The first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 3 turn out to be a better musical than a sitcom with Meryl Streep as their showstopper!

With not many laughs, a slow plot but a potentially iconic musical in the making, the first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 3 barely gives you anything groundbreaking! 

In season 1 the infamous trio of Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) was formed and together they solved the murder of Tim Kono. The show’s highlight was how effortlessly they mixed humor with mystery without one genre over shadowing the other. In the second season, Bunny Folger’s murder mystery became the talk of the town and the three crime podcasters found the killer then too. And now, in Only Murders in the Building season 3, even after starting from a clean slate with Oliver’s biggest gig ever- a Broadway show, the trio seems to be cursed with getting entangled with yet another murder and this time it's the star of the Broadway show, Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) who literally drops dead on stage on the opening night. Could it get any worse than this for the three of them?

While all the three seasons have a different murder plotline, the treatment of it is all the same. Even three seasons later, it’s always the three of them that get stuck in the middle of a murder case. They’re always the ones to find the body and are linked to the victim in one way or another. So to clear their names they have to find the killer now. It’s starting to get repetitive no matter how many new and popular faces join in on the cast. Oliver is fully consumed by his Broadway show this season and he has to make it work and convince his cast it’s worth being a part of this. The stress of it is so high that he almost gets a heart attack. Charles is also a part of his show but other than that and solving the crime, he doesn’t have anything interesting going on so far at least. Mabel has to move out of her apartment in a few weeks, she has no job and nowhere to live so she has to figure it all out but we do see a spark in her love life. She and Tobert- the cameraman for Ben Glenroy’s official documentary, have been spending some time together. 

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Yes the first episode has a certain surprise element that makes you feel like maybe this time around the murder mystery would be something different but by the end of the episode, it’s the classic ONLY murders inside the building rule that they stick to. Everybody from the cast could easily have a motive to kill Ben, who of course is not only the star of this show, but a popular actor in the soap opera genre. As the series hints, when one actor is just too good than the other, you just have to toss them out. And someone from the ‘Death Rattle Dazzle’ team has taken those words quite seriously. Could it be Kimber (Ashley Park), a tik tok star turned actor who wants the spotlight to shine, or Loretta Durki (Meryl Streep) who, without a doubt is an actor par excellence and a rising star or the debutant weirdo who clings to his mom, who by the way is also producing the show? There’s a lot to unpack here. But the third episode ends with Kimberly being the first suspect.
Having watched a similar plot unfold three times of course makes you feel like it’s slow and sometimes you even question what’s happening but right then, Meryl Streep gets into character and starts singing and pulls you right back into the show. Seeing her as Loretta is mesmerizing and this is yet another amazing performance by her where she becomes one with the character. Paul Rudd too plays a character totally opposite from his real self and in fact anything we've seen him in before. He is over the top, dramatic, mean and sassy which brings a new flavor to the show.

But even after that, the show overall has only given us a few moments that stand out. Come to think of it, this was how the previous season led to the final few edge of the seat moments as well. It’s a slow burn that eventually gives you the thrill you want at the climax. With 5 more episodes to go, we hope the show redeems itself and we get a more exciting plot line, more humor and more glam like Oliver loves it, and an ending that would leave us shook.

The first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 3 are currently streaming on Disney+Hotstar!

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