Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez, Amy Ryan, Jane Houdyshell, Teddy Coluca, Michael Cyril Creighton, Jackie Hoffman, Aaron Dominguez, Vanessa Aspillaga, Ryan Broussard, Tina Fey, Adina Version, Nathan Lane, Jane Lynch, Sting, Russell G. Jones, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, James Caverly, Daniel Oreskes, Julian Cihi, Jaboukie Young-White, Zainab Jah, Ali Stoker, Jeena Yi, Orson Hong, Kirk Kelly, Mauli Pancholy, Olivia Reis, Esteban Benito,
True class never goes out of fashion. It may be ignored for a time, it might be ridiculed by a new style of chic or trendy message, but true class, undaunted, unopposed by time and the vogueish, is forever entrenched in the psyche of the observer; and when that class reappears in a different form, whilst still maintaining the belief and exuberance of its previous guises and time on Earth, then it becomes a living, and undefeatable, legend.
For many Steve Martin is that legendary figure to whom their love of film and comedy gratefully rests its head upon, and in his collaborations with Martin Short, the word, the meaning of iconic, becomes apparent.
From their first performance on Saturday Night Live and The Three Amigos!, the reunion of the double hit of Father of the Bride and its immediate sequel, the tremendously received theatre tour of The Funniest Show In Town At The Moment, and various passages of screen time in between, the pair are arguably amongst the most engaging double acts of all time, and in the first series of Only Murders In The Building, that combination of trust, of experience, and playfulness overflows to produce one of the most enjoyable new series to hit the screens in decades; one that gives the new silver age of British comedy a run for its money.
Steve Martin doesn’t do long standing television projects, he is a man of film, of cinema, and whilst Martin Short has dipped his sizeable talent into the medium on occasion, it is to movies that he also has made and maintained his name within, so to place both of these dons of comedy together in a ten part series might be considered unbelievable, the fact that they, alongside the remarkable Selena Gomez, the ever engaging Nathan Lane, the redoubtable Jane Lynch, the sensational Jane Houdyshell, and the seismic Amy Ryan, inhabit a series that embraces the world of podcasts, the armchair detective’s fascination for the truth and sensationalism, and the occasional New York sense of absurd revelations and propriety, then you find you cannot, and should not, question its appearance, only embrace it with both arms and call it for what it is…incredible.
A man is murdered in an uptown apartment building, the police want it closed quickly, the residents want it swept under the carpet lest their property prices resemble the decaying corpse, and it is up to former television detective Charles-Haden Savage, financially embarrassed theatre director Oliver Putnam, and the mysterious Mabel Mora, (Martin, Short, and Gomez), to solve the complex case and bring order to the lives of those in the building, with more or less convincing results.
If seeing Steve Martin on television in a prime role and embracing the comedy that is on offer is eye-opening, then Selena Gomez in her role is a revelation, and in her scenes with the two elder statemen of the genre, she captures the essence of that handed to her with gentle persuasion and a gift for the timing required.
Only Murders In The Building is genius, it is traditional, it is anarchic progression, and one that promises to be one of the true legends of American comedy series in the 21st Century, up there with M*A*S*H, Frasier, and other revolutionary shows that embodied the human need for farce and the beauty of misunderstandings set against real life. Absolute genius.
Ian D. Hall