Spoilers

“Lifeboat”

We basically cleared the Westies this week. Honestly, I was not as enthralled with this episode as I have been with every other this season.

It just felt too much. There was out regular cast, pus the actors, plus the Westies and flashbacks with Milton Dudenoff as well. Plus, we got to meet Helga and see her back story. The entire Dudenoff story is resolved, as we discover that he was dying and took a handful of pills, talking the Westies into putting him into the incinerator.

So no murder of Dudenoff, but Sazz is still a question. The show hinted at a new suspect this week, Paul Rudd’s Glen Stubbins. I do not believe for one second that he is not just another red herring. The main reason is this killer, who has been stalking and taunting them, feels way more sinister than Glen ever felt. Could he have been playing? Maybe. Except, wasn’t he in the hospital when the last text message came through?

There are so many pieces pulling the focus away from Oliver, Charles and Mabel. I would want to see more about them than seeing all of these other characters.

I have loved this season so much until this episode so I am sure that things will pick up once again with just two more to go.

Spoilers

“Red Haze”

“Good Caesarean Work”

Okay, this week was completely bat shit crazy.

Lois and Sister Megan wound up in a little town, being chased by someone/something. The town itself is absolute horror show of violence. All the women appear to have been assaulted, perhaps even as the day moves along. Sister Megan ends up shot. It was all surreal.

My guess is that the smoke from the pit they were at last episode had some kind of reactive property causing everyone to be angry and violent. It sure seemed as if Lois and Sister Megan were being affected too as they were very sharp and biting toward each other during this wild time in this little town.

The show also revealed a couple of secrets, including a connection between Nurse Redd and Marshall. It explained why she was so crazed about Lois turning over power of attorney for Marshall to her. Honestly, Nurse Redd is just as unbalanced as anyone on this show.

The serial killer Grotesquerie was the one to shoot Sister Megan as he followed them throughout the opening scene. He took Andrea, the bloody woman Lois and Sister Megan picked up at the end of episode four. She also seemed to be an identical twin to the clerk at the hotel they stopped at who appeared to be constantly being beaten.

Father Charlie made a return to the side of Sister Megan’s bed and immediately chastised Lois for her use of her as bait.

This led to a horrific series of scenes involving women who had forced c-sections and were allowed to then bleed to death. The babies were being taken for some bizarre reason. The scene at the end of episode six where there were a group of women who were hooked up to breast pumps feeding these babies is horrendous.

Then the show left us on a cliffhanger, just a remarkably cruel and hateful one. A masked figure snuck up behind Lois with a knife and she turned and shot him. It is clearly intended to be Grotesquerie and Lois pulled off the mask from his face. We as an audience did not get to see the face in the terrible end. I felt very upset about having this mask pulling scene being done so we could not get the reveal and would have to come back next week.

Two episodes each week means that the show will end on Halloween, which is very appropriate.

Spoilers

“Valley of the Dolls”

A week full of cameos!

We got a new character from Melissa McCarthy, the actors (Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, Eva Longoria) returned, the Westies were back, Loretta made her way back from California, and Bev struggled to deal with Hollywood and her own bizarre shifts in personality.

Melissa McCarthy is Charles’s sister Doreen, who owns a vast collection of dolls (hence the episode title) and she, lets say, may be a touch cray cray.

We get a catfight between Melissa McCarthy and Meryl Streep. It was hilarious.

Charles, Mabel and Oliver went to Charles’ sister’s house to hide after discovering that they had been being watched by the killer for a long time. Of course, they told Howard where they were going so it seemed as if everyone knew where they went.

Howard played a big role too as he went to discover whom was cashing the social security checks of Dudenoff. He also got a phone number that, when Mabel called it, came to Vince Fish’s phone.

Oliver and Loretta straightened out their misunderstanding from the previous episode and Loretta, after the big catfight, proposed to Oliver (with a doll bracelet). He accepted so there could be a Only Murders in the Building wedding in the future.

It is revealed that the killer has ties to the first season as several of the plot holes of that season are mentioned, tying everything together in a cool idea.

Spoilers

“Episode 3”

“Coordinates”

Lois is really going through it.

Each week it seems as if they release two episodes of Grotesquerie and these two episodes send Lois through the wringer. The focus on her alcoholism and her relationships with her daughter, her husband, and a new man from the hospital named Eddie (Travis Kelce).

And this killer appears to be taunting her with each new kill.

