The Prestige TV Podcast - ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

Jo and Mal are back at the Arconia recapping the two-episode premiere of Season 3 of ‘Only Murders in the Building.’ They talk about the murder premise, the new big-name actors, and the musical theater angle on this season before naming their prime suspects. Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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John Robinson joining me today. It's a very special guest. It's Mr. Harry Styles. Just kidding. It's Mallory Rubin. Hi, Mallory. Oh, boy, Joe, it is great to be here with you in Overflow three. Yes, exactly right. Exactly right. We are here today to talk about only murders in the building. Season three, episodes one and two. That's one and two. The show must ellipsies. And then the beat goes on. Those are the two episode names. If you haven't watched both, maybe you want to do that before you listen to us talk about it. Or maybe you just want to listen to us talk about a show you don't watch it all. I've heard some of you do that.

That's great. No judgment. It's beautiful. We are, before we get started, I just want to say elsewhere in the feed, winning time has started over on HBO. So you want to hear Chris Ryan, Joe House discuss that. That is in the feed. Just subscribe to the prestige feed. You never know, honestly, what we're going to cover.

It's an exciting little time over here in the feed. So just to make sure you don't miss a thing in the word of the prophet Stephen Tyler, then, you know, just subscribe. Mal, delighted to have you here. We're just going to zip through this. This is not a deep dive. This is not a show that really requires a deep dive. We're not deep diving.

We're not going to spend three hours on a 30-minute episode of television, as we can do sometimes in our lives. Not today, but at some point we might during the season, who can say? Today. Today we're just going to chat briefly about the episodes, and then we're going to do, little like, it's a who done it. And we haven't watched ahead. So we get to have fun and speculate and get to play detective along with our Arconia three. And then, you know, I get to say to you, congrats on winning Jeopardy. You get to say to me, well, for God's sake, do a crossword. I texted that to you last night. It's just pals hanging out. I'm just, I'm just going to keep that

on lock. So funny. Let's start like generally talking about the first two episodes. I watched, I watched, the first two initially by myself. And then last night, I showed it to two pals of mine, who had never watched a show at all. And I was like, let me, let me, I mean, you don't need to have like a ton of background to dive into a new season of only murder. There's like a pretty healthy. So they went right into season three without ever having seen Oliver turn to Mabel in an elevator and say, do you like your beats? Well, there's like a pretty healthy, like previously on at the beginning of episode one. And yeah, I'm sort of testing a theory of like you don't need to have like the whole

background. And what I found is we watch like, you know, we watched one episode. And then I was like, do you guys want to watch another? Watch another. And no one was really, I usually watch this show by myself, actually. And I was like, no one's really laughing. And I was like, it's not really a laugh out loud, funny show. It's just a like warm smile on your face.

I'm happy to be here kind of show. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, though I will say the premiere included a notable exception, which is like the absolute rib-cracking Loretta table read access stretch. Welcome to the party, Meryl Streep. Your Scottish dialect and your French-Canadian experimentation is welcome at any time. It's up in the Maritime. Queen of the Exxon Corner, Meryl Streep forever. I'm sorry, this is my process.

Yeah. Remarkable stuff. Just astonishing and delightful. But do you know what I mean, Mallory? like that this is like a cozy show more than it is like, again, a wall-d-wall rip-cracking comedy or anything else, you know? This show, it's one of the robust, chunky, warm, comforting sweaters that Mabel pulls out of her aunt's closet and wraps around herself to talk to a 31-year-old playing a high school

senior, Paul Rudd from Girl Cop. I honestly didn't know where you were going to go with that. I thought you were going to go soup and you went sweater. You're like warm, robust, hearty, comforting, bowl of soup or sweater, whichever you prefer. Joanna, in this two-part premiere, Oliver ate a dinner. I know. Calamity. And so everything that we know to be true about comestibles and sustenance in the only

murder's universe is on its fucking head. I'm not sure I'm prepared to talk about super dips, though maybe in the next few minutes I will be. I want to talk I just want to like briefly premise a couple things about this season that they've established as different from previous seasons

like previously on the show like obviously we're in the arconia the murder does eventually happen in the building they serve a brilliant little retcon of the end of season two is they're like J.K. He's not dead and then he dies in the elevator shaft. Great.

