--- title: "Only Murders in the Building" year: 2021 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/only-murders-in-the-building" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-17T03:59:28.922347+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T03:59:41.482559+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Only Murders in the Building (2021) Created by Steve Martin, John Robert Hoffman · MPA TV-MA · Comedy, Mystery, Crime **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 75 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* Three lonely people solve a murder mainly so they will have something to talk about in the lift > Steve Martin and Martin Short are a double act worth a series on their own, and Selena Gomez, deadpan and watchful, stops them running away with it. The murders matter less than the company, which is mostly a compliment. ## Synopsis The Arconia, a block of flats on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) is an actor who once played a television detective and now eats omelettes alone. Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) is a Broadway director whose last show sank and who owes the building money. Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) is renovating her aunt’s flat and speaking to nobody. A fire alarm puts all three at the same diner table, where they discover they follow the same true-crime podcast. That evening a neighbour, Tim Kono, is found dead in his flat, and the police call it suicide. The three decide he was murdered, and set out to prove it with a podcast of their own. ## Review Steve Martin and John Robert Hoffman have built a series around a simple observation: the people who listen to true-crime podcasts would rather be in one. Their three listeners live in the Arconia, an old block of flats on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Charles-Haden Savage (Martin) once played a detective on television and has been dining out on it for decades. Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) directed Broadway musicals until one of them sank him. Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) is stripping wallpaper in her aunt’s flat and would like to be left alone. They start a podcast about the death, and the podcast starts a friendship. It is a warm, funny, well-dressed series, and the murder is the least interesting thing in it. Curt Beech and Patrick Howe’s production design does more work than the plot. The Arconia has a courtyard, a doorman, brass lifts and corridors long enough to be sinister after dark, and the three flats tell you who lives in them before anyone speaks: Charles’s is tidy and beige, Oliver’s is crammed with posters and dip, Mabel’s is half-demolished. Chris Teague, who also directs, shoots it in lamplight and amber, so that even the corpse looks comfortable. Dana Covarrubias wraps Short in scarves and cravats and keeps Martin in a blazer he never undoes. Siddhartha Khosla’s score is plucked strings and a short, repeating theme that says mystery without saying danger. Martin and Short have been performing together for years, and the ease shows. Short plays Oliver as a man who cannot say good morning without blocking it; he directs the other two, the doorman, the corpse. Martin plays straight here and is better for it. Charles is buttoned, lonely and faintly ridiculous, and Martin lets that through in small doses. We laughed, repeatedly, at Short’s readings of lines that on paper are not jokes. In one early scene he tries to borrow money from a neighbour, and the neighbour’s replies matter less than what Oliver’s face does between them. Gomez gets less credit and deserves more. Mabel talks flat and slow while the two men gabble, and the joke is the gap between them; without her the show would be louder and worse. She is also the one carrying the actual grief, for a reason set out early, and Gomez plays it without asking for anything. Aaron Dominguez, as her old friend Óscar Torres, and Michael Cyril Creighton, as Howard Morris, a resident with a cat and a grievance, fill in the building. Amy Ryan is a neighbour called Jan Bellows who has decided, quite late, to be interested in someone. The mystery is where the series is thinnest. The deaths are solved by overheard conversations, planted clues and convenient confessions, and you can feel the writers shuffling suspects to fill ten episodes. The podcast conceit means a good deal of voiceover, and voiceover is the enemy of comedy: every time Charles narrates in his hushed radio voice the pace drops and we noticed the sofa under us. The satire of true crime is gentle; the show never decides whether the genre is ghoulish or simply a way of passing the time, and settles for the second, which is honest and less funny. This is quieter and kinder than most of Martin’s film comedies, and as a whodunnit it sits closer to *Murder, She Wrote* than to Christie: the death is a device for putting people in rooms together. Watch it one episode a night, with someone who will do the Oliver voice at breakfast. Binged, the mystery shows its joins. *Fi1m score 76, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews lean warmly positive, and almost all of them land on the same pleasure: the chemistry between Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. Critics describe the series as charming and fizzy, a true-crime parody that works best when it stops parodying and settles into its own mix of the funny, the strange and the sad. Several single out the Upper West Side setting, and more than one notes that Gomez holds her own against, and sometimes steals scenes from, the two veterans. The recurring theme is loneliness and growing old, handled lightly. Where critics part is over whether the comedy actually lands. The Hollywood Reporter finds the jokes inconsistent, though the mystery compensates. The Guardian goes further, calling the series pedestrian and its humour only mildly amusing. The spread is narrow, from lukewarm to very fond; nobody dislikes it, and nobody is quite calling it essential. ### Reviews we read (8) - **The Telegraph** (4/5): The show is a winsome caper grounded by the delicious double act of Steve Martin and Martin Short, with pathos, intrigue and lashings of charm. It evokes Manhattan lovingly and serves as a moving rumination on growing old while delivering a bonbon of a series packed with cameos. