Only Murders In The Building Season 4 Begins The Mystery In A Totally New Way

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the fourth season premiere of “Only Murders in the Building,” so beware.

“Only Murders in the Building” has been around for a few seasons now, and that’s enough to understand that the show has a reliable formula that has worked for the murder mystery comedy series. Each season premiere is typically where Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) begin investigating a new murder after the shocking discovery of a body. But as has become customary for the show, the previous season’s finale is where the victim is revealed (with the exception of the first season, for obvious reasons). 

In the case of season 4, “Only Murders” followed that formula, with the victim revealed at the end of season 3 as Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), the longtime stunt double and friend of Charles Haden-Savage, ended up shot while heading into Charles’ apartment to retrieve some celebratory champagne. But when the time came to investigate the murder in the fourth season premiere, the writers threw a curveball our way by removing Sazz’s body from the scene of the crime. There was no body for Charles, Oliver, and Mabel to discover in the apartment when their Broadway premiere party was wrapped up, and the show has a little fun by teasing the eventual reveal of Sazz’s death, even making the trio think she’s still alive for a time.

What follows in the premiere is an episode where the crew is totally unaware that anything has happened to Sazz, though Charles is understandably concerned that she didn’t come back to the party after leaving to get that champagne. His concern only grows when they find a pile of mail at Sazz’s door in front of her Los Angeles residence, especially when he discovers that she missed a stunt gig for Scott Bakula (the “Quantum Leap” star makes a cameo appearance looking a little like Charles Haden-Savage himself, making Sazz the perfect double for him, too). It really puts a damper on the excitement of an “Only Murders” movie being in the works at Paramount Pictures.

It’s not until the very end of the season 4 premiere that we’re thrown into the full murder reveal, and that’s quite the departure from the usual “Only Murders” formula. But that’s not where the twists and turns end.

As noted in my review for the first seven episodes of “Only Murders in the Building” season 4, this season adds a new wrinkle to the typical investigation. You see, since Sazz is a stunt double for Charles Haden-Savage, and she often appears to look and dress like Charles, even when she’s not on set, the “Only Murders” podcast crew isn’t convinced that Sazz was the intended victim. It’s just as likely, if not more likely, that someone was targeting Charles for murder, and Sazz just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Without spoiling anything for future episodes, this will be an ongoing mystery for a little while, and it makes the murder investigation that much more interesting. Furthermore, this is also the first time that “Only Murders” has given us a victim that has much more personal ties to our main characters. That will also shake up the approach to the investigation, as Charles has real emotional stakes beyond ensuring that they have a quality podcast about a murder in the Arconium. 

Making the mystery even more challenging than any other season is the ultimate lack of a body. Yes, aside from the body being removed from the crime scene before anyone can discover Sazz was killed, her body was placed in the incinerator in the basement of the Arconium, leaving the police with nothing but ash and an artificial shoulder joint Sazz received some time ago. With no body to provide any further clues, the trio finds themselves in quite the murder pickle, and with a Hollywood movie based on the “Only Murders” podcast soon descending on the Arconium with big stars (Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria as Charles, Oliver, and Mabel respectively) in tow, it’s only going to get more complicated from here.

I spoke a bit more about the new season on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:

“Only Murders in the Building” season 4 has its first episode available on Hulu now, and new episodes will arrive every Tuesday through the end of October.