Yes. And also we've gotten Amy Schumer out of the penthouse. She's gone. She's just a very tidy. She left her cottage cheese. She left her cottage cheese behind, but, you know. How high does that rank for you on the faux pa list of exiting a kitchen and handing it off to someone else? Leaving any sort of dairy product in the fridge for somebody else to find is a sin against your fellow man. But on cottage cheese.

But on the one hand, I don't know that I would put that on Amy. I would put that on the arcone. Like, whose job was it to clean the apartment? Lester has enough going on. You know? Lester is not made service. I'm not saying. Lester has blames.

I would never blame Lester. It was on Amy to make sure that that abode was ready to hand off. I disagree. You think it was on Cobra? You think it was on Cobra. He didn't get it set up properly. Or Cobra's bro. Who we mean in his episode?

Cobra also hysterical. Yeah. So let's talk about a couple things. The meta, the meta angle of Cobrae is interesting to us. Of course, it's like, absolutely. Ant-Man fans, Paul Rudd fans, etc., etc. To have him like similar to, Keaton and Birdman or something like that,

poke fun in his own, like, superhero forays. What do you want to say about Cobra, Mel? I loved this. I was so delighted to get this right away. The social network, Facebook incorporation element of this as well, like drop the the. Yeah. Oh, God, please, just Cobra.

You know, he's not the rock or the Pope, Joe. I also loved later on when Charles and Maple were in stalker grin. merch strewn apartment. I was like, who has more merch if I look inward and really assess? Your struly or stalker Greg? I think you have merch that is not going to make me recoil a la the chewed gum from Girl Cop.

Do you know what I mean? Yes, or just a pair of pants from Old Navy. That's a one more that were purchased from All Navy. But the moment when Charles is like wondering what they're going to find next, an ant farm with a thousand little bends, like we went all the way to. the quantum realm with that, with that reference. Great stuff. The posters that we get, a brief tour, in the hallway we get something called Sex Panther.

I actually could not. Oh, Anchorman. Anchorman reference. Yeah. Flanagan's Wedding Night, which I think is a saving Silverman reference, but I could be wrong. Chinook Rising, which is a Black Hawk Down joke. And then Aunt Family Adventures starring Paul Rudd as, starring Ben as Papa Ant. And then Labrador receiver, which is an Airbud joke.

I just loved all of that. A remarkable tour. Yeah, the sex Panther role was actually my favorite because I love Anchorman. And it's made with real bits of Panther, so you know it's good. It's just one of the most astonishing cologne moments instead of by history. Amazing. Delightful. What do you imagine?

So we also see this action figure, and I could not identify source the action figure. It looks to be like a 70s-themed sort of DJ, almost like a wedding. singer sort of and it comes with body glitter and a limbo pole also but also there was something about the name of the character that's like cut off but I did zoom in that makes me almost think this is like a bar mitzvah DJ honestly like there's something about it so yeah yeah well we learned about we learned about it's just always going to kick saying Ben Gledroy it just kills me his painful traumatic origin story kicked off of the set of Brazos by Aristotle Brazos himself, Charles Aided Savage, when young Ben was a wee tot at eight years old. So we're getting these little bits of Ben's filmography and history.

So who knows? Like maybe we will learn about the Bar Mitzvah DJ. I hope so. And by the way, if that doesn't already exist, I suggest we make it our own personal franchise Bar Mitzvah DJ. sort of like as I've shared with you before, I did a very aggressive round of like one year of hyperactive studying so that I could have a bat mitzvah because I felt really left out. All my friends. All my friends were doing it.

You know what? You make a great point. So I'm ready. Maybe we should call it bot mitzvah DJ and make it a, or that's the sequel and make it a spiritual successor to the wedding singer. If we learned anything from cobra, you got to get rid of the first, like, you know, the initial word. We're just going to call it mitzvah. Yeah.

What a mitzvah. We're going to leave a lot of bops. She's open for what a mitzvah. What a mitzvah. Two, on a slightly ever so slightly more serious note, two moments that I want to highlight. One, you mentioned

Greg's stocker basement, rife with toilets, by the way. Just toilets galore. Selina Mabel gives us monologue about what girl cop meant to her. We had already like sort of seen her watching it, seen her talking to

ghost band, etc. But I just was kind of actually moved by this concept of like Mabel talking about after her dad die, her mother falls in this depression. Mabel's taking care of herself, eating a lot of scrambled eggs, all those sort of stuff like that. Her mom's locked into her room. But she, one night she's watching Girl Cop and she realizes that her mom is laughing at all the same part she is. So she's watching Girl Cop in her room. Mabel's watching it in the living room, but they're sharing something together.

