Summary

• Only Murders in the Building season 4 premieres on Hulu August 27, with critics praising the new mystery and cast .
• This season takes the trio to Hollywood, allowing for some fun guest star appearances while also digging deeper into its main characters.
• Excellent chemistry between Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez remains the show's highlight, with critics praising their performances.

The reviews are in for season 3 cliffhanger ending that saw Charles' (Martin) stunt double, Sazz (Jane Lynch), killed by a sniper's bullet.

Only Murders season 4 is set to debut on Hulu on August 27 and critics are largely pleased with how it continues the stories of Charles, Oliver (Short), and Mabel (Gomez). While the series has become a bit formulaic, having season 4's murder victim be someone close to the trio raises the stakes and creates a more personal connection to the mystery. Spending some of the new episodes in Hollywood, where a film adaptation of the podcast is being made, also helps to freshen things up. However, it's the excellent chemistry between Martin, Short, and Gomez that remains the show's real draw, with Screen Rant's Rachel Labonte writing that "nothing is more entertaining than watching the three bounce off each other".

What Critics Are Saying About Only Murders In The Building Season 4

This New Season May Be One Of Its Best

The Hollywood plot brings with it new cast and guest stars, including Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria as fictional versions of themselves cast to play the movie versions of Charles, Oliver and Mabel. These characters allow the series to poke fun at its leads, examining their idiosyncrasies and insecurities, but as Slash Film's Ethan Anderton notes they are "used sparingly without overstaying their welcome". Instead, it's Lynch's Sazz who gets to really shine in season 4 as her character sticks around as an apparition for Charles to interact with. The Daily Beast's Nick Schager writes that Lynch "steals the spotlight" while Collider's Remus Noronha says it's the focus on Charles and Sazz's friendship that "brings out some of the most heartbreaking scenes in the season".

Again, though, the strength of Only Murders is its main trio of stars. The Telegraph's Ed Power writes that all three "effortlessly reprise the screwball energy of previous seasons", and Paste Magazine's Anna Govert comments that "this season finds them stronger than ever". Martin, in particular, who co-created the series with John Hoffman, gets singled out by The Wrap's Matthew Creith as the show's "true MVP", praising his performance for its "wit, grit and comedic delusions that give his on-screen character depth and emotional intelligence."

All in all, Only Murders in the Building season 4 appears to be another stellar installment of the murder mystery show, again combining hilarity and heartfelt emotion with an intriguing whoddunit. As Looper's Caitlin Albers writes, with season 4 the series "only gets better and proves the right chemistry can carry any show further than imagined."

Only Murders in the Building season 4 premieres August 27 on Hulu.

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