Given the 77-year-old’s prodigious talent and seemingly bottomless reservoir of delightfully off-beat yet spot-on ideas,that seems unlikely. Yet if the award-winning comedy-murder-mystery,a sparkling spin on the traditional whodunnit,is his last TV production,it would be a fitting finale.
For starters,the jewel-coloured caper,set in a Manhattan apartment complex,again teams Martin with his long-time friend and collaborator,Martin Short. They first worked together in 1986 onThree Amigos! and since then have co-starred in a variety of productions,while also touring since 2015 with a succession of two-man stage shows.
Martin quit the stand-up circuit in 1981,when he was one of the biggest drawcards in the business. Reflecting on his friend’s transition from stand-up star to box-office attraction,Short observed,“I think Steve learned the joy of collaboration. All through his stand-up life,he was by himself. Now,when he has success,he can celebrate with someone. And when something bombs,he can really laugh about it,as opposed to just being alone with it.”
Only Murders sprang from an idea of Martin’s that came up during a lunch conversation with producer Dan Fogelman (This is Us). Originally it involved three ageing male amateur sleuths who try to solve killings in their apartment block. Fogelman liked the idea and brought in writer-producer John Hoffman (Grace and Frankie) to develop it with Martin. The three male characters subsequently became two and were joined by a younger woman,with Selena Gomez becoming the third amigo.
At the start of the series,these residents of the Arconia,a sprawling Beaux Arts building on the Upper West Side,are lonely strangers. Reclusive former TV star Charles-Hayden Savage (Martin),flamboyant failed Broadway producer Oliver Putnam (Short) and artist Mabel Mora (Gomez) are initially united by their passion for the true-crime podcasts hosted by Cinda Canning (Tina Fey).
Then comes the discovery that they all shared an elevator with fellow resident Tim Kono (Julian Cihi) before he met his untimely death. And so a quirky band of self-appointed detectives is born and Oliver,sensing a business opportunity and desperately needing money to prevent eviction from his apartment,turns their adventures into a podcast.
Playfully toying with the tropes of the genre,the series expands the classic locked-room whodunnit into an entire apartment building while presenting an array of quirky characters and nutty plot twists. Graced by snappy one-liners and zinging with pop-culture references,it surrounds the central trio with a winning assortment of family members,romantic interests and fellow residents,the latter including the wily,wonderfully grumpy Uma (Jackie Hoffman) and pernickety cat-lover Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton).