- Title: Only Murders in the Building – Once Upon a Time in the West
- wiki: link
Picking up the story at the same party shown in last season’s finale, we get Mabel (Selena Gomez), Charles (Steve Martin), and Oliver (Martin Short) finishing their final podcast the next day before traveling to Hollywood to meet a producer interested in turning their lives into a feature film. While Charles is concerned with the absence of Sazz the podcasters won’t be on the scent of a new murder until the end of the episode, returning to New York in Charles’ apartment where the pieces begin to fit together and they discover there has been another murder in the building.
Just as last year weaved Broadway into the season arc it appears Hollywood is the new element we will get in Season Four. Not only do we get the Hollywood party which introduces the podcasters to the actors who will play them (Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy, and Eva Longoria – all playing themselves) put the episode also weaves the opening of “Once Upon a Time in the West” into the narrative of the episode punctuated with the discovery the Charles’ apartment is a murder scene and once again the game is afoot.
It’s an enjoyable premiere that offers a new mystery, lingering romantic issues for Oliver, Mabel still uncertain as to what’s next in her life, and more loss for Oliver with the death of one of his oldest friends. Memorable moments of the season premiere involve the final sequence of events where murder is uncovered, cameos by Scott Bakula and Loretta (Meryl Streep), various Hollywood in-jokes such as the Hollywood Brothers who are sisters, and the podcasters’ interactions with the actors including Oliver having no idea who Zach Galifianakis is and Eva Longoria attempting to put Mabel at ease (while not so subtlety suggesting, to herself as much as Mabel, they are basically the same age).
