Stream It Or Skip It?

We remembered being concerned at the beginning of Season 4 of Only Murders In The Building that the overstuffed guest star roster and sojourns to Hollywood were going to bring the show down. We were absolutely wrong about that; Season 4 was solid because co-creators Steve Martin, John Hoffman, and their writers did a good job of keeping things at the Arconia and keeping Mabel, Oliver and Charles as the focus. Season 5 stays in the building and also has a lot of guest stars, and we have a lot more confidence that this season will stick the landing.

Opening Shot: We see the body of Lester (Teddy Coluca), the doorman for the Arconia, being prepared to lie in state in the lobby of the building as the voice of Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) reads his very basic obituary.

The Gist: Oliver and his podcast partners, Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) and Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), are convinced that Lester, whose bloody body was found in the building’s courtyard fountain shortly after Oliver’s wedding to Loretta Durkin (Meryl Streep), was murdered. But, the day after, the police are saying his death is accidental. When Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton) enters — Oliver doesn’t like that he just bursts in like he’s on Laverne & Shirley — he says the security footage confirms it.

But as Oliver dips leftover wedding shrimp in cocktail sauce, he comes across a severed finger. Given that Mabel and Charles turned down Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni), who wanted the trio to look for her missing mafioso husband Nicky (Bobby Cannavale) the day before, they all wonder if this was a message that they made a grave mistake. And is it Lester’s finger? The trio go to the lobby and his crowded wake — with his wife Lorraine (Dianne Wiest) and Mayor Tillman (Keegan-Michael Key) in attendance — to see if Lester has all his fingers, with Charles doing the awkward work of feeling around inside the casket.

In an effort to show that he cared about Lester, Oliver pulls up a picture that happens to have Lester in the background — and he’s talking to Nicky Caccimelio. Now, more than ever, they’re convinced that Lester came to a violent end. So the trio travel to Staten Island, with the finger in an ice-filled mug, to visit Sofia Caccimelio, who is literally living in the Godfather house. After meeting Sofia’s sons, who seem threatening but really aren’t — Sofia ends up telling the trio that Nicky has not been a good husband and his a failed mobster, but this time his absence feels different.

As Mabel and Charles follow a map of the Arconia Charles found on a playing card Sofia gave him, the two of them find a secret passage to a shocking room under the building, and proof Lester was there right before he died. Oliver, in an effort to clean Lester’s cap to show he cares, finds something else.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Only Murders In The Building Seasons 1-4.

Our Take: There are almost as many guest stars in Season 5 of Only Murders — with almost two-hands’ worth of Oscars among them — as Season 4. But the first episode showed us that as long as the show continues its focus on our favorite true crime podcasters and how they work within the weird world of the Arconia, the series will continue to be funny and entertaining.

People come and go at the Arconia (though we always appreciate the caustically funny presence of Jackie Hoffman’s Uma), but the relationship between the members of the trio remain the same. They all poke fun at each other, and age jokes going in both directions still land. At this point in the show’s run, you can see the warm feelings that Short, Martin and Gomez have for each other come through in how the three of them spring into action as soon as they sniff the idea that there has been yet another murder in the building.

We’ve yet to see two major guest stars, Renée Zellweger and Christoph Waltz, which is a good thing, as the trio is able to work the case together before the distracting presence of the guest stars. When Martin, Gomez and Short are together, the show is at its best.

It also helps that, for the second season in a row, the victim is someone who has been a presence on the show in previous seasons. With Lester being the congenial doorman who seemed to know everything about everyone now gone, things will be just as personal for the trio as Sazz’s (Jane Lynch) murder was in Season 4. And when it’s personal, and it’s someone we’ve gotten to know over the seasons, the mysteries are much more interesting to follow.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: As we said above, Oliver finds something at the dry cleaners, and it falls on top of him.

Sleeper Star: Dianne Wiest has proven how funny she is many times, and there’s a moment in the first episode where Lorraine describes how annoying Oliver was to Lester that reminded us about how funny she was all over again.

Most Pilot-y Line: While the idea that Sofia’s sons aren’t mobsters but just wanted to pitch a podcast to the trio was funny, it was also a punch line that we saw coming. We did enjoy how they reacted when they saw the severed finger tumble out of the cup and how Sofia got them out of the dining room.

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

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.