And based on like what you and I do, which is like talking a lot about these like shared passions or long. long, long, gestating IP that is like stories that we have shared and loved and taken to heart and formed communities around, etc., etc. I was actually quite moved by this taking a moment to, like, talk about the way which even a quote-unquote, if you want to call it, but probably dumb show featuring a sob and like Pookishel necklaces and frosted tips, like Girl Cobb can be uniting. She's like the drippiest of fits for Girl Girl Girl Girl. The fit lords all around us on Girl Cup. I love that, too, Joe. For the reasons you just said, I thought that was also like a nice way to heighten that moment of connection

that Oliver and Charles and Mabel shared back in the pilot when we saw them connect over the podcast. They were all listening over, all is not okay in Oklahoma because like to understand that that had been a part of Mabel's own life, like that moment where you realize that somebody else loves the thing you love. Maybe it's a stranger on the subway who's like reading the same book. as you. Maybe it's a neighbor in a diner who's putting little markers on a map just like you would be in your apartment if you're listening alone. And maybe it's your own family member and some chasm has

opened between you and this is a little way to bridge it. I thought that was really lovely. And as we talked about in our primer pod, like that is the show is amusing and creative and clever, but it has this like freely present heart throughout every episode. And there were a few different, a few different emotionally impactful moments in the the first two episodes, I thought that Oliver having to confront the critic who sat him down and not only told him which thought of the play, but called out that it seemed scared, that it seemed reserved, like these things that we know are kind of anathema to Oliver. And so whether it's something that allows us to see a breakthrough for a character or a moment when a character has to

confront a point of regression, right? Like the show, it really is able to hit us in the feels in a pretty amazing way. I love it. I love that scene. So, um, Nomadumaz Wanii, who plays Maxine, the theater critic, who a lot of people know from her work in Chris Child as Hermione, like, is a wonderful actress who, like, whenever she shows up on anything, like, even a show I didn't really like the undoing, like, she's phenomenal. She's always good. So it's like one of those, like, I don't know how much she's in this season, but like, it was just like an incredible casting moment. And I'm always, I've never been an officially been a film critic or a TV critic or like that. My job title is much more nebulous than that. But many friends of mind are film and

TV critics. And I'm always like on alert for a film or TV critic moment within, you know, speaking of Birdman within like a piece of art because it is often the filmmaker or the storyteller's way of like working through some sort of like animus that they have with critics in general and stuff like that. Oftentimes those critic characters are like incredibly vicious and like all this sort of stuff like that. And I love this Maxine character because she has that thing that critics can have, which is like, she's like, it's a shame no one's going to read this review. It's like some of my best most vicious work. My most, my most vitriolic writing.

Yeah, like, you know, but she's not a cardboard, you know, two-d character. And she has empathy for Oliver and she sits down and has this like, and it's what, I mean, it gives him, you know, a cardiac moment, but it also seems to be something that he needed to hear creatively to spur him towards, you know, greater depths of his art. And that in its... I never hold back Oliver and neither should be. Yeah, and its best version of criticism, like, that's what criticism should be, you know what I mean? So I love that scene. And then I just, I want to quickly and spare you, I do not want to bore you to tears, just do like the theater angle quickly because

please I'm excited so we are we are not just in the Arconia but we're in the gooseberry theater yeah the gooseberry theater right so we're like in twin I mean Jackie Hoffman as Uma gets a great like well at least you kept the murder out of the building and then like her reaction at the end of season one

and her button I love Jackie Hoffman I'm a huge huge fan of Uma but we are in like we're in the theater a lot this season it is a backstage sort of story that we're getting because we're going to get a lot of, it seems like a lot of flashbacks of rehearsals, table reads, like blah, blah, all that sort of stuff. And I love, I don't think it's like a name genre, but the backstage genre is one that I really love. There's, I'm just going to rattle off a few examples that I love. Noise is off is a huge one, fan of the opera, ever heard

of it, all about Eve, Birdman, I already mentioned, Moulin Rouge, all that jazz, the producers, present laughter, Kiss Me, Kate. Like, these are all great. shows where oftentimes the drama that's happening backstage can be reflected in the text of the play that's happening on stage. So in this first episode, we're going to get to suspect corner in a second, but in this first episode, Merrill Streep's audition monologue is like, what would you kill for? You know what I mean? And so if we have opportunity, and there's a murder within the play. So when we get opportunity for the text of the play to interact with, you know, the murder backstage and the various suspects and stuff like that,

I think that's just an incredible opportunity, rife with opportunity. Death Rattle being our play, a murder that takes place in a lighthouse in fogging Nova Scotia, and the only person in the room is a baby. But the deaths occurred as an infant child. When we see the dummy as Ben and Oliver, with the rattle in it, yeah. personalize with the rattle stuffed down the windpipe. It's unbelievable. And then later when Oliver's like confronting, KT, by the way, great example of a stage manager type.

