Only Murders In The Building “Once Upon A Time In The West”

Well, if the series had to kill off fun, reoccurring character Sazz, at least they brought in a lot of fun guest stars that may help distract from Sazz’s loss.

Actually, there seems to be two fun things going on here, both fun for very different reasons.  Sure, the previous season ended with the seemingly successful debut of Oliver’s big murder mystery musical as the trio solved another murder, only for Sazz to be shot and killed when she was alone in Charles’s apartment.  How can the show go from there?

Well, cancel the stage show–when the producers killed a guy and tried to cover it up, funding does tend to dry up–and then have the three protagonists get an offer to sell their likenesses for a movie version of their lives, where Charles will be played by goofy fan Eugene Levy, Mabel will be played by Eva Longoria who is in a constant state of denial over how much older she obviously is than Mabel, and Oliver has to deal with a prickly Zach Galifanakis.  Thus far, Longoria’s constant refrain that she is actually Mable’s age is only a so-so joke, Levy comes across as almost like Charles’s Canadian stand-in (he was even used for the French Canadian dub of Bravos), but Galifanakis is perhaps doing the best of the bunch, in part because Oliver has no idea who he is.

Seeing Galifanakis negotiate with studio head Bev Melon is fun.  It’s even more fun when Bev is played by another always-welcome presence in the form of Molly Shannon.

So, that’s the comedic plot for the season so far.  But there has to be a murder, and the thing is, sure, Sazz was shot and killed in Charles’s apartment, but when the trio goes up there, Sazz’s body is gone as are all traces that anything happened save for the bullet hole in Charles’s one window that, well, he doesn’t notice right away because why would he?  Sure, Charles gets an apologetic text from Sazz, claiming she had to go back to stunt double for Scott Bakula, leading to another fun cameo, but over time, he realizes that Sazz is not avoiding him but may be in real trouble, something that becomes clear because something was setting off neighbor Howard’s new dog Gravey.

Turns out Gravey is a former corpse-sniffer, and using the dog, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel find Sazz’s metal joints in the building’s incinerator just as the person with Sazz’s phone confirms they are not Sazz or Charles’s friend.  So, is this someone after Charles in particular?  Are Oliver and Mabel in danger?  Or is all this just to cover up for whatever it was Sazz was trying to warn Charles about?  The episode ends with splicing moments from Once Upon a Time in the West‘s famous opening scene with the podcasters finding Sazz’s remains, and it’s effective at setting up a level of danger that I don’t think the series has ever really done before.

Suffice to say, I am intrigued.