Only Murders in the Building: The Beat Goes On
August 8, 2023 9:32 PM - Season 3, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Mabel, Oliver, and Charles attend Ben's lavish memorial full of fans and those with more dubious motives.
As the actor's sudden death is mourned, Oliver works to revive his shaky Broadway show.
As the actor's sudden death is mourned, Oliver works to revive his shaky Broadway show.
So there's a lot of motive going around.
Assistant guy, brother, Streep, understudy guy, whoever farted...
I feel like he could easily have just fallen accidentally, too.
I don't really care who done it; I hope they keep making this show for as long as they're all having fun. (They're clearly having fun!)
posted by Acari at 5:47 PM on August 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
Assistant guy, brother, Streep, understudy guy, whoever farted...
I feel like he could easily have just fallen accidentally, too.
I don't really care who done it; I hope they keep making this show for as long as they're all having fun. (They're clearly having fun!)
posted by Acari at 5:47 PM on August 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
I love these lovable fools being lovable and foolish. There is such an inherent sweetness and playfulness to this show. Martin & Short are clearly fun, but Gomez, in her own way, plays such a good straight "man" (but also I think she's as funny as the two of them are, just in a more deadpan way).
I really do not care about the actual mystery. I just want to hang out with these people. It's completely a cozy mystery (and meant to be!) but also about flawed (but relatable!) people. I'm so glad it's back.
posted by edencosmic at 5:53 PM on August 10, 2023 [11 favorites]
I really do not care about the actual mystery. I just want to hang out with these people. It's completely a cozy mystery (and meant to be!) but also about flawed (but relatable!) people. I'm so glad it's back.
posted by edencosmic at 5:53 PM on August 10, 2023 [11 favorites]
I really do not care about the actual mystery. I just want to hang out with these people.
I found myself speculating about the Death Rattle pivot from a play to a musical in the way that I might normally think through a murder mystery, like "We know that the Meryl Streep character and Howard's boyfriend can sing, but what about the rest of the cast? How stressed out might Oliver get if some of his actors can't sing at all?"
I liked that the precipitating event of the Charles/Ben feud was definitely Charles' fault. Obviously we haven't seen the entirety of Ben's reign of terror, so I don't know if Ben took things way too far. Sometimes my favorite characters are jerks, and other characters have legitimate reasons to resent them.
Favorite exchange:
Oliver: I bet they have prime seats up there on the main part of the cathedral. You know, the whatchamacallit.
Charles: The transept.
Oliver: No, no, no. That's the cross-section. I'm talking about the main part.
Charles: The narthex, the antechamber.
Oliver: Who are you, the Hunchback of Notre Dame? I didn't I know was attending a funeral with famous church architect, Sir...
Charles: Sir Christopher Wren.
Oliver: Okay, okay, okay. Congrats on winning Jeopardy!
Charles: Well, for God's sake, do a crossword.
posted by creepygirl at 11:47 PM on August 10, 2023 [24 favorites]
I found myself speculating about the Death Rattle pivot from a play to a musical in the way that I might normally think through a murder mystery, like "We know that the Meryl Streep character and Howard's boyfriend can sing, but what about the rest of the cast? How stressed out might Oliver get if some of his actors can't sing at all?"
I liked that the precipitating event of the Charles/Ben feud was definitely Charles' fault. Obviously we haven't seen the entirety of Ben's reign of terror, so I don't know if Ben took things way too far. Sometimes my favorite characters are jerks, and other characters have legitimate reasons to resent them.
Favorite exchange:
Oliver: I bet they have prime seats up there on the main part of the cathedral. You know, the whatchamacallit.
Charles: The transept.
Oliver: No, no, no. That's the cross-section. I'm talking about the main part.
Charles: The narthex, the antechamber.
Oliver: Who are you, the Hunchback of Notre Dame? I didn't I know was attending a funeral with famous church architect, Sir...
Charles: Sir Christopher Wren.
Oliver: Okay, okay, okay. Congrats on winning Jeopardy!
Charles: Well, for God's sake, do a crossword.
posted by creepygirl at 11:47 PM on August 10, 2023 [24 favorites]
For those of you not musical theater nerds, the musical number that opens Season 3 was Diahann Carroll in Richard Rodgers' "No Strings."