I love, I love. Quite a rivalry between KT and Howard. Absolutely. What could that have yielded? Do you know what I mean? Indeed. And we'll find out how it got that way. And that's, I mean, that's the fun of this like the, like, the,

time hop that we got the year later. They're taking full advantage of that so we get to see Ben coming at the table rate and what are the, what are the nature of his relationships then? And then when he comes into the party and sort of does the same tour and references like various things that he messed up or like we'll do better or all the sort of stuff like that. And those are all little breadcrumb trails for us to follow as we try to figure out what's going on. Also, as you know, Mallory Rubin, I love a musical moment. I don't know if we're going to get a musical moment every episode, but that is my dream for this season, that just like one musical moment every episode will serve me. It doesn't have to be wall to wall. Just like one, like,

death rattle is going to become a musical. Like, this is, this is not the last we have heard of our death rattle dazzle. Yeah, amazing. But an episode. I was thrilled that we got to see, um, Will up there with, with Mabel and Charles in Oliver's post minor heart attack fever haze of creative inspiration. That was delightful. Always love when we get a moment with Will. Oliver had already mentioned Bob Fossey, so that moment with them with the hats and the hands

and the silhouettes and the chairs and all of that sort of stuff, Steve Martin, Stephen Martin, Selena Gomez doing a cutesy, like, I don't like this musical stuff, but obviously very talented singer. And they're doing Bob Fossey. And what they're doing is essentially all that jazz versus Bob Fossi's like autobiographical

story about like dying. And like these musical moments that occurs. So like, is Oliver going to die this season of a heart attack when he's been like worn off of directing a play and he's going back to directing a play? I hope not. But I don't know. I don't know what happens when the character survives a heart attack in episode two and we have eight more episodes to go.

Do you know what I mean? Yes. I have been wondering if the final season of only murders will be two. of the members of the trio investigating what happened to the third. I think this wouldn't quite fit if we know it's just natural causes, but it does seem like Oliver is maybe going to hide this from them. You know, he certainly turned around to press the little button and register the irregular beat. I am not ready to say nor will I ever be prepared to say farewell to Oliver,

who I adore and cherish. As you know, I think that Oliver, other than the musical theater and general theater, expertise and passion, which is more of a thing that you and Oliver share, though, I love the theater. I just don't know anything about it. You know, our passion for dips, our love of podcasting and friendship. We have a lot in common. But never have I felt more one with Oliver than I did when he found out that he had incredibly high blood pressure. And he said when he heard 160 over 100, is that high? He was told, yeah. And he responded and is high good. It's like, we are the same. That would be me in that situation. I think, is that good? All of us have two wolves inside of us.

And all of us also have every member of the Arconia three inside of us. Because when I think about you through the lens of Charles, you know how you have that thing about like indoor pants and outdoor pants? I feel like that's a real Charles part of you. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As a person who understands decorum and hygiene.

Yeah. Decorum and high. Cricially. All right. Some people who take their hygiene concerns a bit excessively. Someone who I've seen drench themselves in hand sanitizer more than once. Okay. So I also just want to shout out the musical moment when we get in episode one because we open with young Merrill Streep's character as a young girl at the theater, right?

And this ominous sort of like, what would you do to hold on? But Loretta, little Loretta. Yeah. who has worn only only one or two hairstyles her whole life braids down, braids around the crown of her head

that's it, only two. But she's at, she's at a production of the musical No Strings, which is a little known musical,

but the song that is, that is being sung at the beginning is the Swedish sounds, which she reprises later with Oliver at the piano at the party. If that sounded familiar to you,

but you're like, I've never heard of the musical, no strings, They borrowed it from No Strings for the ABC TV Brandy Cinderella that happened in the 90s. They do that sometimes with, like, you know, restages in musicals. They're just sort of like, this is also Richard Rogers musical. We'll just steal this from this other show and give Brandy and the Prince another song to sing in Cinderella.

