Only Murders In The Building “Grab Your Hankies”

I am still watching a series where someone wanted Paul Rudd dead.  I don’t for a minute think the actor is universally beloved, and the show has done a good job of depicting himself as an egotistical actor  with a lot of skeletons, but this episode takes a look inside his apartment, showing it was wall-to-wall pictures of himself.  I’m pretty sure one of them actually from his role in the Anchorman movies, which is probably the closest the real world Rudd has come to playing a despicable character.  I have no complaints about Rudd’s performance here–this show is a comedy–but it sure is weird that it happened at all.

Actually, there might be something going on here I hadn’t expected.  And no, I don’t mean the fact I finally remembered where I saw the actress playing the “Kimber” character, part of Oliver’s cast (she was one of the leads in the recent big screen comedy Joy Ride).  No, it occurs to me that, three episodes in, and despite the fact he’s probably been affected the most by Ben’s murder, Oliver is not really part of the investigation.

I’m going off the fact that Oliver just banned Mabel from his apartment because she’ll want to investigate the cast.  Charles is part of the cast, and he has a plan to see who is missing the handkerchief that Ben gave everybody to find a possible suspect.  That plan does net Kimber in the end, but I am sure the next episode will exonerate her.  That’s usually how this show rolls.

No, instead, Oliver is spending this episode to make sure his show goes on as planned, only as a musical this time.  There’s more to do with Meryl Streep’s Loretta, one where Oliver nearly dashes her career to keep her from getting a major TV role until she decides to stay anyway.  My point is Oliver spends the entire episode trying to save the show and with it, his career.  Oliver, as a character, has always been the one who seemed the most pathetic.  Yeah, Charles may still be clinging to past TV glory he doesn’t really have, but at the same time, he at least has some past glory.  Oliver seems like someone who, even at the peak of his career, didn’t have much.  He was a scrambler because it looks like he still is.  He has wild ideas, and he can somehow convince people to come along for the ride.

Which brings me to my next point:  what does Oliver bring to the table for the trio’s murder investigations, and how much will Mabel and Charles miss him if he’s not helping with the podcast?  Mabel seems to be the one finding clues this time around, and I suspect she always was the best of the trio for finding things out–I will repeat that it’s been a while since I watched this show–and Charles’s time on a cop show actually does come in handy at times.  But Oliver?  He’s usually the most enthusiastic.  Can these guys find a murderer without him?  I suspect not, and I am somewhat looking forward to finding out.

Oh, and Mabel was maybe getting somewhere romantically with Tobert, the documentarian who was following Ben around and got some good, suspicious footage while hiding in a closet.  So, I guess Mabel’s relationship with that artist woman from season two is over?