Praise Meryl: This Is the Be st ‘Only Murders’ Season Yet

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This Week

The key to life is Meryl and music.

A million thoughts on Kim Cattrall’s return.

There’s a lot of crying in baseball (TV).

Go see Bottoms!

My new favorite quote.

Only Murders Found the Light

One thing that was so great about the first two seasons of Only Murders in the Building was that the show just felt…nice.

The most buzzed-about shows on TV in recent years have largely centered around people behaving badly (Succession and The White Lotus, for example). Even the best comedies—“best,” naturally, means “Kevin’s personal favorites”—seemed particularly brutal, whether it’s because the antics of the main characters were narcissistic or cruel (The Other Two), or, in the case of What We Do in the Shadows, depraved.

I also don’t mean that Only Murders is nice in the same aggressive way that a show like Ted Lasso makes its entire mission, alienating many viewers in the process. This is a series about how people are killed and three neighbors exploit the sordid details of the case to create a podcast, the purpose of which is to bring them attention and a sense of personal worth. Oliver (Martin Short), Charles (Steve Martin), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) certainly are not the nicest characters on TV, but they’re a blast to watch. And that’s what I mean: It’s watching Only Murders in the Building that feels nice.

There’s something about the cadence and tone of the series, which takes the calming lilt of one of the true-crime podcasts it's sending up and sprinkles on the bonkers wackiness of the Martins Short and Steve. You feel warm and cozy, but also transfixed by the performances and the mystery—the key difference between a show like this and one you might put on solely for comfort viewing or as background noise while you scroll through your phone.

The show also has certain themes that are unexpectedly profound, like how crippling loneliness can be, how difficult and scary it is to actively seek connection, and the pain that can creep in when your career and the contributions you make to the world aren’t valued as much as they used to be. Those elements contribute a somberness that complements the zaniness of quintessential Short and Martin comedy moments.

I guess what I’m saying is that this show is great.

Watching Season 3, whose fourth episode aired this week, I’ve been tickled to discover that the series figured out how to take a show that I already enjoyed and make it even more specifically appealing to me: Make it a musical, and bring on Meryl Streep.

I have a friend who once said something I’ll never forget. She had just seen a very intense play with her grandmother. If I remember correctly, it was about scientists working against the clock to make an important medical breakthrough. When I saw her after the play, I asked her how it was. “It was alright,” she said. “I just wish there were songs.”

It was validation of a belief I’ve held my entire life: Everything would be better as a musical. As it turns out, that’s true of Only Murders in the Building too.

While, generally speaking, I’m holding onto the last semblances of my sanity like a Looney Tunes character gripping a branch after falling off a cliff, I’m still rational enough to know that, in reality, many things would be ludicrously, laughably bad if turned into a musical. (Remember when Joey Tribbiani starred in a musical based on the life of Sigmund Freud on Friends?) In fact, the misguided negotiation that just adding some songs could rescue a bad play is one of the major plots of this season of Only Murders. After his leading man (Paul Rudd) dies and a critic tips him off that his play would have been eviscerated had it actually opened, Oliver decides to turn his latest work, Death Rattle, into a musical.

Oliver trying to rework his entire production while composing an original score is an amusing thread to weave through the season’s mystery, as the same actors who are now nervously learning new music for Death Rattle are also the prime suspects in the murder that show’s trio is investigating. Oliver, Charles, and Mabel piecing together clues lends Only Murders Season 3 the show’s familiar hijinks. But that each episode now features some of the biggest actors in Hollywood singing some songs on top of that? A treat for me! Well, ostensibly for everyone. But especially for me!

The saving grace, however, is that, despite everyone assuming that Oliver’s Death Rattle musical is going to be dead on arrival, the songs themselves are legitimately fantastic. This week’s episode had Charles rehearsing his character’s “patter song,” an exposition-heavy number that he speaks-sings rapidly, like a rap. What we heard of it before Charles blacked out, retreated in his mind to a white panic room, and came to while pantless on stage was really fun!

Then there’s what is already one of the TV highlights of the year for me: the gorgeous lullaby performed by Streep and co-star Ashley Park in Episode 3.

I love a Hollywood Mad Libs, and it doesn’t get much better than “Meryl Streep and the girl who was always singing for some reason on Emily in Paris make you weep while performing an original song by Sara Bareilles.” That the number is so stirring is one thing. But it also epitomizes just how great Streep is on this show.

Meryl Streep, doing some good acting: How original. But I’m struck by how surprising her character and performance has been. Originally, her Loretta seemed like she was going to be this doddering, struggling actress whose kookiness matched her desperation for a big break. But we learn that she’s actually kind of cool and sarcastic, with a hardened edge that is far more realistic for someone who has lived in New York City for decades. She’s more of a spark plug than I expected, which makes the swoon-worthy beauty of her performance of “Look for the Light” that much more mesmerizing.

Only Murders is making all the right choices this season. Tina Fey is back and now skewering Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop. Andrea Martin has a major role, which is the best choice any TV series can make. The incestuous mother-son producers played by Linda Emond and Wesley Taylor are a riot. And a major clue to the central mystery hinges on how remarkable Paul Rudd’s agelessly youthful looks are. If I'm going to think about that constantly, it’s only right that the TV series I watch obsess over it too.