But I do want to shout out some interesting trivia from No Strings, which is that the lead actress Diane Carroll in that musical, the first black woman to ever win the best actress in a musical. So I just love that we had this sort of like, presumably Diane Carroll moment at the beginning of this season that is in many ways an ode to the theater, an ode to musicals sort of thing. Yeah. Fingers crossed for a musical moment every single episode.

I think we should have Selena Gomez sing like for real, fully again. More Merrill singing. Is Steve Martin going to sing? I hope so, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So dare to dream. Any else you want to talk about before we go to Houdanit Corner? I guess before we get there, one thing maybe to just note is talk about for a minute because I don't think we would actually consider Mabel a suspect,

both because none of our court trio are going to actually be suspects, but also because the is Mabel, the murderer plotline was so core to season two. I don't think they'll go back there. There are so many moments where Mabel's desperation to investigate the murder, to be doing the podcast again, to be back with Charles and Oliver, are like central to the propulsive driving force of the first two episodes.

And I think if they hadn't done what they did in season two, you maybe would have had a moment where you thought, is somebody in the show at some point going to say, boy, Mabel seemed really desperate to have Ben be dead so they could look into this. I don't think it'll go that way, but I just thought it was really touching how badly she missed them,

like the moment where after she summons them for a hang at the pickle and she's hearing them talk about, oh, Joy and the friends and Ron with the chin and she's left out. She doesn't know the references and the injokes anymore. And then they find out that the beautiful, let me say, beautifully renovated apartment has been sold. She's leaving the Arconia. And on the one hand, she has this girl boss hallucination conversation with a 31 year old Paul Rudd playing high school senior, very, very, made me think of one of my favorite recurring Jody Walker bits, which is how she refers to John B.

In her Outer Banks Commentary, a man playing a boy, killed me to think about that. And she's talking, Mabel is talking about, like, needing to forge her own path and do her own thing and find her own place and figure out her career. But also, like, look at all these gifts she has around her. Look at all of these achievements. the thing that she did right there in her home,

the things she built and crafted with her own hands, the things that she has made with Charles and Oliver, like she's done all that already. And now she has to say goodbye to it, maybe? It's just, it's just... Never happening. Very, very sad. No, I hope not.

I hope that she moves into like... I would say Charles. Moving with Charles. That, I mean, well, maybe that's how we find out really who her favorite old is, you know? Oliver's like it doesn't need to be said, but if she picks which one to bunk up with. This is why Lucy was conveniently

disposed of sort of off screen is sort of like great like half line charles joy exchange like you got lucy home right we'll never see her again um yeah i know i you know speaking of like the ways in which you relate to charles and oliver i i really related to mabel in this and that like some of my best friends in the whole world are people that i've hosted podcasts with because there is something like truly important and lasting about someone that you like sit down and have like hours long conversations with routinely every week about a thing that you care tremendously about, be it murder or the upcoming Star Wars show Asoka. You know what I mean? Like they're one of the same. But like yeah, if I think about like the people that I am closest to, a lot of them are people that I've done

podcast with because you just like form a core foundational connection through that. So for her to be like, I miss the podcast. I miss you guys. You guys are forever together at the theater and I'm not there. You know what I mean? Like, why didn't they hire Mabel to do the sets or something? You know what I mean? Like, she's got talents. Anyway, there's enough, yeah, enough NEPO babies in that room already, Oliver. Like, come on. Bring in good old Mabel. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity

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And this is like one of my very favorite murder mystery stories ever, Gossford Park, is there could be multiple murderers because we have a poisoning and we have a poisoning and we have a shoving and it could have been the same person who did it or it could be two different murderers. Right. Early prediction for which of those will prove true? I don't have who did which. The poison. Okay, but you think it's going to be two people. No, I don't. I don't know that. I just have two suspects, but I don't know that they, I don't necessarily feel one way or another about like, one did the poisoning, one did the pushing. It could have just been one of them did both. I will say traditionally in like this sounds a little aggressive to me

but in like murder mystery shows of whatever blah they always say poison is a woman's weapon yes yeah sure that's just a murder mystery trope the throne seasons one yeah they say poison as a woman's weapon you know just something I think about do you want to how many suspects do you have

I am wondering though if like we've had we've had women as the murder reveals in the first two seasons I'm yeah I'm on the lookout for a man this time. I agree. I agree. That's a, both of my sex sex are male, actually.

