‘Only Murders’ Premiere Showcases Best Use of Meryl Streep in Years
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If you’re going to cast Meryl Streep in your production, you have one (main) job.
It’s something that Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” showrunner John Hoffman is well aware of; that his audience — be they Day 1 Arconiacs or curious new viewers — are here for one main thing in Season 3: to watch Streep kill (both literally and figuratively). In the premiere episodes, “Only Murders” more than delivers on that promise.
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Season 3 opens with two episodes: “The Show Must…” directed by Hoffman and written by Hoffman & Sas E. Goldberg, and “The Beat Goes On,” directed by Hoffman and written by Ben Smith & Joshua Allen Griffith. Hour 1 spotlights Streep’s Loretta Durkin, a seasoned yet green performer in her first major acting role, while the second episode shifts focus to Paul Rudd’s superstar braggart Ben Glenroy, this season’s murder victim.
After falling for Loretta’s show-stopping audition monologue, Oliver (Martin Short) has talked her up to the rest of the team behind “Death Rattle” — the story of a Nova Scotia murder in which the only person present was an infant. Before we return to Streep, a moment for this absolutely bonkers and so perfectly “Only Murders” theater premise. It’s less of a spoiler and more of a teaser to say now that Season 3 will reveal more of the actual content of “Death Rattle” as it goes on, each tidbit and tweak more delightful than the last. Just wait til you get to [redacted]’s [redacted] about [redacted].
But back to the Oscar-winning elephant in the room. While undoubtedly gifted, Loretta has a lot to learn, and her idiosyncrasies quickly turn heads — especially Ben’s. Streep and Rudd command the scene in different ways; he with Ben’s blatant peacocking and stunning reactions (when IndieWire’s review says that “[Rudd’s] props work with a pair of glasses is second to none, and nearly steals a scene designed for Streep,” that was about the table read); she with Loretta’s giddy excitement to unnecessary accent work to the shriek when she misses a line. It’s a nearly 10-minute scene that introduce’s a season’s worth of characters, and seeds of the dynamics that will lead to Ben’s death — but it doesn’t feel redundant or poorly paced. It feels like theater.
“The Show Must…” is a tightly written half-hour (33 minutes), especially for an established show adding so many new elements. Hoffman and Goldberg have the luxury of some true exposition, like Ben introducing his team and meeting the cast, as well as other details expertly woven into dialogue that actually makes sense between characters — like when he returns from the dead and addresses his cast mates. The “Only Murders” audience doesn’t yet know what happened in those fateful four months of production, but apparently Ben “made it weird” with Kimber (Ashley Park), hogged the spotlight from his understudy, accused the stage manager of stealing mangoes, and still thinks — even after dying and seeing the light (“That light, yes. The dead person light”) — that Loretta is a “snake.” It’s a clear mirror to the table read scene, giving answers while raising entirely new ones for the rest of the season. (its a little earlier, but bravo to Short and Streep for masterfully turning the chemistry from Loretta’s audition and the “You go, I go” into something at once more taut and more tender).
Episode 2 is goofier and more erratic — more like a typical “OMITB” episode but also more like Ben himself, who takes center stage. He has moments with each of the main trio throughout the episode; working on a challenging scene with Oliver (while Steve Martin’s Charles watches in jealousy), revealing his decades-long grudge against Charles, and calming down Selena Gomez’s Mabel (even if that one isn’t Ben himself but her hallucinating his ghost in “Girl Cop” form). Whether he’s playing an insecure movie star, spitting lines like “I could get you fired off this job, but I won’t. I’d rather make it hell for you,” or rocking frosted tips, Rudd holds his own against every scene partner and recalibrates Ben ever so precisely to match.
As dazzling as the premiere episodes and their new talent are, it would be a mistake — or perhaps somewhat intentional — to overlook what’s happening with our leads, namely Mabel. They call her the glue, but Mabel feels increasingly shut out of her guys’ lives, purposeless without a murder to solve, and unsure of what’s next when she leaves the Arconia. This trio has always bonded over murder, but watching Mabel lead that charge in the first two episodes is a slight taste of how it must look to outsiders: Unhealthy, morbid, and maybe masking something else. Mabel didn’t know Ben the way she knew previous victims, but her imagined conversation with him shows that she felt she knew him, that he was part of her life for longer than anyone currently in it. His death is a definitive end to Mabel’s childhood — and solving it might make moving forward just a little less painful.
Episode 1 Grade: A-
Episode 2 Grade: B+
Aftershow:
In the opening montage, young Loretta goes to see a show at the Goosebury Theater — the same venue for Oliver’s disastrous “Splash” musical and now for “Death Rattle.”
There are dozens of winning lines in these two episodes, but one of my favorites is Ben devouring an entire cookie not 10 seconds after saying he wouldn’t, and Rudd yelling “Hot DAMN! That is one hot Schmackary.” It feels like the kind of joke someone in the room might have tried or suggested in the moment and that Hoffman couldn’t resist keeping in (if it was indeed in the script, I doff my cap. Either way: Pay your writers and actors, Hollywood!)
Surprise Noma Dumezweni! This show just gets it.
Episode 2 ends with one arrest, but Episode 1 pretty clearly sets up Loretta as a suspect. There’s more to the story of her professional relationship with Ben (was it strictly professional?), and the narration over that opening
Oliver’s (drug-fueled?) dream sequence is very fun and leads him to propose “Death Rattle” as a musical — but that wasn’t the point of the song. The incarnations of Charles, Mabel, and Will in that song told Oliver to stop, and it looks like he’s planning to do the opposite.
The first two episodes of “Only Murders in the Building” Season 3 are now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes every Tuesday.
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