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Aug. 25th, 2022 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretOnly Murders in the Building Season 2
I don't know that I wrote anything here about season 1, but I loved it. But it's very much a pleasure with fits and starts, and the same is true of Season 2. The core trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez has incredible chemistry and when they are playing off each other the show manages a sublime, incredibly rich silliness that I adore. Some of the criminal investigation tangents reveal side characters surprising us in remarkable ways. The show can switch tonal register seamlessly and bring the audience along on some pretty wild rides. But sometimes it goes too far, sometimes it tries to do things that aren't in its range and you come to a screeching halt.
In this season, the blackout episode (Episode 8) stands out for the way it draws together what the show is really about- the distinctions between proximity and connectedness, and how we can bridge those gaps. The Arconia is a web of human connections, but also a web of human disconnections- People who see each other every day but never talk to each other, never learn anything about each other. From a mystery standpoint, the question is always "Is that a past connection that was broken, or simply an irrelevance?" But to Only Murders as a show, even the missed connections are not irrelevant, they're opportunities to become more attached to those around us, to discover how we relate to each other. In the blackout, even as the investigation advances the show deepens the relationships between the people who are not involved in the investigation except by proximity. Gut milk goes from being a joke to a point of intersection. And the musical interlude is so arresting and lovely, while the yodeling lets it maintain that signature sublime silliness I mentioned.
I did not love how the finale was paced, with so much time given to setting up season 3 after a slightly rushed, somewhat anticlimactic conclusion to season 2 (I was surprised when the murderer was revealed in Season 1; I was not in Season 2), but it had many satisfying and funny moments. The community theater vibes to the reveal party were so good- the way the show compares human connection to the *performance* of human connection is often devastating when you think about it. "If you're not my father, then I don't know what a father is." In some senses, reality is in the performance. In some senses, nothing could be further from the truth.
I don't know that I wrote anything here about season 1, but I loved it. But it's very much a pleasure with fits and starts, and the same is true of Season 2. The core trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez has incredible chemistry and when they are playing off each other the show manages a sublime, incredibly rich silliness that I adore. Some of the criminal investigation tangents reveal side characters surprising us in remarkable ways. The show can switch tonal register seamlessly and bring the audience along on some pretty wild rides. But sometimes it goes too far, sometimes it tries to do things that aren't in its range and you come to a screeching halt.
In this season, the blackout episode (Episode 8) stands out for the way it draws together what the show is really about- the distinctions between proximity and connectedness, and how we can bridge those gaps. The Arconia is a web of human connections, but also a web of human disconnections- People who see each other every day but never talk to each other, never learn anything about each other. From a mystery standpoint, the question is always "Is that a past connection that was broken, or simply an irrelevance?" But to Only Murders as a show, even the missed connections are not irrelevant, they're opportunities to become more attached to those around us, to discover how we relate to each other. In the blackout, even as the investigation advances the show deepens the relationships between the people who are not involved in the investigation except by proximity. Gut milk goes from being a joke to a point of intersection. And the musical interlude is so arresting and lovely, while the yodeling lets it maintain that signature sublime silliness I mentioned.
I did not love how the finale was paced, with so much time given to setting up season 3 after a slightly rushed, somewhat anticlimactic conclusion to season 2 (I was surprised when the murderer was revealed in Season 1; I was not in Season 2), but it had many satisfying and funny moments. The community theater vibes to the reveal party were so good- the way the show compares human connection to the *performance* of human connection is often devastating when you think about it. "If you're not my father, then I don't know what a father is." In some senses, reality is in the performance. In some senses, nothing could be further from the truth.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-08-25 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-08-26 01:37 am (UTC)