Hulu was the very first streaming service that I ever signed up for (I stuck with my Netflix mail-order DVD plan far longer than seems sane in retrospect). I initially subscribed to the service in the late-aughts because, at the time, it allowed me to watch TV episodes from ABC, Fox, and NBC on demand the day after they aired. You have to remember that this was still in the days before streaming became the preeminent source of quality television, hastening the rapid, still-ongoing decline of linear TV.

While Hulu’s on-demand capabilities are still invaluable to my TV-watching routine — how else would I get my daily check-ins on “General Hospital” — over the subsequent decade and a half, Hulu has become far more than just a repository for episodes people weren’t around to watch live. The Disney-owned streamer has become one of the foremost homes of prestige and quality TV content, and I have gratefully followed this evolution, reveling in many of the streamer’s releases.

Earlier this month, a friend asked me for a binge-watch recommendation, having recently finished the Shondaland thrillers “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” — both of which coincidentally are available to stream on Hulu. She loved the shocks and twists of those shows, but wanted something that would be perhaps slightly less gruesome. Given all of that, my choice was really a no-brainer. I recommended “Only Murders in the Building.”

The Hulu Original murder-mystery comedy has aired five seasons and 50 episodes (with Season 6 debuting in December), which puts it in something of a streaming sweet spot. There is enough of it that you can legitimately disappear into the show for a few weeks, but not so much that starting from the beginning feels like signing up for a months-long commitment. As she ripped off 30-40 minute episodes at a blazing pace, she would text me as each new revelation occurred, and it reminded me that not only was “OMITB” a great binge for someone who wanted a relatively light-hearted mystery show, but for both logistical and entertainment reasons, it might be the perfect binge in streaming.

The series follows three neighbors in New York’s Arconia apartment building, known for its old-school opulence and growing reputation as the most murder-prone building on the Upper West Side. Though they seemingly have very little in common, these three discover that they share a borderline unhealthy obsession with true crime. Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) is a semi-retired actor still clinging to memories of his old detective show “Brazzos.” Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) is a flamboyant Broadway director whose finances are considerably less impressive than his scarf collection. And Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) is nearly half a century younger than her newfound friends, but has a complicated history of her own.

Fueled by a suspicious murder — which, you guessed it, occurred in the building — they decide to put their hours of listening to murder podcasts to good use and launch an investigative podcast of their own. As someone who used to work full-time in true crime podcasting, that was more than enough to hook me when the show premiered, but what has kept me coming back to “Only Murders” year after year is that its mysteries are actually good and every single character on the show, large or small, is genuinely hilarious. This show has a whimsy that is unique in television, let alone on a show that has multiple life-and-death moments in every episode. It is silly and self-aware; it is winking and always in on the joke.

The show understands that a murder mystery needs more than a collection of famous guest stars looking suspicious for 10 episodes. Each season plants clues, creates plausible suspects, sends the audience racing down very convincing dead ends, and then — generally — finds a way to pull everything together into a resolution that is both surprising and satisfying. The mysteries are twisty, but they are constructed so expertly well that when the answers are eventually revealed, you can look back and realize that the writers have been leaving breadcrumbs that you completely missed all along. That is also why I think “Only Murders” might work even better as a binge than it does week to week.

I have loved watching every season as it has been released weekly, and I have no doubt that its traditional release schedule helped build the show’s word of mouth, especially early in its run. There is something undeniably fun about having seven days to argue about suspects, scrutinize clues, and convince yourself that the character who appeared for 45 seconds in Episode 3 is obviously the murderer.

But when you can move immediately from one episode into the next, the details remain much fresher. A strange line reading, a seemingly insignificant object in the background, or a suspicious interaction from two episodes earlier is still sitting in your brain when it suddenly becomes important. Instead of spending a week forgetting half of the evidence, you can watch the mystery assemble itself almost in real time.

But if I’m being honest, over the years, the mysteries have become secondary to my enjoyment of the show. While I still absolutely get lost in each season’s murder, I really just tune in because I want to catch up with my friends. Steve Martin and Martin Short have spent decades proving that they are two of the funniest human beings to ever have lived. Both comedic geniuses in their own right, together, they are far funnier than any pair of senior citizens who have been working together for four decades should be.

Martin’s Charles is tightly wound, deeply awkward, and forever convinced that his “Brazzos” fame remains considerably more culturally relevant than it actually is. Short’s Oliver is essentially a Broadway production in human form, incapable of entering a room when he could instead make an entrance. While I will never turn down an opportunity to see (Steve) Martin and Martin (Short) riff off of each other, the show’s true magic ingredient is Gomez.

Her dry, deadpan, millennial exasperation is the perfect counter to two men whose characters can turn ordering lunch into a full five-act bit. Mabel often looks at Charles and Oliver the way someone might look at two particularly exhausting golden retrievers, and Gomez has perfected the microscopic pause, barely raised eyebrow, or completely flat response that punctures their nonsense better than any elaborate punchline could. Steve and Marty are always fantastic together, but throw Selena into the mix, and they have found their perfect third amigo.

And after five seasons of watching this bizarre intergenerational friendship deepen, I have become incredibly attached to each one. If they decided to do a season that had no murder, and it was just the three of them sitting around talking, I would still watch. In fact, I might even prefer that, as I don’t want anything bad to ever happen to my favorite fictional podcasters.

Another reason that “OMITB” is a perfect binge is that the longer you watch, the more the show rewards you for sticking around. Running jokes accumulate, supporting characters grow into linchpins for entire seasons, the geography and personalities of the Arconia become increasingly familiar, and callbacks that would mean nothing to a casual viewer become the little things that make your week. The show has gradually built its own strange little universe, one in which another corpse turning up in or around this extremely swanky apartment building somehow feels both horrifying and entirely inevitable.

Personally, as a Broadway devotee, I also love that filming in New York allows the series to fill seemingly every hallway, elevator, and dinner party with some of the best theatre actors in the world. Sure, there are recognizable stage legends like Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin, but there are also Broadway stalwarts like Jackie Hoffman, Jayne Houdyshell, Jeremy Shamos, and seemingly dozens of other performers who inspire theatre nerds like me to point at the television like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme.

Honestly, I’m a little jealous of my friend who I turned on to watching the show for the first time. Watching “Only Murders in the Building” every Tuesday has been a delight for years, but getting to discover Charles, Oliver, Mabel, the Arconia, and all of those beautifully convoluted murders for the first time — and then immediately hitting “Next Episode” — sounds like an awfully fun way to spend three weeks.

Only Murders in the Building

August 31, 2021

Three strangers share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one.