When you have a comedic trio of Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez in your show, you know you have the ingredients of a winning TV comedy series. Co-creator of Only Murders In The Building, John Hoffman knew he had magic in a bottle from the start.
Now in its fourth, but not last, season, Murders continues to delight with its quirky, sharp brand of elevated humor. We caught up with John and asked him if he imagined the show would continue for multiple seasons. “I’m awake and I dream,” was his considered response.
Despite the magnetic powerhouse cast, the central premise of the show about a lonely trio only united by a love of true-crime podcasts doesn’t easily lend itself to multiple seasons. But here we are.
We are a grounded comedy with a bit of a wink towards an obsession with true crime
“We stretch the premise to its hilt, and potentially beyond. As long as we keep stories for these characters, we can carry through multiple seasons, if they progress both the worlds in which our characters are exploring, and the characters themselves,” explains Hoffman.
Hoffman relishes the constraints created by the central premise and locale. “It can actually create a sense of creativity. I have to stay within the fencing of this building in the Upper West Side of New York.”
John Hoffman. Photo by David Muller
The variable component of the show is “taking those three characters in completely different directions which cause them terrible problems and cause them to question themselves, their own relationship, and whether they should have delved into this area at all. Ultimately, they triumph in bringing justice and redemption for victims.”
The underlying theme in Only Murders In The Building is one of identity. Each character questions who they really are and what they bring to the world with the people they care most about.
Writing Jokes For The Series
The humor in Only Murders In The Building glides from the deadpan to the laugh out loud funny. Sometimes, it’s downright uncomfortable.
“The vision of the show is that tonal mix, and buttressing up against the deeply, darkly emotional truth of finding someone dead. And letting that reverberation ground everything in an emotional way so that you have something to hang onto that you care,” shares Hoffman.
“Ultimately, that sweet spot of sublimely funny in the midst of tragedy is something I had as a big goal from the very beginning. We can get very silly and absurd at times,” he continues.
Absurdity is more elegant sophisticated than silliness
For Hoffman, some of the show’s biggest laughs happen at funerals or other tragic events when characters are more vulnerable. He cites an episode when they’re holding their friend’s ashes and trying to put them in a mason jar. “This very delicate emotional moment is sadly comedic,” notes Hoffman.
“I don’t like broad comedy. I like characters that are well-defined with a good thumbprint of how they’re going to react and catch us off guard in the opposite way of how we think they’re going to react. We let them lean right into, and maybe go right up to the edge of, how far that character would go in reaction to something.”
We’re talking about fools, beautiful fools in the grand tradition
Evolving Characters Over Multiple Seasons
“It is the hook. I think no matter what you do in a TV series, it’s your characters and whether people are still compelled by them,” continues Hoffman.
The writers twist their way through the byzantine plots of the mystery, but viewers return for the characters.
In the beginning, the characters didn’t know each other very well, nor did they particularly like each other, especially Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short). “That was good fodder in drawing out the characters.”
They also held secrets from each other as they gradually built trust while investigating the murder, especially Mabel (Selena Gomez) who lied about knowing the victim. There are times when not all the characters are as invested in the case as they should be and call each other out on it. These issues have tested their relationship throughout the seasons.
The glue that binds them is that they work well as a team. “While they have individual dreams and wishes, the greatest success they’re having in personal and professional terms, is with each other.”
Writing Only Murders In The Building
Only Murders In The Building structurally plays as a comedic crime procedural.
“In Season One, it was all about that true crime podcast that drew them together and then the murder in the building that they were dubious about whether it was a suicide or not. That led everything in Season Two,” states Hoffman about the season arcs.
“Season Three, was Oliver’s season. There is a theatrical endeavor, where he wants a second shot after having his moment aborted in the first two minutes when the leading actor came on stage and collapsed.”
Season 4 was about getting a movie made about their lives as podcasters that causes them to reflect on the thing they created. “What have we opened up? Who are we now? Who do we want to be? Should we be continuing this?”
Despite the constraints of The Arconia building in New York, Only Murders In The Building takes a brief detour to Hollywood when the movie is being made. There are familiar pitches, executives and feedback.
“You want to land in a place of what’s fresh about any of the Hollywood tropes,” says Hoffman after the trio have become hot IP waiting to be exploited.
“It felt like a nice moment for us to land what a Hollywood treatment would feel and look like and then approach every scene in a way that both honors the story tradition of poking a finger in the eye of the business.” The nature of the characters contending with actors playing them, studio executives augmenting their characters to be more marketable, and filming at Paramount Studios where they actually write the show, felt “delightfully meta” to Hoffman.
Despite the stellar cast and writers, continuing writing the series over many seasons presents its own challenges.
“We have to find new ways of surprising ourselves, surprising the audience, and finding ways to twist a mystery,” shares Hoffman who was a feature film writer before transitioning to television.
Telling stories across ten episodes per season allows the story to become more granular compared to a film. “To have ten episodes and one mystery to tell, and to find ways to keep that compelling, driving, twisting and creating enough suspects and twists that feel like you’ve got that audience hooked, has been the biggest thrill and challenge in each season,” concludes Hoffman.
[More: John Hoffman Talks True Crime On “Only Murders In The Building”]