I just realized that Father Charlie was played by Nicolas Alexander Chavez, who played Spencer Cassadine on General Hospital recently. Father Charlie and Sister Megan ended a tense encounter with sex. I have been uncertain about Father Charlie since the beginning. He feels like a major suspect in these murders.

There is a strange, dream-like sequence of Lois and Sister Megan in a car, singing a song together. The coloring of the scene created a hell-like landscape that was really disturbing and clearly part of the imagery of the episode.

Episode four, which is the first with an actual title, really dives into the religious iconography and ends with a creepy instance of a woman being chased by something.

Wild show so far. Is it too out there? Maybe.

Spoilers

“Blow Up”

I loved this episode.

Like a found footage film, Only Murders in the Building went through the whole episode on cameras, which happened to be everywhere.

The Brothers Sisters were set up as a new suspect last week, but they are cleared this week after spending most of the episode trying to make them look guilty.

Best Zach Galifianakis cameo of the season so far as he was recovering in the hospital after being shot by a ricochet off Glen Stubbins’ metal plate in his head. The few seconds Zach was on were hilarious.

The discovery of two left shoulders in the ashes of Sazz was cool. The reveal that the second body from the incinerator being the mysterious Dudenoff was a great twist. I never thought that the Brother Sisters were the killers, but the way this used the reveal in this episode was tremendous.

The way the show used the narrative plot map (Inciting incident, Rising Action, Climax, Denouement) was unbelievably clever and worked so well.

There is still the emotional connection for Charles in Sazz’s death, even with the increased paranoia as it seemed that all three of our podcasters were the targets, as the Oliver crew were shot at.

And the discovery of the cameras and the text message to all three of them saying “I’m Watching You” was creepy.

Love love love this episode. I watched it twice. I love this entire season so far.

Spoilers

“Adaptation”

I love and hate the ending of this week’s Only Murders in the Building at the same time.

What a great episode that ended with a horrendous cliffhanger, a gunshot echoing through the photo shoot.

I literally said out loud, “You can’t end there” as the screen went to black.

Charles was seemingly putting together a big time theory that the Brother Sisters, the movie’s directors, were the ones who shot Sazz, one of them as the shooter in the apartment and one to clean up the mess and dispose of the body. When the timeline of the murder night was seemingly thrown off by a limited amount of time, Charles was down about his “brain no longer thumping” as was written in the script of the movie. However, he did come up with the idea of the two. The Brother Sisters also had a boot mark similar to the one left in the apartment by the apparent shooter.

Clearly, as we have several episodes to go, this is not the final theory to come out, but everything sure feels like it fits together. Sazz supposedly had called about a mysterious trouble with the movie just before she was murdered.

By the way, the cameo of John McEnroe was hilarious, if not really weird.

We are introduced to Marshall, one of the writers of the movie script, who seems very excited to be a suspect by the trio. He may seem suss, but I just do not think he is anything more than a red herring.

I am not a fan of the side story of Oliver’s concerns over Loretta’s new co-star, This feels like a distraction from the best parts of the story (much like the heart attack to Oliver last season, which turned out to be nothing). Oliver does get a ton of funny lines from this, but it just feels too sitcommy.

I look forward to this show every week as it has been one of my favorites this year.

Spoilers

“The Stunt Man”

The excellent fourth season of Only Murders in the Building moved along with the fourth episode, dealing with the murder of Sazz and the feeling of loss and grief that her death had brought up in a lot of people, specifically with her fellow stunt people.

Paul Rudd returned to the canvas as a stunt man for the late Ben Glenroy. He was hilarious as the Irish stunt man who had clearly been knocked on the head too many times.

Once again, the key to this season has been the wonderful performance from Steve Martin and his character’s deep friendship with Sazz, which is being explored every episode in a different manner.

It also seems that the Westies have been shone to be red herrings as Mabel discovered that they were not a cult, but instead were involved in a scheme to illegally sublet rent-controlled apartments. It also looks like Mabel may be getting into that action.

The mystery has turned back to the movie aspect as Molly Shannon is found by the trio at Sazz’s “Paradise,” (which is a location where Sazz wanted to build a stunt man training facility she would run when she retired) and she is holding a gun on them. Why is she here? Why does she have a gun?

I do believe this episode picked up the pace once again. I thought last week’s episode was a bit of a letdown, but this is right back to the excellence of the season.

Spoilers

“Gates of Heaven”

Two episodes in and I am completely enthralled with this new season of Only Murders in the Building.