That is why I did this when we were doing our preview episode as I tracked when we met the two murderers. And I put it in our notes last week because we meet Amy Ryan in season one in episode three. That's when we first meet Amy Ryan's character, Jan, who did the murder. And then we met the murder in season two. actually in season one episode four, that is when we meet that character. And so this, so the murderer could have been a character that's been around a long time, Howard. Howard is not one of my suspects, but I'm just saying like a Howard or something like that. Or it could be someone we haven't even met this season yet. Do you know what I mean? Like,

they're keeping their options open. Do you have any prime suspects? I have a couple. Should we talk through Loretta before we present our main suspects or should we present our suspects and then talk through Loretta. Because I think here's what I would say about Loretta. There is the most evidence in the first two episodes pointing toward Loretta, but also the most pointing against her, which... The heaviest finger is on her, which is in the tradition of only murders is why you think it can't be her.

And also the fact that it's Meryl Streep, which is like the most obvious because sometimes it is like the, hey, well, why is this famous person like suddenly here? but also that's the same reason that it's probably not Loretta. Also, just in terms of the, like, motivation because of that whole opening scene that you noted, like the entire season starts with that origin story of Loretta in the theater and these voiceovers from Charles about like, until you realize that Nirmus has become your life,

how do you keep at it with Eddie Hope? But, like, does killing Ben, who Loretta, it's canonically established, hates and thinks as a, quote, fucking asshole deprive herself of her own chance by killing him. It kind of seems like everyone in that room thought that he was an asshole. Yes. Kind of seems like everyone in the room was like, oh, he's alive. You know what I mean?

So there's the like what I killed, a protected child in by charge audition that you already noted. The don't upstage me, Ben introduction. The fact that Ben wants to fire her, that she's a stinkeruny, like pitch to Oliver. Everything at the party. I did think weirdly the one thing that I found actually, most compelling in the sea of, I think we assume red herrings, was the earring on the

the earring sequence with Oliver on the piano bench? Could the earring perhaps have been askew because Loretta was in like a really hurried, frantic state after being involved in the poisoning? Who knows? I think regardless, that was an interesting conversation because Loretta seemed, despite what it would mean for the end of her big break, like relieved that the production was ending because of what it meant for the possibility of relationship with Oliver, the end of his show rules, right? I don't know.

So I think we're eliminating Loretta. We think that that's like a... For now, though, again, it could be like we're going to imply her so early at the beginning that you're going to be like... And then circle back to her. Absolutely. Right. It could be so obvious that we move on and then it ends up being the case.

Okay. Dickie, the brother. He's my main suspect. He's my number two. He's definitely my number two suspect. Dickie, the suffering, abused, unhappy. Assistant brother. Absolutely.

Yes, he's carrying all the bags, but crucially also all of the humiliation. When Ben miraculously appears at the party alive, I mean, everybody looks shocked, but I would say Dickie looks anxious and unhappy. And then also there's that mystery phone call where the phone rings, Dickie hands it over to Ben. And, yeah, it's like, you have to take this.

So, like, to your point, that could be maybe somebody who is involved in this and we haven't even seen yet. But it indicates that Dickie knows something about a variable or a factor in Ben's life that other people are not aware of, right? So he's high on the list. To go back to like the two murders that we've had before, you know, Amy Ryan is an Oscar-nominated actress, star of the office, all sorts of things, right? And then the actress playing The Murder in Season 2 is like a relatively unknown.

So again, we can't say like, is it going to be the Merrill Streep or is it going to be the relatively unknown or whatever? Jeremy Seamus is like a really interesting actor for Dickie because I've seen him like he plays one of the Kettlemen's in Better Call Saul. Like I've seen him around. He's in succession like but in minor roles and has sort of like one of those that guy faces that like you could be like he looks kind of familiar. I've probably seen him in something but I don't like he's not sticking out to me. So he can just sort of like be in the background in a lot of scenes and you're not necessarily your eye isn't drawn to him sort of thing. So in that way, yeah.

But like definitely my number number two strong. Who's your number one? Jesse Williams as Tobert, the documentarian, right? Yeah, it's high on the list. Number one. It's Robert with the D. Yeah.

