Only Murders Season 4
Tone geniuses? Or just Martin squared?
Spoilers abound for Only Muders in the Building Season 4
Do you have a friend whose opinion you value a little bit more than everyone else’s? Not that you think they’re better than anyone- they just happen to be incredibly picky. So if they say they like something, they really mean it.
I have a friend like this. It’s the best. Because if she likes something, you know it’s good. (Including your own stuff.) And if she likes something I like, it makes me feel a tiny bit cooler for liking it.
A little while after the first Only Murders in the Building season aired and got rave reviews, she asked our writers group if she should watch it. I wasn’t sure what to tell her. Personally, I loved it. But it felt like the kind of show she wouldn’t like. Because…well, I couldn’t quite figure out why. The premise is a little bit well-worn (podcast detectives). I guess I thought she might find it…corny? Overly silly?
But she did watch, and she did like it!! I was delighted! Only Murders is just plain good, and the fact that my friend likes it confirms this for me. And yet…there’s something about it that makes both of us feel like it shouldn’t work.
Season 4, for example, is often a hot mess. The cast goes on a high-stakes detour to Steve Martin’s sister’s house for the sole purpose, as far as I can tell, of having Meryl Streep and Melissa McCarthy get into a catfight. In the next episode, the urgent stakes for why they had to get out of town are immediately dropped without comment. There’s an episodes-long red herring heavily involving Richard Kind in a pink-eye induced eye patch that keeps changing sides. And solving the murder somehow hinges on the fact that Eva Longoria makes everyone step on sticky-mats that she sells. This all sounds bad on paper!!!
And yet…omg Meryl Streep and Melissa McCarthy get into a cat fight!!! Richard Kind in a side-switching eye-patch is mega-fun!! And Eva Longoria roasting herself about how entrepreneurial she is is a delight. Everything that should be too much is just enough in this show.
How?! How?!?! How is the tone this dialed in? How is it so wacky and yet so deeply sad at the same time? How do they manage to keep winking at us about how insane it is to have four (now five) murders happen in one building?!?! How did they know having Paul Rudd come back as his own bad-Irish-accented-stunt double was just stupid enough that it would work?!?!
I’m devastated to tell myself: it’s not the writing. Yes, the writing does some really good things. The characters have good, fun conflict with each other. And murder, as I’ve said, is good stakes.
But Only Murders is all about acting. That’s really the long and Martin Short of it isn’t it? Steve Martin and Martin Short are so funny. They are clearly having so much fun. The show was created by them and for them. Bad writing can spoil something. But great acting is what makes a script truly great.
I’ve found this pesky fact somewhat emotionally difficult to deal with for nearly a decade now. There would be months on Maude Night when I’d write a sketch I thought would knock it out of the park only to be overshadowed by a scene I was certain would fail, but was sold by an extremely charismatic actor. I’ve built a life on the idea of the writer as the behind-the-scenes hero, the quiet genius, the shy creative that secretly deserves all the accolades. But really our job is to not fuck it up. And that in and of itself is so, so hard. (Is Season 4’s murderer a nod to this?!? Wow, I only just realized that. LOL.)
Obviously, writing is an art form and it has to be good for a movie or tv show to work. Still. Actors, man. When they’re good, they’re good. Here’s how I get around this mental road block, though. Never, ever write anything without imagining the actor who you want to perform the character. Even if I’m writing a cashier that we’ll never see again, I choose a great actor for the part in my head. Channeling what their choices might be immediately makes my choices more specific. Plus, even writing “(think actor name)” after each character intro in your script will help it come alive in the reader’s head.
I do it for fiction, even though it’ll never make it to the screen (at least, not in that format). I’ve noticed in subsequent drafts I begin to shed the actors a little bit more than in scripts, but it’s still incredibly useful early on. For novel number one, I sent my agent a document where I had each character cast with a Hollywood actor. I think she was surprised, but found the doc useful (especially to help sell the idea to film agents!).
That’s really what writers and actors are helping each other do, after all- make the most fascinating people you’ve ever met out of thin air. If the Martins are going to make something that probably shouldn’t work work, why not let them help you with yours?
Also, do you love or hate Only Murders? Do you also feel like it works despite itself? What is that feeling???
I also love only Murders, but I’m pretty sure I’d watch it if it was bad cause of Steve and Marty. So that keeps me from knowing if it’s actually good.
I was kinda shocked it is a hit! Even though I watched it as it came out the way God (aka TV) intended.
Your point on how great actors can sell not-so-great writing was a new idea to me. I think so often it's easy to blame bad writing (or sometimes attribute too much credit to good writing). The actor also has a part to play and it's not insignificant!
I watched the first season of Only Murders and liked it and...never watched the other seasons. I do that a lot. I have like 3 shows I rewatch and everything else seems to fall by the wayside.