‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 2 Review: Cozy Hulu Mystery Remains One of TV’s Best Shows

thewrap.com:

“Only Murders in the Building” finds itself in a precarious position as it returns for a 10-episode second season, owing to the same creative hybridization that made its first season such a delight.

The show is part cozy murder mystery, with multiple retirement-age sleuths investigating crimes that, while serious, aren’t depicted with an oppressively grim or gritty tone—which makes for a potentially easy route towards a long run. (Keep in mind that cozy mystery shows used to crank out two-dozen new plots per season, and “Murder, She Wrote”ran for 12 years.) But the show is also part New York character comedy, exploring the inner lives of unlikely allies Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), neighbors at an Upper West Side apartment building called the Arconia, who create a podcast out of their DIY murder investigation.

So many TV shows create memorable characters, explore their backstories and growth over the course of a season, and have trouble recreating the magic when forced to mine those personalities further.“Only Murders” Season 2 comes with built-in jokes about this.

Charles, Oliver, and Mabel are making their own Season-2-within-the-Season-2 of their show-within-the-show, and feeling the pressure of following up their unexpected podcast hit. (There are even diehard fans of the podcast on hand to complain about wheel-spinning and other aspect of the show’s second season in a particularly meta bit.) Also adding to the pressure: the fact that they’re being framed for this season’s new murder.