It's remarkable. You'll never hear my voice again. You know what I mean? He says, and like that opening monologue, okay, because he's doing a documentary about Ben Glenn Roy and his premiere on Broadway and stuff like that. And that open monologue that Martin gives, that Steve Martin gives about like your opportunity,

what would you do to hold onto it, blah, blah, blah. Like, what would make, you know, as, as Mabel is saying, like, a podcast about the depth of a movie star that, you know, but like a documentary about the death of a movie star, blah, blah. So, yeah, just like the shove. I feel like the shoving at least was our documentary. And here's my reasoning why. What if, like, the poisoning happens?

He's not involved in it. The poisoning happening is he's like, oh, my God, my documentary. he's about to be so amazing. I had the last footage, a Ben Glenroy, he's dead. This is so exciting to me, blah, blah. And then he's alive and he's like, oh, no, it's not as interesting anymore.

And he's like, has to go preserve the narrative? Have to go shoving down an elevator shaft. Do you think that Tobert, Robert? Robert. Tobert. Taubort. Yeah.

Topper. Yeah. Tabbert. Would have received a death rattle. I know. That's the one thing. That's the one thing. Assistance got them.

Right. Like a documentary has one, Howard has one. Yeah. Did just get one? Everybody who'd be in the room at any point, get one with a little custom note with the fuck you, sign off. Great stuff. Nice personal touch. I like the tabard idea also because I think you're spot on with the opening note of the season and that quest to preserve the narrative and the parallel with the pod.

I think also like while the handkerchief points us as, you know, Mabel notes towards somebody in the production. I still think there would possibly be like a different tier of people who would be able to get up into Ben's apartment, like into his home. You know, is he inviting every single person who he gave a handkerchief to up there? No. Now, that said, stalker Greg got up there all on his own. With love and respect to the Arconia, our pals were able to bring a turkey up to sting in season one. The security's not super tight. So maybe anybody could have made it up there.

But maybe that does heighten the idea that somebody who was particularly close in that. inner circle constantly around Ben with the expectation that they would be able to have access to all walks of his life would be there. And yeah, the person filming him would would be a candidate for that. To go back to that sort of like actually level of fame, you know, like you have like Merrill Street and Paul Rudder here. And these are like our big bull blah. But like Jesse Williams is a crazy anatomy star. Like this is, you know, an actor who could give a really fun like, yeah, I did it and I'll do it again sort of like reveal moment and stuff like that. So we'll see how he's, you know, he's not in episode two, I believe, but nor is Merrill Streep. You know what I mean?

So we'll see how he's deployed throughout the season, I suppose. But yeah, he's my number one right now. Just the way he was introduced. And I'm just sort of like, that's, that's, that's fishy. It could, and it would be, I think, kind of like, there are these nice moments where, as we talked about in the primer, our core trio has to kind of confront, like, what they are doing and how and why and what it means. and even like the little moment where Charles and Mabel as their in captivity are like talking about how they solved it so much faster this time.

Usually they don't solve until the eighth episode but then they said like falsely accused people without falsely accusing anyone or recording people without their consent or interrogating a bird. Like if it ends up being somebody else who is pursuing a story and they have to like reckon with that,

that would be pretty dramatically compelling at the end of the season. Do you think there's any case so far through two episodes for Donna and Clifford, the mouth kissing. No. Mother and Child, real Lucille Buster Bluth energy from these two. Any case for Kimber or Ty? I mean, Kimber and Ty are definitely going to be.

Kimber absolutely is going to be a suspect. You know what I mean? But we need a bunch. We did chew through a bunch of those because every week on only murders, you have a red herring suspect. So we've got a room full of them. You know what I mean? Yes. The person on the other end of Timber for Kimber as an intro is going to be an early season suspect to assess.

KT. Howard, Jonathan. Bobo. Bobo. Bobo brought popcorn to the funeral. So, you know, a legend. If you want to bring popcorn to my funeral, Mallory, I will be totally fine with it. If you need a snack.

No, I would never. I would bring dips. Okay. But like, if you need a chip to put in the dip, I allow it. Man. Jonathan, learning the Jonathan. of Jonathan and Howard is the understudy was interesting. Of every little nugget we got in the making my way around apologizing,

like the I refuse to let you get on stage part was. That's my point. Like if we're outlining, if we're like, okay, there's that person's motive, that person's motive, that person's motive. We even see motive for. That's episode three, five, five, five, six. And we even see this, like, we can see the motive for Dickie, like as the brother, even though it's not like stated, we can sort of see it.

