Spoilers

“Sitzprobe”

I’m not sure why I ever doubt this show.

Episode eight of the third season of Only Murders in the Building was sensational and they hit a ton of things that I thought they weren’t going to touch on again.

Specifically, the minor heart attack Oliver had early in the season. I felt as if this show was going to brush that under the rug and never bring it up again. How wrong I was as this episode ended with Loretta being taken away after a confession of murder and Oliver collapsing from the strain, clutching his arm and clearly having another attack.

This ending scene was as dramatic as you are going to get.

I also realized, happily, that Loretta is not our killer. I wondered if they were going to do the girlfriend killer again, but clearly that she confessed because she thought Ben’s brother Dickie was about to be arrested (and she may believe that he actually killed his brother). It was revealed this episode that Loretta was Dickie’s birth mother who had gotten pregnant when she was young and gave up the baby to pursue her career in acting.

Shocking! Did not see that twist coming. It also now made sense why she had a book with clips of ben, the one that Oliver had found. It wasn’t clips of Ben, but of Dickie.

I do think that means that both Loretta and Dickie are clear, even though Dickie certainly spoke to his mother (whom he does not know is his mother) in a way that sounded as if he were guilty.

The return of Detective Williams was very welcome as well. She burst into this sitzprobe rehearsal (he first time they rehearse with a full orchestra) with all kinds of venom and curse words. I loved how Charles and Oliver showed their intelligence and planning by playing the fools. Their plan to get recording of the interrogations performed by Williams was complicated, but worked like a charm. I like when they are shown as capable and not just jokes.

Charles made it through his patter song too for the first time without going into the white room. It was a cool thing to hear Steve Martin knock this out.

It was great to see Oliver, Charles and Mabel back on the same page, even if it was short lived with Oliver’s heart attack.

I thought this was a great episode with everything that makes this show stand out.

Spoilers

“Bolognese”

The restaurant takes a huge step forward as it overcomes a big hurdle. Ten days from opening.

We find out that the restaurant really could not afford to not hit its opening, but they had failed the fire suppression test and they had one more chance at it, but something just would not be right.

Amazingly enough, Richie, a character that I have not been a fan of even a little bit, has suddenly become a favorite. His Richie-centric episode last week went a long way to rehabilitating this character. Then, with his awesome suit, Richie went on his apology tour, showing the new Richie to everyone. This was so great.

So was Fak finding the clue about why the fire suppression test was consistently failing and having Richie tell him good job. These two characters had been going at it all of the time, but this is the new version of them. And I loved it.

I also loved how Carmy has finally accepted that Claire is his girlfriend. This running story beat worked well as everyone else seemed to understand that she was already his girlfriend, except Carmy.

However, I have that sinking feeling that something horrible is about to happen. I have no reason to believe this. I have not seen any hints dropped by the show, but it just feels like everything is heading to a good result and I am afraid everything is too good.

There are only 2 more episodes to go this season and I am very nervous.

Spoilers

“Forks”

Episode seven of the second season focuses in on Richie and his ‘punishment’ from Carmy, who got him to work/observe at one of the best restaurants in Chicago for one week. Richie saw it as a punishment, but as he kept going, things began to shine brighter for him.

Olivia Colman made a cameo appearance here as the owner of the restaurant and I love her so much. She was easily the best part of the Secret Invasion series and she brings a natural energy and charisma to whatever she is working on. This is no exception as Colman just filled up the one scene she had with Richie.

Watching this episode, I felt more connected to Richie than I have in this entire series. He was not just a loud, blowhard like he is portrayed as, but he was shown as someone who was capable of great thing. The whole ‘respect’ speech given to Richie when he was questioning some of the minute details that made the restaurant such a success was fantastic and you could see it get through the stubbornness that Richie has always shown.

The whole deep dish pizza bit was awesome as well. I kept waiting for Richie to screw it up, because he is someone who has shown us before that his attitude or his stubbornness would get in his way, but he did not. He was successful, even going as far as winning over the staff of the restaurant who were in charge of helping him during this mini-internship.

Watching the way the staff carried out their orders and going above board to ‘make someone’s day.’ was astounding. I wonder if this is the way a real three-star restaurant would execute their service. It was an amazing scene.

We still see the sadness of Richie’s world as Tiffany called him to let him know that she had received a marriage proposal. Richie’s pain was real and popped off the screen.

This whole episode was dedicated to Richie, without much else (just a few moments) from any of the other cast mates. It was really solid of an episode and I am excited to see where Richie’s character goes from here.

Spoilers

“CoBro”

I was worried that after the excellent episode last week that the three main leads of the show would just be back together at the beginning of the episode and just push the serious struggles that they faced in episode six’s outstanding work out of the way. Thankfully, that was not going to happen…even though Oliver and Charles did find themselves back to each other fairly quickly. In fact, Charles was ready to be back with his friends almost immediately, but even by the end of the show, Charles and Oliver had not yet reunited with Mabel, who seems to be ready to move on as a solo act.

I’m glad they took some time to wonder whether the group was completely over, but the wisdom of Uma, who was missing Bunny, who was murdered in season 2, and who had actually taken the handkerchief out of Ben’s dead hand. Seems that Uma was a bit of a kleptomaniac and this provided another big clue. We found that she had sold that handkerchief for big money to Ben’s brother Dickie (who is looking more and more like a major suspect).

Mabel, however, has found herself a new duo to team up with, including Tobert and deaf Theo Dimas back from the previous seasons. Mabel started to record the podcast on her own, calling it Only Murders in the Building #BloodyMabel.

