Only Murders in the Building

Only Murders in the Building is an American mystery comedy-drama created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman that premiered on Hulu on 31 August 2021, quickly becoming one of the streamer’s most acclaimed and successful original series. The show stars Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage, a former television detective actor coasting on the fading fame of a cancelled procedural; Martin Short as Oliver Putnam, a bombastic, financially struggling Broadway director desperate for one more hit; and Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora, a guarded younger woman with mysterious ties to the building’s past. The three residents of the Arconia—an fictional, grandly appointed Manhattan apartment building modelled on the city’s iconic pre-war residences—discover their shared enthusiasm for the same true crime podcast just as a real murder occurs within their walls, drawing them together to investigate and eventually launch their own competing true crime podcast documenting the case.

The premiere became the most-watched comedy debut in Hulu’s history, and the show has gone on to earn 21 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and numerous other accolades across its run, cementing its place as one of the definitive prestige comedy-mysteries of the streaming era. Each season centres on a distinct murder mystery, allowing the trio to investigate a fresh case—and produce a fresh season of their in-universe podcast—whilst deepening the show’s ongoing exploration of friendship, ambition, grief, and reinvention amongst its central characters. Season One investigates the death of fellow Arconia resident Tim Kono; Season Two follows the murder of board president Bunny Folger, with the trio themselves becoming suspects; Season Three shifts to the world of Broadway when actor Ben Glenroy dies on opening night of Oliver’s play; Season Four sends the group briefly to Los Angeles as their podcast is adapted into a film, complicated by the shocking death of Charles’s stunt double and close friend Sazz Pataki; and Season Five investigates the death of beloved Arconia doorman Lester Coluca, drawing the trio into the orbit of billionaires and mobsters.

The show’s structural innovation lies in its meta-textual embrace of true crime podcast culture, with Charles, Oliver, and Mabel’s own investigative podcast becoming a genuine narrative device—complete with in-universe listener reactions, rival podcasters (notably Tina Fey’s deliciously antagonistic Cinda Canning), and the trio’s growing, often uneasy awareness of how their amateur sleuthing doubles as content creation. This self-aware commentary on America’s true crime obsession, paired with genuinely intricate whodunit plotting reminiscent of classic Agatha Christie misdirection, gives the series a distinctive dual appeal—satisfying both as a puzzle box mystery and as sharp, affectionate satire of the genre that inspired it.

Central to the show’s enduring appeal is the deep, genuinely moving friendship that develops between its three mismatched leads across the seasons, spanning generational gaps and vastly different life experiences yet grounded in mutual loneliness, creative frustration, and a shared delight in solving puzzles together. Steve Martin and Martin Short’s decades-long real-life comedic partnership brings an effortless, lived-in chemistry to Charles and Oliver’s relationship, whilst Selena Gomez’s more restrained, guarded performance as Mabel provides essential emotional counterweight, her own tragic backstory gradually revealed across the series. Supporting cast members Michael Cyril Creighton (as neighbour Howard Morris) and Aaron Dominguez (as Detective Williams, Mabel’s on-off love interest) have anchored the Arconia’s ensemble alongside a rotating cast of eccentric residents.

The series has become renowned for attracting an extraordinary roster of guest stars each season, drawn to the show’s blend of prestige comedy and genuine mystery craft: Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Sting, Paul Rudd, Jane Lynch, Cara Delevingne, Shirley MacLaine, Andrea Martin, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Meryl Streep, Jesse Williams, Matthew Broderick, Christoph Waltz, Renée Zellweger, Keegan-Michael Key, and Bobby Cannavale have all featured across the show’s run, with each season’s guest ensemble becoming a significant part of the anticipation surrounding new releases. Season 6, confirmed for renewal and currently filming, marks the show’s most ambitious location shift yet, relocating the trio to London for an all-new mystery—bringing an extraordinary British ensemble including David Tennant, Olivia Colman, Jodie Whittaker, Jim Broadbent, Derek Jacobi, Martin Freeman, Sharon Horgan, Nicola Coughlan, and Richard Ayoade into the Only Murders universe, alongside Meryl Streep reprising her Season 3 role as Loretta Durkin.

Whilst its glossy New York setting, starrier ensemble casts, and more overtly comedic sensibility distinguish Only Murders in the Building from the gentler British village mysteries and rural procedurals that dominate much of the cosy crime tradition, the show shares essential genre DNA—amateur, non-professional sleuths solving self-contained murders through wit, observation, and community knowledge rather than violence, all wrapped in a fundamentally warm, character-driven tone that prioritises relationships and humour alongside genuine mystery-solving. Its success has helped popularise the “amateur podcast detective” trope for a new generation of viewers, whilst its confident blend of comedy, heart, and genuinely well-constructed mysteries has established Only Murders in the Building as one of the defining and most purely enjoyable entries in contemporary cosy-adjacent crime comedy.

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