The podcast element falls by the wayside, the proportion of red herrings to genuine progress is off, the action is too often located outside the Arconia, and the core team are too often split up. .... It still has enough flashes of the old dynamic to keep us hooked and hopeful. Martin, Short and Gomez have not lost sight of their characters, and a course correction could easily be made for season six.

There's enough good stuff here, especially among the central trio (and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who guest stars once again as Detective Donna Williams) that it's worth watching. But even great shows have a tendency to move past their prime when they've been on the air long enough. I'm afraid that could be what's happening here.