Big cameo this week too as Matthew Broderick, who was playing a hyped up version of himself, was hired to replace Charles in the role of the Constable after Charles had quit. Oliver discovered to his horror that Broderick was a nightmare to work with and wanted to go over his role dozens of times, requiring a full background and lifepath for the character. Another cameo included Mel Brooks, whom Oliver called on his phone to see if he could give any advice on working with Broderick. Brooks had worked with Broderick on The Producers and he asked Oliver if he had given into any of Broderick’s “suggestions.” Broderick’s cameo was one of the funnier ones involving the play this season.

Plus, who knew that Charles was up for the role of Ferris Buehler? Funny. There are only three more episodes remaining this season so I expect the case to really amp up now that the podcast is officially being recorded.

Spoilers

“Fishes”

Holy cow.

What a chaotic, hectic, raw episode of The Bear.

I should have guessed that this was going to be something special when I saw that the run time on this episode was over an hour, which was uncommon for the show up until this point. I had no idea what was coming.

We got an entire flashback episode to a Berzatto family Christmas dinner that had everybody on edge and led to some of the most dramatic, mentally unstable moments I have ever seen on the TV screen.

The cast was unbelievable. Along with our normal cast members, we got Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzatto, Carmy mother, Jon Bernthal returning as Michael, Oliver Platt returning as Uncle Jimmy, Bob Odenkirk as Uncle Lee, Sarah Paulson as cousin Michelle, and John Mulaney as Michelle’s boyfriend Stevie. These amazing actors brought such a dynamic to the ensemble that was draining to watch, in the best possible way.

The amount of disfunction going on in this house was just stunning. Every moment, every interaction between these characters were amplified by the tension, the clear mental illness going on among the family members. What started as friendly interaction devolved into anger and resentment within seconds.

Stevie’s beautiful grace seemed to disarm the situation and a lesser show would have sent this show off into a happy ending, but that is not The Bear. It quickly spiraled into a series of shocking conclusions to the episode, punctuated by Donna driving her car through the house’s wall.

Jon Bernthal and Jamie Lee Curtis gave unbeleivable performances and deserve Emmy Awards for them. Bernthal was nominated for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy, but it did not look like Jamie Lee was nominated and that is a shame.

This was the most amazing hour of television I have seen in a long time. One of the most dramatic episodes of a ‘comedy’ that you are ever going to see. Amazing character work from an amazing cast of actors at the top of their games. I was dreading what I thought was coming, but I had no idea.

A special episode, no doubt.

Spoilers

“Ghost Light”

If I am being honest, I have found season three of Only Murders in the Building to be lackluster. They have focused less on the case and the investigation than I would have liked. However, after episode six, “Ghost Light,” I see why they have been making the choices that they have made.

This is the best episode of this entire season.

The previous episodes focusing on their individual lives and the play have beautifully circled back into this wonderful episode, which encapsulates the entire season into that final throw down with our three main characters.

Even in this episode, Charles, Oliver and Mabel are focused on individually, each having to deal with an uncomfortable situation or a truth. Charles, unable to accept how much Joy’s departure has hit him, Mabel, afraid to move forward in fear of what she would leave behind, and Oliver, who suspects his new love has secrets to hide that would leave him alone.

The investigation went to the theater and moved into high gear. It was cute to see how Charles and Oliver felt threatened and jealous of Mabel’s new relationship with Tobert, again, probably built out of fear of being left.

The whole Gideon Goosebury ghost twist in this episode really worked well, as Howard is clearly a true believer. His whole arc within the episode centered around his ‘protecting’ the play from this killer ghost. The addition of Jerry, a former friend and colleague of Oliver who was down on his luck and squatting in the theater brought a new witness to the case that only played on Oliver’s fears of failure and loss. Jerry was truly a sad story. He did tell Oliver about Charles’ punch to Ben that we learned about last week.

Jerry helped Oliver make a decision about his life, which was to protect Loretta under all circumstances, that his love for the actress was greater than the chance that she was a killer. This lead him to erase the lipstick message on the mirror in the dressing room which triggered the meltdown among the threesome.

I have pretty much decided that Loretta is not the killer, but it seems apparent that she wrote that message on Ben’s mirror.

Ben’s understudy, Jonathan seemed to be cleared of suspicion this week as he revealed to Mabel and Tobert that he did not want to be the lead of this play, that the stress of carrying a Broadway play was overwhelming, thus taking away his motive. He also revealed that Ben had been taking some concoction of medications from his doctor, which feels like an important clue for down the road. My guess is that this mixture of drugs played a part in Ben’s first ‘death’ on stage.

I loved this episode and it helped frame what the season had been about up to this point. I am sorry that I even entertained the idea that the season was lackluster. I do not think this episode hits as well without the set-up prior. Four more episodes to go and I am invested.

Spoilers

E5: “Pop”

Carmy gets out of the restaurant for a bit as he goes to hang out with Claire. She talks him into accompanying her to a ‘party’ where one of her friends had just had a bad breakup. Carmy clearly was uncomfortable.

As this was going on, all kinds of troubles were coming to the restaurant in only six weeks before the opening. Oliver Platt made another appearance and helped get a liquor license. Better to not know how he cut through the red tape.

Richie is always fighting with everyone and it is becoming an issue.

Sugar is trying to deal with all of the problems as Sydney struggled with the menu.

The restaurant continues to be a place of chaos and it feels as if something is going to need to give soon.

Tina is doing well in her training, but she is worried about  Ebraheim. Others in the program invited Tina out for drinks that night and she ends up singing at karaoke and just knocking it out of the park. Tina seems to be living her best life so far this season. Carmy had gotten her a new knife too.

Carmy and Claire end up kissing after returning to the restaurant and seeing the chaos first hand. He admits how much he likes her and this is great. These two have amazing chemistry and have expanded the character depth while interacting.

This was a solid episode, but it does feel as if the show is in a bit of a holding pattern as it moves toward their opening date.