‘Only Murders in the Building’ is back ... but maybe not as funny? Here’s what to expect

Well, they made it a year.

For the past two seasons of “Only Murders in the Building,” Charles, Oliver and Mabel — a trio of friends who first united over an obsession with a true crime podcast — have been thrown into the messy, convoluted world of solving murders in their very own apartment building.

It was a pastime-turned-full-time responsibility, and the three detectives finally got a well-deserved break at the end of Season 2 — but it couldn’t last forever.

“Who are we without a homicide?” Mabel, played by Selena Gomez, says in the Season 3 trailer.

After a year of no murders, the crime-solving trio is back at it, solving yet another case close to home: The lead star of Oliver’s Broadway play has dropped dead on opening night.

Here’s a look at what we know about Season 3, which premieres Aug. 8.

What do we know about ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 3?

Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short make up the core cast — but “Only Murders in the Building” brings additional star power to its show each season.

Season 1 saw Sting and the following season saw Shirley MacLaine and Amy Schumer. For Season 3, fans are getting at least two major stars: Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep.

Rudd plays Ben Glenroy, the star of Oliver’s Broadway play, per USA Today. Ben collapses on stage opening night, and his death — possibly murder? — serves as the primary mystery for the new season.

According to the Season 3 trailer, Streep plays Loretta, a struggling actress in Oliver’s play. But she’s just one of many suspects.

“In familiar Agatha Christie fashion, Ben was such a jerk that the list of suspects is long — so long that each episode basically focuses on a single suspect,” per a review in The Hollywood Reporter.

Episode 2 shows Oliver, Charles and Mabel attending Ben’s funeral, where they have “been downgraded on the guest list to ‘Overflow 3,’ a basement room where lesser attendees are watching the live stream of the funeral being held upstairs in the actual cathedral,” according to Entertainment Tonight.

“I was sent here by mistake,” Oliver says in a clip shared by “Entertainment Tonight.” “I should be upstairs, in the action with beloved friends, family and showbiz power players, not this pack of nobodies.”

Complicated dynamics are at play as the trio works to solve the mystery over the course of the season. Oliver (Short), long craving his return to the spotlight, is worried that his play will no longer see the light of day. Charles (Martin), who stars alongside Rudd in the play, is feeling the pressure of the theater world and some anxieties about his new relationship. And Mabel is distracted with “personal insecurities and a flirtation with Tobert (Jesse Williams), a documentarian who was making a film about Ben at the time of his death,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

What are critics saying about ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 3?

Critics were given access to the first eight of the 10 episodes. A review in The Hollywood Reporter states that the comedy is a bit strained in the new season, with the characters primarily relying on jokes/tropes from past seasons rather than coming up with fresh material.

“If the new season isn’t as funny as it should be — don’t get me started on various characters brought back from earlier seasons with diminishing returns — and it isn’t as mysterious as it could be, why is it still entertaining enough for a tepid recommendation?” Daniel Fienberg writes for The Hollywood Reporter. “Because ... it plays effectively as drama.”

A review in Rolling Stone also echoes this sentiment: “The humor feels much softer, and/or more predictable than in seasons past, and feels like a waste of the comic genius of so many of the actors involved,” Alan Sepinwall writes.

But Sepinwall praised the ride that “Only Murders” takes viewers on throughout the season.

“It’s an impressively knotty story, and if it gets predictable at times — if one episode ends with a cliffhanger implying a new chief suspect, that person will likely be cleared of suspicion by the end of the next one — it keeps finding interesting and fun ways to move through each beat,” he wrote for Rolling Stone.

When does ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 3 come out?

The first two episodes of Season 3 premiere Aug. 8 on Hulu.

After that, the streaming platform will release a new episode each week, per Hulu. The Season 3 finale airs on Oct. 3.