Spoilers ahead for the Only Murders in the Building Season 2 finaleOnly Murders in the Building co-creator John Hoffman teases what's next for the show, in terms of its story themes. Led by the trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, the mystery comedy made an instant splash when it premiered on Hulu late last year. The series was quickly renewed for a second installment, with Only Murders in the Building season 3 receiving a similarly speedy renewal. Much of the credit has gone to the chemistry of the three leading stars and their ability to play off each other.
But as the more expansive Only Murders in the Building season 2 demonstrated, a lot of the show's charm is owed to a writing team that knows when to sideline Gomez, Short, and Martin in favor of a now familiar recurring guest roster. Using the central Arconia setting as its launching pad, the Hulu hit has examined fraught parental relationships, living with disability, and a general sense of loss that's hard to verbalize. While there's always a gruesome death to solve, including the death of Paul Rudd's newly-added character, Only Murders shines when it goes deeper.
Discussing the Only Murders in the Building season 2 finale with Variety, Hoffman talked about where the show could go next. Hoffman noted that Short's character, Oliver, will become a more central part of the show's emotional arc. He also said that the series will delve into the question of success, at what costs, and whether the central characters are just destined to be followed around by death. Hoffman's quote is included below.
In Season 3, we’re obviously making a leap into the theater, and around Oliver being a little bit more central in the emotional arc. It’s his Broadway return, and that tethers out for all of them into a question of success — at what cost? What happens at the end of Season 2 begs the question: Are these three people cursed to forever have death around them? And we’re just four weeks into our writers’ room for Season 3, but there are lovely romantic possibilities happening that ask certain questions. Are you able to commit, or should you be committed? The idea of commitment making you crazy.
Hoffman, who created the show with Steve Martin, gets right at the difficulty of the Only Murders premise. For the season 2 finale, Rudd's character, Ben, drops dead and it strains credulity that this has happened for a third time to these exact people. But it sounds like the writers will lean right into that, perhaps asking the question of how all these deaths have offered the protagonists fame and adoration and indeed the companionship that they sought early in the series.
In the same interview, Hoffman jokes that Only Murders in the Building can run for many seasons. In its current format, of bringing in great special guests and leaning relatively heavily on their recurring roster, the comedy has perhaps found a way to secretly extend its longevity. The individual episodes are strong and even remarkable, while the endings have so far been a delight, which suggests that there's a strong foundation in place for anything that Hoffman and his team choose to do.
Source: Variety