If you haven’t seen this show - Wait, why haven’t you watched this show?!
You disappoint me. Well, spoilers ahead.
Only Murders in the Building is a cozy murder mystery about three friends in a historic New York Apartment building attempting to solve crimes around while creating podcast content. The friends are made-up of Oliver (Martin Short), a former director of Broadway cheese, Charles (Steve Martin), an out-of-work actor who used to star in his own cop television series, and Mabel (Selena Gomez), a young woman with many talents who hasn’t really figured out her life yet. In season 4, the trio are simultaneously being observed by actors about to play them in a big-budget film and attempting to solve the murder of Charles’s oldest friend and stunt double Sazz (played by Jane Lynch). All caught up. Great.
In this episode, Hollywood writer Marshall P. Pope (Jin Ha) gets to narrate in an opening where we learn that his persona is a creation he think will bring him success. His monologue asks the question of “What make a writer a real writer?” while he adjusts a fake beard and mustache. Apparently, the first step to being a “real writer” is the look. If that’s the case, I suppose I should only write fiction where people are attacked by curly hair and can’t reach high shelves. Either way, I refuse to wear that tweed jacket he puts on. Marshall boasts that he can “quote David Foster Wallace and Ace Ventura”, which really to me is more of a question of whether he’s actually READ any David Foster Wallace . . . I haven’t, but I also don’t claim that I can quote him. Then he says something truthful. “It comes down to what’s on the page.” He worries that he’s a fraud. Fake facial hair probably doesn’t help.
Marshall keeps saying he wrote his screenplay based on how he envisioned the three main characters based on the podcast, yet his nervous speaking to them. He’s terrified of rewrites and is revealed when he’s named as a suspect. He’d rather be a murder suspect than be forced to rework dialogue. He is simultaneous praised by Charles for a “thumping brain” line and criticized by Oliver for a Tinkerbell metaphor. Still, he insists that imposter syndrome can be beaten through more work at your craft.
And for those of you who have seen this season I want to add more to this blog, shhh! Spoilers!
