*This article contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building Season 1*
After successfully finding out who killed Tim Kono, everyone’s favorite amateur sleuths found themselves in a sticky situation at the end of Only Murders in the Building Season 1, when a blood-soaked Mabel was found bending over the president’s dead body. of the Arconia board, Bunny. Season 2, which premieres on Hulu and Disney Plus on June 28, picks up right where the dramatic cliffhanger left off, with the nosy trio being questioned by authorities.
All called “persons of interest,” Mabel (Selena Gomez), Oliver (Martin Short) and Charles (Steve Martin) quickly set about solving the latest grisly crime to clear their names, but this one feels a lot more personal than the last. “Someone is trying to frame us,” Oliver exclaims in an early episode, and that’s prior to Murder weapons and erotic paintings that were stolen from Bunny’s place begin to strangely appear in her apartments.
The pressure is also present in more ways than one. His podcast on the Tim Kono murder investigation was a huge success and fans of his are desperate for more content. It doesn’t seem particularly wise to pass on their findings as they go since the killer is apparently after them, but the story is there for the taking. Will they be able to deliver the goods a second time?
It’s a question Only Murders executive producer John Hoffman, who created the series with Steve Martin, also asked himself many times during the making of season two, or so he told us when we sat down with him recently before the show’s return. . During the talk, Hoffman also touched on the new chapter’s plethora of meta jokes, handling the abundance of stars clamoring to be on the show after season 1 and its need to honor true crime victims amidst all the chaos. and the jokes. Read on for our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Total Film: So obviously we can’t talk about the murder at the heart of this murder mystery, so let’s talk about all the meta jokes instead. In season 1, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel launched a podcast that became a huge hit, and in season two, they’re constantly trying to keep up with another podcast about another murder. Were you and the other writers using those jokes to exorcise your own concerns?
John Hoffmann: Absolutely. It just made a lot of sense for us to reference our own challenges in that way. At the core of our show, hopefully, there’s a certain honesty, and the jokes play because they come from character and come from a certain humanity. When we’re in the writers’ room, I know there’s no joke that connects more than when someone tells an embarrassing personal story. Something that is simply true for to themor true to a situation that feels recognizable, so all of those things felt like territory to explore for our show in its humor.
So yeah, bringing in the personal expression of those of us tasked with writing the second season of a show that went out the door in this delightful way was great. However, we had to check it out ourselves! We had to make sure that we were only spraying in moments here and there.
That scene where Charles, Mabel, and Oliver are in the restaurant, and they’re discussing who might have killed Bunny, before they’re suddenly interrupted by their fan club at the next table, speaks to how the audience is always watching . such a fun way…
Exactly! That makes me so happy to hear that. I haven’t talked to anyone who has seen the second season yet, so it’s really nice to have these conversations. It makes me so happy to know that things like that are landing.
Season 2 feels a lot more fun than the first, particularly when it comes to the main trio. It seems that there are more jokes between Martin, Steve and Selena. I wondered if that was because they were more comfortable with each other this time.
Meeting all three of them during the writing process for the first season definitely influenced the writing of their characters. These were three people in their very isolated worlds before they came together. They didn’t necessarily make sense together at first, and I think the audience felt that too when the first banners were put up for the show: “Why are those three people together?” Playing with it and leaning on it and discovering how they work together in the first season informed the second season, for sure. Before we shot the scenes, we would all sit together and watch these three wonderful actors goof around. They love each other, you can see it, and it’s a pleasure to see them together. They have just grown that way.
But I also think it was important to challenge their relationship in season two. Can they really trust each other? Can they really trust each other? And will they be there for each other when things get really tough like in these new episodes? But that inexplicable drawing of one towards the other? Yes, it is pure magic. I think we all say, “Thank God!” and everything is a tribute to them.
Martin Short’s character Oliver gets some brilliant one-liners in season 2. Is it ever hard to keep your composure on set, or are things pretty professional once the cameras start rolling?