Steve Martin may be doing some of his best work of his long and illustrious career as Charles went through the episode trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he might have been the target of the murder attempt that claimed the life of his friend and stunt double, Sazz. Martin’s performance was beautiful as he spoke to the delusion he was seeing of Sazz. This was both sad as could be and relatable in a situation that just was crazy.

While Charles was breaking our hearts in his apartment (and kind of reuniting with escaped killer Jan), Oliver and Mabel went to investigate the Westies, people who could be the shooter in apartments across from Charles’ place, in the west end of the Arconia. These were some weirdos, led by Richard Kind’s “Stink Eye Joe” aka Vince Fish and his moving pink-eye. We also met a family who invite Oliver and Mabel to join them in a card game called Oh Hell. Some of the things that happen with the Westies are truly crazy and are either meant to throw us off or to highlight how crazy things are in this part of the Arconia. We certainly see that they know something more than they let us know.

We do not meet the Westie that Charles dubbed Christmas Guy, played by Kumail Nanjiani. Apparently, his apartment is decorated for Christmas year round. Oh, and by the way, when Oliver and Mabel were in the apartment where they believe that the shooter took the shot, Oliver found some tinsel. That clue may be too on the nose to be anything but a red herring, but you never can tell with this show.

I thought this was tremendous, with Steve Martin and Jane Lynch were amazing. I found the documentary that was the only time Sazz’s own face was on the screen packed a powerful wallop. Steve Martin’s moments at the beginning of the episode when he had Sazz’s ashes all over his hands and he did not know how to wash them off respectfully was both funny and crushing at the same time. His plan of washing off the ashes and catching the water in a bucket, putting the water in a Mason jar and allowing the water to evaporate to leave the ashes was never going to work, but it displayed the tremendous shock that Charles was suffering from.

I love the start of this season and I am thoroughly enjoying each episode so far. Only Murders in the Building airs on Hulu.

Spoilers

“Once Upon a Time in the West”

Charles, Oliver and Mabel are back for another round of mystery as they slowly discover what we all saw at the end of the third season, that Sazz, played over the series by Jane Lynch, had been killed by an assassin’s bullet in Charles’ apartment.

Well, it actually took them awhile to find out about Sazz since her body was not in Charles’s apartment and had, apparently, been removed and taken to the building’s incinerator.

Charles had been getting worried about Sazz, since she took off without any notice and that she was not responding to him. There was one mysterious text, but it did not help soothe Charles’s anxiety.

Meanwhile, the threesome headed off to Hollywood when they received an offer which included selling their life rights to a movie studio so they could make a movie based on the podcast. They were introduced to the actors that would be playing them in the movie: Eugene Levy as Charles, Eva Longoria as Mabel and Zach Galifianakis. (By the way, this casting is inspired.)

Meryl Streep reprised her role as Loretta and she and Oliver had a lovely scene together. Loretta tried to talk Oliver into coming out to California with her as she was involved in a TV show.

Scott Bakula also appeared, running into Charles and confirming that Sazz had not shown up for the job of backing him, causing Charles to really start to worry.

This started with a really excellent episode. Steve Martin, in particular, was exceptional with his confused and worried state over his missing friend. Watching him dig the joint replacements from Bulgaria out of the incinerator at the Arconia was horrifying. The response on the text message moments later, as Charles mourned his friend, was chilling.

This has a ton of promise and I can’t wait for next week’s episode to see where they go with it.

Spoilers

“Napkins”

“Legacy”

Two more episodes of The Bear out of the way. The show is quality throughout.

“Napkins” was the origin story of Tina. Again, I was unsure where in the timeline this took place at first. After awhile, I realized that this was a flashback episode detailing how Tina ended up at the restaurant.

The scene between Tina and Mikey was just tremendous. The dialogue was sharp and excellent and did a great job of moving the scene along. It was a great scene as it always is with Jon Bernthal on the screen. Bernthal brings a true gravitas to the story and his performance works so well. I was just thinking the whole time how this was a guy who would kill himself, which I think is one of the main reasons Carmy has had such a difficult time dealing with the loss over the seasons.

Episode seven finds another restaurant looking to poach Sydney and give her the position that she always wanted. There is a reason she has not yet signed the deal for partnership at The Bear and I get the feeling that this is something that is going to blow this series up. You can already see how much Richie depends on Sydney, let alone the rest of the crew.

Meanwhile, Carmy is as spaced out as ever.

Oh, and it looks like Sugar may be in labor. How will The Bear get their C-Folds????