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From its inception, Only Murders in the Building has always been on the verge of artifice. The initial situation of a mismatched trio that embarks on an investigation while producing a podcast; the casting, which combines a duo (Steve Martin and Martin Short) almost as ancient as Laurel and Hardy and a young star from the Disney school, Selena Gomez; and, finally, the staging of a prosperous and elegant New York: Everything conspires to extort the phrase "sophisticated comedy" from the viewer.
The miracle is that it comes all by itself, thanks to the show-business savvy of Martin and Short, the talent of Gomez and the countless stars in a cast whose expansion will probably only stop with that of the universe. Previous stars include Tina Fey, Sting, Amy Schumer, Matthew Broderick, Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep. This season, we can add Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, Eva Longoria, Melissa McCarthy and Kumail Nanjiani.
The richness of ingredients can never guarantee the success of a recipe. In this fourth season, the recipe has not changed much, even if the first episode hints at an escape from the confines of Manhattan: The trio of podcasters take off for Hollywood. It is just long enough for Charles-Haden Savage, the uptight actor (Martin), Oliver Putnam, the narcissistic producer (Short), and Mabel Mora, the somewhat depressed young artist (Gomez), to get to know the Hollywood stars who will play them on screen (Levy, Galifianakis and Longoria).
The meeting is the occasion for a duet between Short and Galifianakis that is as brief as it is memorable. It also serves as a tuning fork for what is to come: an investigation repatriated to New York under the sign of cinematic illusion, where the previous season drew on theatrical imagination.
Arconia becomes the official setting for the feature film based on the trio's first investigation. The screenwriters exhaust all the possibilities offered by this mise en abyme. Each episode bears the title of a classic film, the film's twin directors imitate the postures of auteur cinema, and the producer (Molly Shannon) proves to be as autocratic as she is incompetent.
It is a lot but it is not enough. It is one of the series' sins to suffer from too many good ideas. There has to be a murder and this time it is that of Sazz (Jane Lynch), the stuntwoman who doubled for Charles when he was one of TV's great detectives. Among the suspects is a group of occupants of the Arconia who are as bizarre as the inhabitants of the building where Rosemary's Baby was born. Fortunately, this kind of cult turns out to be less terrifying.
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