And that's why I like not Robert, but Taubbert, Tavert, because it's like, it's there, but it's very much not there. In the background, waiting to be discovered. The reason I like the Jonathan, like, maybe a third or halfway through the season, the suspect assessment before we discard it is because it's a dual one, it would be like, did Jonathan want to do that for himself

or did Howard want to do that for Jonathan? I love it. I love when we get, I love when we have the inevitable stretch of an only murder season where Howard is in the spotlight for something nefarious and then his reputation is restored, as it should be. One last thing we have to talk about before we go, at the very least, is I had already mentioned to you that the legend, Divine Joy and Randolph as Detective Williams, was like

mostly unavailable this season because she was working out the idol. So we got a different detective in episode two, and you're just sort of like, he's fine. No knock on him. Yeah. Totally fine. It's not about him. It's just like, it wouldn't it have been better if it had been her is all. You know what I mean?

It just like reminded me a little bit of when we were chatting about Good Omen's. Check out the latest House of Arr on Good Omen Season 2 and The Enemies to Lovers' tropes in Right Time. Stories. We had a blast. And that like it's not even, sometimes it is, but it's not even always a comment on what you're getting. It's just that like every time you're not with Crowley and Azirafel, you're despondent. And that's how I felt here.

It's like, has nothing to do with the participants of the scene. I'm just like, where is detective? Williams. Where? Exactly. And why isn't it on my screen? Right now. Do I have to go watch The Idol? I mean, Mallory's already watched it.

Do I have to watch it just to get my fix? We'll see. Actually, I just started rewatching High Fidelity instead because that's where I got my... As you know, I love that show. You and I are the same. All right, anything else. Hat Corner, we just want to shout out Charles's hat that gets the blood dripped on it. Also, Ben's Fedora for the show is also fantastic.

Drip Watch. a shout out. You mentioned the scene where Mabel is feeling left out. What is she pulling on as she's feeling left out? Just another extraordinary coat. She has a million of them. This sort of massive green plaid number that I just thought was incredible. Sensational, but also the sweater under that was astonishing. Absolutely astonishing. I also thought this was a great double premiere for Oliver's neckwear. And in fact, it was incorporated rightfully so into the script. Do you see this paisley neckcloth? No, but I love when he goes to Charles,

and he's like something more boring from your urban. Charles gestures to his, like, from your incredibly bland wardrobe. He's like demure stripes and plaid, and he's like, I am very flashy for me right now, essentially. Delightful. Dip watch, we've already mentioned. Oliver is supposed to be off dips,

on bread rolls, off dips. I'm concerned, because he can't remain off dips. So, yeah. If I were to recommend a heart-healthy dip, you know what I mean? You know what? I know what? I know a great recipe that you can use the cottage cheese that's leftover and Amy Schumer's fridge. No, seriously, there's a really good veggie dip. It involves cottage cheese and tobacco and lemon juice and dry mustard, et cetera, et cetera. It's delightful. It's very good. And that sounds heart-healthy to me as well. So perhaps Oliver can enjoy that. I need so much hummus, and hummus is quite healthy. I feel like the doc was saying to him more like, we need to balance out your diet. With some fiber. I don't know why the, yeah, I don't know why the, why it's had to be cease dips entirely. Like, you might as well tell Oliver stop breathing.

All right. I think that does it for episodes ones and two, one and ones and twos, a one and two, Holy Murders in the building. We will be back perhaps. I don't know, actually, if we'll be back week to week. much like the plot of only murders. It's a mystery. It is a mystery to us.

But, you know, probably at the very least for the finale, something like that, to find out if our weeks ago guesses were right. I'll be pulling up in a sob for that recording. Keep your eyes on the dazzling baby blues of Jesse Williams as we go through this season. But also you can let us know, I guess, at Hobbes and Dragons at g-mell.com, the rigor versus email that we use. If you have theories, we love theories on this show. So if you're building a case and you got someone else,

the red string is pointing to someone else on your murder board, let us know, Hobs and drags at gmail.com, come back to the feed. We will be here in some form or another. Like I mentioned, we need clarity. Neither Joanna nor Cobra lives in the gray. I don't trust the cops. That's it for me.

All right. Thanks. as always to our fellow the third in our crony and three here Sasha Ashire for producing this episode from New York you know, Sasha's really holding it down on the theater scene. Yeah, exactly.

Fresh from a viewing of Titanic come Sasha to record this. Don't mind my me taking my shoes off. It's just my planner fasciitis and I will see you next time. Bye!