More than Old Men in the Building

Every now and then, I do think, "I should watch a new show or movie unrelated to Star Wars or the MCU. I should get in touch with to-day." But then I go and pick something hopelessly un-hip, as I did last night when I watched the first two episodes of Only Murders in the Building. All of the advertisements make it look like an ultra-safe show for someone to try to get their grandkids to watch with them. "You should watch the new Steve Martin show. You know, it has that Selena Gomez you like." And it was pretty much what I expected--one of those cosy soundstage series with old superstars who are also executive producers, insuring they needn't go anywhere or do anything remotely difficult. It almost seems like co-creator Steve Martin challenged himself to make the least challenging series for himself he could. Yet, the performances are all solid, some of the jokes are funny, and the plot, while not being terribly imaginative, doesn't feel formulaic. The whole thing is set mostly in a fabulously expensive New York apartment building. This is probably another thing that attracted me to the show--my thing for stories about people trapped in one big house. This one is especially a microcosm because Gomez's character, Mabel, has basically lived her whole life there. This becomes an important part of the plot as we see her flashbacks to a clique of sexy young building dwellers she used to belong to. Bonding over their love of The Hardy Boys, they "investigate" other apartments--breaking in and occasionally stealing things. Yeah, these hot young hooligans are obsessed with The Hardy Boys. They even have first edition hard backs. Charles, Martin's character, points out this is strangely old fashioned, as is Mabel's name. No explanation is really offered, though, the questions functioning as a half-gesture at lampshading. But the first episode, written by Steve Martin and John Hoffman, is an old man's fantasy. I'm old enough to know something about that idle urge to find young people who are genuinely interested in the stuff I loved as a kid. The hard truth to swallow for a lot of older people is that, most of the time, young people are desperate to get away and be with other people their own age. I was talking to a generation Z friend about her trip to a doctor a few months ago and she told me there's something that happens when older people talk, she finds that she can't focus and their words just start to lose meaning after a few minutes. I've seen it happen when I talk to her plenty of times, too. Her face just goes blank. Knowing this adds an extra layer of bittersweet to a scene where Charles is picking a lock while Mabel stands behind him, waiting. He tells her about his parents and about how his father abused his mother and he promised himself he'd never allow himself to become like his father. And that's why he prefers to be alone. He says it a bit casually but the blocking of the actors and the composition of the shot say how much more is going on. Picking a lock means Charles has to be on his knees facing away from her while she stands, looking down on him while he tells this emotionally vulnerable story. We see he can't see her face change with shades of concern and empathy. This beautiful young woman, who's into old books, is genuinely interested in this old man. If it were in the five or six years after Lost in Translation came out, when this kind of thing was trendy, there'd likely have been a romance between the characters. Now I doubt Martin would dare. Charles is an actor who hasn't been successful since the early '90s while Martin Short's character, Oliver, is an unsuccessful Broadway director who's secretly behind on his rent. During that lockpick scene in the first episode, Oliver's off begging his son for money so he can pay rent. Considering the separate career trajectories of Martin and Short, and how often it's seemed like Martin casts Short out of charity, it seems like there's a bit of truth in these characters. The fact that they're both in the entertainment business also might indicate this is personal. On the other hand, it probably made the characters much easier to write and perform. Both of the first two episodes are directed by Jamie Babbett (The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, The Orville, The L Word). The second episode is written by Family Guy writer Kirker Butler and naturally starts to drift away from the more sentimental aspects. Still, nothing too crazy happens. Only Murders in the Building is available on Disney+ outside the U.S. and on Hulu in the U.S.