Only Murders is in exercise in frustration. There are so many aspects of it that SHOULD produce really outstanding content, and yet...it's watchable. I'm still watching 3 seasons later...but this show is like an engine with a timing problem. It's never quite maximizing itself.

The first, and biggest problem is the writing. The murder mysteries generally aren't that well done. You as the viewer are not presented the information you need to 'play along' and try to figure the mystery out for yourself. Which is part of the fun of mysteries, ESPECIALLY multi-episode mysteries where you have time to speculate and talk with friends. Critical information is withheld until the final episode.

The second problem is the comedy. For a show with Steve Martin, and Martin Short as regulars and with guests like Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, you'd expect the comedy to take a front seat...but it really doesn't. The comedy is pretty tame in terms of how funny it is, yet the characters often are very over the top.

Let's talk acting. You will see both spectacularly good acting and spectacularly bad acting on this show...sometimes in the same damn scene. The worst offender is Selena Gomez. This was my first exposure to her, and my god...she's terrible! This woman CANNOT act. Not even a little. She drags down every scene she is. She's often given the wittiest lines...and her timing is dreadful and the jokes don't land. It's honestly painful to watch.

Steve Martin is solid throughout. But seldom spectacular. Martin Short starts out VERY schticky playing an over the top broadway producer, and I found him repellent. But the good news is that he tones it down over time. And as he does a surprisingly good actor emerges from that. Short plays so many of his character loud and big that I was surprised to get quality acting from him.

The guest stars are hit and miss. Nathan Lane and Meryl Streep were the best by far. Streep is Streep. Lane has never been a favorite of mine. Like Short, everything I've seen him do he played so big. But this was excellent.

But some of the others I thought were pretty forgettable. Tina Fey was solid in her role, but nothing memorable. Paul Rudd was supposed to be annoying as the victim in season 3, and he was annoying. But not in a way that was fun or interesting. Matthew Broderick shows up for 20 seconds to play a bizarro version of himself that was basically one gag...and not particularly well executed.

Now, one of the things the show does really well is red herrings. Every season is just a shotgun of red herrings that feel like almost every side character has motive, means, and opportunity. But after a season or two of seeing that the show is REALLY going to withhold critical information until the end, it actually becomes quite easy to ELIMINATE suspects anytime they actually seem to have strong motives. This wasn't as bad with season 1 (the best mystery), but it very much was with seasons 2 and 3 and is something I wish the show would avoid in future seasons. I really hope they start 'playing fair' and presenting the audience with the information they need to solve the mystery and form reasonable hypotheses.

I'm sure it's not possible to replace Selena Gomez at this point...but MAN, nothing would improve this show more than de-emphasizing, or flat out recasting that character. She's really dragging the show down. Martin and Martin bring so much energy to their scenes and then her line arrives and it's just ... recited in the lowest energy way possible. I could get more personality out of an AI bot reading her lines.

Anyway. Overall a solid show...but uneven as heck.