And Oliver's imaginary musical sequence in Ep. 2 was a reference to the film "All That Jazz," which Bob Fosse made about his life and heart attacks. (Why yes, I did see from a mile away that Oliver would redo "Death Rattle" as a musical.)
Meryl, Queen of Accents, doing (perfectly) terrible Scottish and French Canadian accents!
posted by NorthernLite at 9:24 PM on August 11, 2023 [7 favorites]
And Oliver's imaginary musical sequence in Ep. 2 was a reference to the film "All That Jazz," which Bob Fosse made about his life and heart attacks. (Why yes, I did see from a mile away that Oliver would redo "Death Rattle" as a musical.)
Meryl, Queen of Accents, doing (perfectly) terrible Scottish and French Canadian accents!
posted by NorthernLite at 9:24 PM on August 11, 2023 [7 favorites]
Pshaw. As if you learn anything about church architecture from crosswords other than APSE.
It's interesting to me that Ben's "origin story" is getting fired from Brazzos after a bad table read when Ben tried to do the same thing to Loretta. Mind you, I don't think that Loretta is our killer (unless they went with the truly baller move of telegraphing that in the first moments of episode 1, which I guess is possible. I'll need to rewatch but I recall Loretta taking off from the party very shortly after Ben stepped out to take his call, so maybe?) but I doubt that's a coincidence.
Similarly, I think Kimber and Bobo are both set up to be humorous early-to-mid season quasi-suspects for comedic value. Curious if they'll have another new Celebrity Tenant at the Arconia playing themselves for the trio to look into (after Sting in S1 and Amy Schumer in S2.) Knowing next to nothing at this point, I'm most suspicious of Ben's Brother (who has control over what Ben eats, and Mabel did initially suspect poisoning in what was likely the first murder attempt) and the Documentarian.
Mabel continues to be my favorite of the core trio, but that'll always be true. Mabel rules.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:45 PM on August 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
It's interesting to me that Ben's "origin story" is getting fired from Brazzos after a bad table read when Ben tried to do the same thing to Loretta. Mind you, I don't think that Loretta is our killer (unless they went with the truly baller move of telegraphing that in the first moments of episode 1, which I guess is possible. I'll need to rewatch but I recall Loretta taking off from the party very shortly after Ben stepped out to take his call, so maybe?) but I doubt that's a coincidence.
Similarly, I think Kimber and Bobo are both set up to be humorous early-to-mid season quasi-suspects for comedic value. Curious if they'll have another new Celebrity Tenant at the Arconia playing themselves for the trio to look into (after Sting in S1 and Amy Schumer in S2.) Knowing next to nothing at this point, I'm most suspicious of Ben's Brother (who has control over what Ben eats, and Mabel did initially suspect poisoning in what was likely the first murder attempt) and the Documentarian.
Mabel continues to be my favorite of the core trio, but that'll always be true. Mabel rules.
posted by Navelgazer at 4:45 PM on August 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ben moved into Amy Schumer’s apartment. It was mentioned in an aside at the table read, iirc.
posted by rikschell at 2:16 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 2:16 PM on August 17, 2023 [2 favorites]
Apologies ahead of time for being that guy...Okay, so this episode is as far as we’ve gotten into this season and, honestly, it’s just not clicking for us. We loved the first two seasons, but this one is missing the mark for us. Maybe it’s being so much about Oliver’s play, which we don’t find very interesting (to be honest, the Broadway stuff in the show has always kind of bored us. We just aren’t theater people.)
Can you convince us to keep on? That this gets better?
posted by Thorzdad at 9:48 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
Can you convince us to keep on? That this gets better?
posted by Thorzdad at 9:48 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]
It’s obviously Gregg the crazed stalker, so it can’t be him.
posted by Naberius at 8:21 PM on September 5, 2023
posted by Naberius at 8:21 PM on September 5, 2023
Thorzdad I'm having the same problem and a friend said to stick with it, that it gets more trio-y as it goes on.
posted by cooker girl at 7:32 AM on September 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by cooker girl at 7:32 AM on September 17, 2023 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
Poor Oliver. Though turning this plot into a musical, randomly, will be fun.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:34 AM on August 9, 2023 [1 favorite]