It’s literally like watching a six-year-old on Christmas morning, when all of them, but especially Marty, get ready for a prank he likes. It’s like they’re standing in front of the tree and there are other packages there, but they know there’s a big one that they can’t wait to open. So, he’ll be, like, kind of sailing into the fun part and he’s got it in his head and it’s a real joy to watch him figure out how to land it. After a couple of trials and errors? Nothing is sweeter to me. But yeah, that’s definitely the hope for season 2… Now that we know the characters, and the audience knows them pretty well, the laughs are bigger because we all feel that affinity.
I wanted to ask you about the pacing of the season, because it’s ten episodes like the first one, but obviously with that, you had to establish all these characters and have them come together slowly and everything, so it was a little bit slower towards the beginning. Season 2 really hits the ground running as it picks up where Season 1 left off. Was it ever hard to maintain that almost chaotic level of energy throughout?
It’s a balance, for sure. I knew I like a well-paced comedy, and yet I know there are deceptive elements to this show that you don’t expect from a straight-up comedy series. There is an element of true crime that I want to honor and acknowledge that there is a victim in every true crime source. We have three people who were alone and came out of their apartments to redeem and find justice for a victim. I wanted to examine what that really means and touch on it.
In Season 2, there’s a lot of backstory, and the shock of their stories and how they deal with that comes into play. We want you to continue that journey of going out into the world a little longer, when you’ve been quite alone, together, before this. That, to me, was really interesting to play, but I think it’s also something that’s organically built into the show.
The secondary characters also spend a lot of time in front of the screen, which is refreshing. They are well developed, and you also have some new additions to the cast. Can you talk a little bit about those?
There is an episode in this season that is dedicated to our victim, which was the only thing I wanted to say from the previous question as well. It allows us to understand, once again, who this person was and to find the connection to our trio that leads them to be involved in the murder, a secret they have been keeping about what happened the night Bunny died. Once they clear that up with each other, they are forced to investigate further with perhaps a more personal emotional investment than the first time.
Now with rookies, that’s exciting, but you also have to be careful with that because once the first season dropped and people got to know the show, we had these lovely scopes of the most amazing talent that were like, “If there ever is something for me, I would love to do it”. And you’re very tempted, but you know you have to stick to your story and tell the story and bring in the characters that make sense for that first. After you can revel in who you could choose: Shirley MacLaine [as Bunny’s mother]Amy Schumer [as herself]Cara Delevingne [as Mabel’s morally ambiguous girlfriend Alice]. It really runs the gamut and that’s what I love about the show too: it’s this intergenerational thing. If we do get to do a third season, there is a new influx of new characters that I have very clear in my mind.
I only have time for one more, so I wanted to ask about the themes for this season. There’s a lot going on related to dad. Charles opens up about his father in a big way, and is dealing with being a father himself, to his stepdaughter Lucy. Mabel is very secretive about hers, and there are some shocking revelations about Oliver’s relationship with his son, Will. Where did all that come from and how will it play out in season two?
We just followed the stories that interested us, you know? In the first season, Charles talks about his father in episode one, and you recognize a certain dimension that he also talks about his stepdaughter Lucy. So, you know, there’s his father and him putting himself in a father figure position, and then there’s the relationship that developed between him and Mabel.
Oliver had a story in Season 1 with his own son that really intrigued us and we wanted to explore that further. Then, with Mabel, we learned about his mother. We’ll learn more as Season 2 progresses, and about his father as well. So yeah, there’s definitely a bit of a theme there. In fact, I told someone over the weekend, “If you’re asking about season 2, one of the things they might say is something like, ‘Oh, mom, what a ride.’ This is, ‘Oh, dad, what a ride.” It just made sense to me with this trio. You have these two gentlemen who are leading this younger, hipper woman and we can play with that in lovely, fatherly ways.
Solo Murders in the Building season 2 premieres on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK on June 28. While we wait, why not check out our roundup of the best TV shows of all time for some binge-watching inspiration?
