Only Murders In The Building “The Show Must…”

Alright, here we are:  more comedic murder mysteries that also dig into the lives of three kinda sad people.  The previous season had ended with a character played by Paul Rudd of all people dying.  Who would want to kill Paul Rudd?  He’s got that reputation for basically being the embodiment of nice guys.

Yeah, it turns out the first episode of this third season kinda plays with that a bit.

Actually, this episode has two guest stars, and it plays off both actors’ reputations to get a bit of humor out of the situation.  First would be Meryl Streep as Loretta Durkin, and the other is Paul Rudd’s Ben Glenroy.  Loretta is a mostly failed actress played by arguably one of the most talented and successful actresses of her generation.  Ben is a jerk who’s best known for some superhero franchise.

So, Paul Rudd, known for playing the nicest guys in the universe, is an asshole diva.

Meryl Streep’s Loretta also pulls out a couple accents for no reason.

Basically, this is a situation where the humor is good if you don’t know who either Rudd or Streep are, but it’s even funnier if you do.  The idea that Streep is an unsuccessful actress is funny because, well, it’s Meryl Streep. And Rudd’s idea of greeting costars in his first Broadway play is just full of backhanded compliments and grandiose behavior that, you know, I don’t think anyone ever associated with Rudd before.

That said, this is still the story of Charles, Oliver, and Mabel.  Oliver’s attempts to be a Broadway director again are threatened when his famous lead actor dies in the opening minutes of opening night.  Charles is in the cast and can’t seem to understand no one cares about his old work.  And Mabel, well, she’s moving out of the building and misses the two older men.

Then two surprising things happen:  Ben doesn’t die.  Well, not permanently.  The show might go on.  Granted, the trio only investigate murders in their building, and even if Ben had died, he died somewhere else.  Sure, he moved into the building, but they only look into murders in the building.

Then Ben turns up dead in the building.

I’m guessing it’ll be more permanent this time.

I remember why I liked this show to begin with.  This is gonna be fun.