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.