I Couldn’t Help But Wonder…

We have now experienced the cultural event of the century: Kim Cattrall’s 70-second phone call cameo on And Just Like That. (Listen, if Donald Trump is allowed to be 215 pounds, that scene is allowed to be called historic.)

If you haven’t watched this major moment, here’s a quick recap: After several years of a so-called “feud,” Cattrall returned to the Sex and the City follow-up for one scene as Samantha Jones, her iconic character. She calls Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) to explain that she had planned to fly to New York from London to toast Carrie’s last night in her old apartment, but her flight was delayed. Then she surfaced an old inside joke from a classic SATC episode. (My fingers never flew faster than they took to the group text when the words “Annabelle Bronstein” came out of Kim Cattrall’s lips.)

It’s for the best, as the baggage surrounding Cattrall’s appearance was so heavy it likely would have grounded Samantha’s plan anyway. So that raises the question: Was the scene worth it?

For the love of God and Jimmy Choo, yes.

To me, nothing is more relatable than two former close friends, as they get older, falling slightly out of touch, feeling guilty about it, reconciling over sporadic texts, and then one feeling intense emotion over a moment that harkens back to history, like Carrie moving out of her apartment. People are so attached to the characters of Sex and the City that they forget reality: Relationships change as time moves on.

There are plenty of reasons to criticize And Just Like That, but my least favorite is “[Insert main character] would never behave that way.” That’s ludicrous. At any moment of the day, Kevin Fallon from 20 years ago would be astonished by his behavior now, let alone who he is and isn’t still in close contact with. It’s called getting older. (And the truth is that people’s most annoying and alienating tendencies intensify with time.) “Miranda would never act like that… Carrie wouldn’t stand for such a thing...” Nonsense! The smartest thing that And Just Like That did was acknowledge that these characters have changed; it’s the fans who are stuck in the past.

I’ve found And Just Like That to be a sort of Rorschach test for how people feel about aging, or what they think constitutes a happy ending. Their indignance over certain plot lines typically, I feel, is rooted in their own denial. Or fear. It’s a harsh truth for a series that we hold so dear because it’s always been a fantasy. Anyway, “two Cosmopolitans”—stat!

There’s No Crying in Television

People ask me all the time, “What’s a good show to binge right now?” I have one perfect answer: It’s A League of Their Own.

The Prime Video series is exciting because it so intrinsically feels like the Penny Marshall film starring Tom Hanks and Geena Davis that it’s based on, but also thrillingly digs deeper into the characters and the fascinating aspects of the time period it’s set in. The series is both a testament to how wonderful this period of countless streaming services and the opportunity for endless content is—the fact that the show exists—and how this time is utterly maddening.

That’s why I was devastated when Prime Videeo announced this week that a previously planned second season for A League of Their Own was canceled. In its statement, Prime Video blamed the decision on the concurrent strikes happening in Hollywood. It needs to be said that such a statement is HORSESHIT, a hollow attempt at villainizing workers who are owed the rights and compensation that greedy executives are denying them.

Nothing needs to be canceled because of the strikes; a fair agreement needs to happen because of the strikes. As A League of Their Own co-creator Abbi Jacobson said in her own response to the statement, “To blame this cancellation on the strike (which is an essential fight for fair wages, protections, and working conditions, etc…) is bullshit and cowardly.”

The point is that, like the movie it was based on, this is a fantastic, nearly flawless series. You should watch it. I’m really sad it’s not coming back. It’s a show that matters. And I encourage you to read this thread from co-creator Will Graham, which elucidates exactly why.

Get Thee to a Theater

The movies are back, y’all! It was reported this week that Barbie is going to overtake The Super Mario Bros. Movie as the highest grossing release in the U.S. this year, with both crossing the $1 billion box-office marker. I don’t want to brag, but clearly 7-year-old Kevin is Hollywood’s greatest tastemaker. All we need is a billion-dollar movie inspired by my Captain Planet lunch box to confirm it.

But this shouldn’t stop at Barbie. The new raunchy and surprising teen comedy Bottoms is out this weekend. As I learned while watching its premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, it’s a film that demands a raucous audience who guffaws, gasps, and claps at its jokes and twists. (Don’t let what happened to Booksmart, another genius film from the genre that died on the vine in cinemas, happen to Bottoms too.)

While you’re at it, go see Passages, to support independent cinema. Or Talk to Me, one of the most fun horror movies of the year. Go buy movie tickets. Make theaters crowded again. You won’t regret it.

A Mantra

My new therapist is just this quote from Patricia Clarkson from a recent interview.

“My mother said, ‘Patty, I just don't want you to wake up at 50 and be unhappy.’ I woke up at 50 in stilettos and a thong,’ “ she said, laughing. “I’ve had a great sexy-ass life.”

More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed

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As passionately as people love that Nicole Kidman AMC ad, they also HATE the Regal Cinemas one featuring movie quotes. We found out why. Read more.

I just think that everyone needs to know that the Riverdale writers revealed in its final hour that the show's four horny main characters were once in a quad relationship. Read more.

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