SELENA GOMEZ, MARTIN SHORT, STEVE MARTIN
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As with every fall, the leaves are turning, crunching beneath our feet. There’s a brisk chill in the Manhattan autumn air. And, do you hear that familiar theme song in the breeze? It’s time to return to the beloved – and perhaps haunted – apartment building, the Arconia. As usual, Only Murders in the Building Season 5 is back with a new, twisty, unique season that will have all of us on the edge of our seats.
Hulu’s hit series is finally on our screens again, and our true crime trio are wasting absolutely no time. Three fresh episodes are already out. In the premiere, “Nail in the Coffin,” Martin Short’s Oliver, Steve Martin’s Charles, and Selena Gomez’s Mabel pick up right where we left off, after Oliver’s wedding. Lester (Teddy Coluca, The Blacklist) is this year’s dead body, and it could not be more heartbreaking.
The first episode is full of hilarious moments, as our trio ponder over Lester’s death and how it’s connected to the missing Nicky Caccimelio (Bobby Cannavale, The Watcher), his inquisitive wife Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni, Madam Secretary), and – yes – the mob. The trio finds a rogue finger, belonging to a presumably dead body, and the owner is unknown, so what else can they do but track it down?
This journey takes us to the literal Godfather house, where Sofia’s sons greet the trio. They’re one second away from pissing their pants in fear, when the band of brothers burst out into song. You will most certainly burst out into laughter right with them because what the actual hell is happening? We find out the mob isn’t what it used to be; the brothers are just some chaotic dudes who want to start a podcast. Meanwhile, Sofia still enlists their help digging further into the mystery of where her husband Nicky is.
This certainly isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of them, but the first few episodes bring us many other gems. From Howard’s (Michael Cyril Creighton, American Fiction) line delivery of “Sherlock Nursing Holmes,” to a deck of cards that reveals a secret poker room, named the Velvet Room, at the bottom of the Arconia (you heard that correctly!), this season is not pulling any punches.
We find out a great deal about Lester’s life, specifically in the second episode, “After You,” honorably titled after Lester’s signature words as a doorman. The episode kicks off with him starting his first day as the Arconia’s doorman-in-training, decades ago as an acting hopeful – with a young version Lester, portrayed by Emory Cohen. He thinks he’ll only be there for a brief time, but he comes to touch many hearts over the years – and the Arconia embraces him right back. We even find out about Lester’s involvement with the mob and how he came to be in this position.
This episode is a tear-jerker, as we see Lester’s journey, his relationship with his wife, and the good deeds he’s done over the years. We see young Mabel, who is comforted and befriended by Lester, along with Charles, Oliver, Howard, and many old victims, such as Bunny, Teddy Dimas, Sazz, and even Tim Kono. It goes to show all of the faces Lester has seen and the lives he’s touched. And if there’s one thing this series does well, besides well-timed red herrings, it’s a cameo. These callbacks are so very appreciated.
The trio themselves go through a lot within the first three episodes. It seems as though, while they’re in a good place in many ways, they each have their own specific struggles. Charles is scared of what’s next for him, and it doesn’t help that Nicky’s dead body is talking to him, preying on his fear of death. Oliver is realizing he didn’t treat Lester as the buddy he thought he always did, and he’s confronting that he might be a narcissist. Mabel, on the other hand, has her apartment settled and her life in order – only to feel like she’s behind somehow when she comes face to face with her ex-friend Althea (Beanie Feldstein, Booksmart), who’s now a famous, rich singer buying a penthouse in the Arconia.
But those might be the least of the group’s problems. While Charles and Mabel find the Velvet Room, Oliver heads to the dry cleaners and stumbles upon a body. It belongs to none other than the missing Nicky Caccimelio. And then he wheels the body on over to the Arconia…as if the building needed any more dead bodies!
Still, we get the true crime trio doing something they’ve never done before: an autopsy on the kitchen table. It’s almost shocking they haven’t done this before, but at the same time, it feels like they’re diving headfirst into this process – and it’ll certainly bring in even more podcast listeners. Who doesn’t want Mabel’s first-hand account of if Nicky died a week or a day ago?
There are also more clues along the way, from the Arconia ledger paper Lester used being found in Nicky’s mouth, to the security footage, to the mysterious envelopes full of cash that Lester was getting from the mob. Still, Nicky has all of his fingers, and so the owner of that mysterious finger is yet to be seen. Well, that’s until they find themselves back in the Velvet Room. There are three others that walk in behind them, and we quickly find out who they are – billionaires.
You may recognize some of these faces. Bash Steed (Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Bastards), Camila White (Renée Zellweger, Chicago), and Jay Pfluig (Logan Lerman, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) are introduced in the last few moments of the third episode, but their impact is certainly felt. That fourth episode can’t come soon enough!
This writer can’t quite put her finger on it just yet – pun intended – but there is something about these billionaires that almost certainly determines they’re involved. Let’s just say, one of them has nine digits instead of ten. As the narration so perfectly claims, these billionaires are the new mob of New York. But they haven’t met our favorite podcasters yet. Who knows what will happen when they do?
