Only Murders In The Building

[scenicdesign71]

WARNING: SEASON 2 FINALE SPOILERS.

I finally watched the Season 2 finale this weekend, though I'm still gonna need to do a full two-season marathon-rewatch to piece together all the little details and Easter eggs.

In the meantime, in this delightful Vulture interview, Adina Verson (aka Becky Butler, alias Poppy White, Cinda Canning's put-upon assistant) shares the astute through-line she was able to trace for her character over both seasons (sometimes retrospectively as new scripts revealed new facets along the way), along with what it was like filming the "killer reveal party" over four days, and keeping her character's secret identity a secret even from her fellow cast members.

https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/only-murders-adina-verson-poppy-finale-murderer.html

I'm not gonna lie: my very first thought while watching the "slow-motion" sequence was that it must have taken forever to get all the necessary coverage without anyone cracking up onscreen.  ("For every take, seeing them do this ridiculous stuff?  Sometimes with tomatoes?  I'll be telling my grandchildren about it.").

Among her other stage and screen credits, Ms. Verson made a memorable Broadway debut as Rifkele in Paula Vogel's Indecent, opposite Katrina Lenk, taped for PBS near the end of its extended but still too-brief run in 2017.

[KathyB]

I watched the finale and then promptly canceled Hulu, as I was under a time crunch. I'd love to know about the Easter eggs you discover during your planned marathon.

I've been told that Hulu has Black Friday pricing of $1/month for a year, so I might resubscribe then.

[scenicdesign71]

Meryl Streep Joins 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 3 Cast

[scenicdesign71]

Coming August 8:

I'm especially looking forward to this season because a dear friend of mine designed all the stage sets for the fictional Broadway musical (ostensibly directed by Martin Short's character, featuring performers played by Streep and Rudd) around which the season's backstage-whodunnit storyline is built.  And from what I've seen, my friend's designs -- no surprise -- look fabulous.

(Evoking the other end of the theatrical spectrum last season, he also designed the charming elementary-school Wizard of Oz set featured in a couple of episodes in S2 -- gently prodding the limits of how good such a production could plausibly look, without altogether forsaking a certain made-by-loving-hands-at-home dearness.  In a way, it may have actually helped that the highly-skilled union artisans who actually executed his Oz-ian "Haunted Forest" set ended up having to do so on a summer-stock-tight schedule, building and painting the whole thing in less than two days).

More recently, Season 3's "Broadway" show-within-the-show stage sequences were filmed at the United Palace, near me -- the same venue where they held the Tonys last month -- which coincidentally is actually on Broadway-the-street, but about six miles too far uptown to qualify as a Broadway theater, even though it'll be playing one in Only Murders.

[scenicdesign71]

NYT piece about the show-within-the-show, with songs written by a collection of 21st-century B'way all-stars:

For Only Murders Season 3, Not the Same Old Song and Dance

[scenicdesign71]

Variety:  Only Murders in the Building Renewed for Season 4 at Hulu

Also:  NYT Critic's Notebook (S3 Finale SPOILERS)