‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5 premiere review: All aboard the grave-y train 

Season 4 of Only Murders in the Buildingended with Lester (Teddy Coluca), the doorman, found dead in a fountain a day after Oliver’s (Martin Short) wedding to Loretta (Meryl Streep). The first episode of Season 5, “Nail in the Coffin,” finds our favourite true-crime enthusiasts — semi-retired actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver, the not-so-successful Broadway producer, and millennial Mabel (Selena Gomez), discussing Lester’s death in their posh apartment building, the Arconia, in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

The trio is convinced Lester’s death is murder even though the police have ruled it an unfortunate accident. Their neighbour, Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton), wanders in moaning the fact that his cat Sevelyn, and cadaver dog, Gravey, have bonded and demand to be waited on “hand and paw.”

After trying to convince Oliver not to eat four-day old shrimp from the wedding (the caterers forgot to serve the shrimp cocktails), Mabel notices a severed human finger. The first thing to establish is whose finger is it. Could it be Lester’s? Did he have all his fingers in the fountain? Since Lester wished for his body to lie in state in the Arconia lobby, they decide to check Lester’s hands for the missing digit.

Even after a thorough check involving hijinks around Lester’s coffin much to the amazement of the opportunistic Mayor Tillman (Keegan-Michael Key), and Lester’s wife, Lorraine (Dianne Wiest), Charles is unable to determine whether Lester had eight fingers or 11 — “you don’t want to know,” he tersely tells Mabel.

The trio swing into action. Is mob wife, Sofia Caccimelio (Téa Leoni), who had approached them during Oliver’s wedding to find her missing husband, Nicky, (Bobby Cannavale) involved? This calls for a trip to “The Godfather House” in Staten Island and meeting the Caccimelio boys, who are doing a podcast called Hey I am talking here about gangsters from the 70s. Althea (Beanie Feldstein), Mabel’s former friend, is now a celebrity and moves into the Arconia.

Oliver convinces Randall (Jermaine Fowler), the new doorman, not to try to fill Lester’s shoes with a story involving a gender-switched The Ten Commandments musical involving Sheena Easton.

Season 5 of the award-winning show has all the ingredients from earlier seasons, including the warmth and wit, lovely clothes and Siddhartha Khosla’s wistful, whimsical score. The second episode is a heart-warming flashback showing, Lester as a young acting hopeful (Emory Cohen), who looked upon his job at the Arconia as a stop-gap to his destiny in the spotlight. Even though his dream dies, Lester does not turn sour.

We also see Mabel, Oliver and Charles go through life-changing events. Lester looks out for Mabel as she turns from neglected child to a hell raiser. Oliver goes through a painful divorce and Charles changes from a hotshot television actor to one who loses out on many blockbuster roles including “The Gladiator opposite Russell Crowe”, which has his stunt double, Sazz (Jane Lynch) wax eloquent about chariot races.

Other Arconia residents, including grouchy Uma (Jackie Hoffman), Tim Kono (Julian Cihi), Howard’s mum, Mrs Morris (Siobhan Fallon Hogan) and Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane) are also helped along with Lester’s polite, “After you’s”.

Episode 3, “Rigor”, ends with the introduction of three of the wealthiest people in the world in an underground secret casino: Jay Pflug (Logan Lerman), Bash Steeg (Christoph Waltz) and Camila White (Renée Zellweger), one of whom is missing a finger. The game is most certainly afoot!

Only Murders in the Building Season 5 streams on JioHotstar with weekly episode drops until October 28