Only Murders in the Building is a mystery comedy about three strangers in the Arconia, an upscale apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, who share an obsession with true-crime podcasts and, after a suspicious death in the building, start one of their own. Steve Martin and John Hoffman created it for Hulu, and its five seasons, premiering in August 2021, June 2022, August 2023, August 2024 and September 2025, have been acclaimed from the start. A sixth is slated for December 8, 2026.
Trailer, via Hulu.
The Trio
Steve Martin plays Charles-Haden Savage, a semi-retired television actor. Martin Short plays Oliver Putnam, a Broadway director whose last hit was some time ago. Selena Gomez plays Mabel Mora, the young woman who keeps the two of them honest and whose own past is the first season’s real mystery. The chemistry is the show. Martin and Short have been a double act for decades and it shows, and Gomez’s dry, unimpressed delivery is exactly the third note the pair needed.
The Building
The Arconia is a character. Its residents, its staff, its board and its history supply a new suspect list every season, and Michael Cyril Creighton’s Howard Morris is the standout among the neighbors. The show’s affection for the building and the city around it is genuine, and the setting gives the mysteries a coziness that the murders themselves do not.
The Comedy
Critics have singled out the show’s comic approach to crime fiction, and that is right. The jokes come from character, from three people who are lonely in different ways and have found in a podcast an excuse to spend time together. The murder is the premise. The friendship is the plot.
The Mysteries
Each season is one case, and the show is disciplined about it. Clues are planted, red herrings are fair, and the solutions, when they arrive, hold up. That discipline is rarer than it sounds in a comedy, and it is why the show has drawn Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy.
Where It Falls Short
Five seasons of the same building and the same three detectives is a lot of coincidence, and the show has started to strain to justify why murder keeps finding the Arconia. The later seasons lean on celebrity guest stars in a way that pulls focus from the trio. And the balance between mystery and comedy tips toward comedy as the seasons go, which is fine for the jokes and less fine for the puzzles.
The Verdict
Only Murders in the Building is the rare show that is exactly as good as its premise and its cast promise. It is warm, clever and built to last, and the fact that it keeps getting renewed is one of the few things about television that everyone agrees on.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.