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2021/08/31/murders-building-review-two-amigos-reunite-delightful-trifle/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (70/100, inferred): The show is a pleasant, fizzy trifle that does not consistently land its comedy but compensates with an effective whodunit and angsty mystery. Selena Gomez's performance is singled out for stealing scenes from the veteran stars with her delivery and poignancy. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/only-murders-building-1235000775/) - **Variety**, Caroline Framke (70/100, inferred): The series is at its best when it finds its own sweet spot of funny, strange, and sympathetic rather than parodying true crime. The chemistry between the three leads and the detailed Upper West Side setting stand out as pleasures. [Read](https://variety.com/2021/tv/reviews/only-murders-in-the-building-selena-gomez-steve-martin-martin-short-review-1235050152/) - **Vulture**, Kathryn VanArendonk (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the series a charming and playful true-crime parody that benefits from the unlikely chemistry among its leads. They single out the rollicking energy and the way it treats its genre elements like an elaborate, clownish setpiece for praise. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/only-murders-in-the-building-is-a-joyful-true-crime-romp.html) - **The Guardian** (60/100, inferred): The series is a mildly entertaining murder mystery that showcases cross-generational repartee between its leads but amounts to a whodunnit with the lull of podcast voice. It offers enjoyable pairings and some later surprises but feels pedestrian overall with jokes that are at best mildly amusing. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/aug/31/only-murders-in-the-building-review-steve-martin-selena-gomez-martin-short) - **Collider**, Gregory Lawrence (A-): The critic praises the show's ability to balance sharp satire on true crime with an earnest mystery-thriller and deep melancholy character explorations. They single out the tonal complexities, strong ensemble performances (especially Gomez's contrast), and effective blend of humor, sadness, and suspense. [Read](https://collider.com/only-murders-in-the-building-review-selena-gomez-steve-martin-hulu/) - **Paste**, Kristen Reid (8.3): The critic calls the series simply delightful, praising the engaging chemistry of Martin, Short, and Gomez as they tackle the murder mystery via podcast. They single out Martin Short's scene-stealing comedic performance and the show's balance of lighthearted humor with effective dark moments and heartfelt character bonds. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/only-murders-in-the-building/only-murders-in-the-building-review) - **Consequence** (80/100, inferred): The review highlights the winsome and charming premise that blends true crime podcast culture with intergenerational comedy and New York wit. It singles out the delightful chemistry and performances of the three leads, particularly how the show uses the mystery to explore the characters' personal foibles and loneliness. [Read](https://consequence.net/2021/08/only-murders-in-the-building-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Steve Martin, John Robert Hoffman - **Creator:** Steve Martin, John Robert Hoffman - **Director:** Jamie Babbit, John Robert Hoffman, Cherien Dabis, Chris Koch, Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman, Jessica Yu, Adam Shankman, Don Scardino, Jude Weng, Gillian Robespierre, Chris Teague, Jesse Peretz - **Writer:** John Robert Hoffman, Ben Smith, Kristin Newman, J. J. Philbin, Rob Turbovsky, Matteo Borghese, Madeleine George, Jake Schnesel, Ben Philippe, Joshua Allen Griffith, Pete Swanson, Stephen Markley, Ella Robinson Brooks, Rachel Burger, Noah Levine, Alex Bigelow, Max Searle, Taylor Cox, Kirker Butler, Kim Rosenstock, Thembi Banks, Siena Streiber, Sas Goldberg, Elaine Ko, Steve Martin, McKenna Thurber, Valentina Garza, Tess Morris, Rick Wiener, John Enbom, Kenny Schwartz - **Cinematography:** Kyle Wullschleger, Chris Teague, Dagmar Weaver-Madsen - **Editor:** Shelly Westerman, Payton Koch, Matthew Barbato, Peggy Tachdjian, David L. Bertman, JoAnne Yarrow, Julie Monroe, Jack Cunningham, Diana Cruz Hiatt - **Music:** Siddhartha Khosla - **Production design:** Patrick Howe, Curt Beech - **Costume design:** Dana Covarrubias - **Producer:** Kristin Bernstein, Jill Risk Wolfe, Nick Pavonetti - **Cast:** Steve Martin as Charles-Haden Savage; Martin Short as Oliver Putnam; Selena Gomez as Mabel Mora; Amy Ryan as Jan Bellows; Aaron Dominguez as Óscar Torres; Michael Cyril Creighton as Howard Morris; Cara Delevingne as Alice Banks; Quincy Dunn-Baker as Kev - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 31 August 2021 - **Genres:** Comedy, Mystery, Crime - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRgyBaTulbs ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, uhd - Hulu: streaming, uhd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Golden Globes 2023: Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Rear Window* (1954), Fi1m 94: The original block-of-flats murder, watched from a wheelchair by a man with too much time — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rear-window.md) - *Manhattan Murder Mystery* (1993): Bored New Yorkers decide the neighbour did it; the ancestor this series never mentions - *Search Party* (2016): Aimless Brooklyn friends hunt a missing acquaintance and find out how awful they are - *Knives Out* (2019), Fi1m 81: A country-house whodunnit that knows the genre’s tricks and enjoys every one — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/knives-out.md) - *Ludwig* (2024): David Mitchell as a puzzle-setter impersonating his detective twin; dry, gentle, English --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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