"And I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!"
RANT
Spoilers For: The Person under the shark mask aka the murderer in Only Murders in the Building
Hulu doesn’t have the reputation of banging out big-budget, jaw-dropping, high-concept television shows like the other skin in the game ( i.e. Amazon, HBO, Apple). While it does have that Big Daddy Disney money, daddy seems to prefer giving a higher allowance to its namesake, Disney+. So Hulu shows aren’t the ones you typically talk about around the water cooler on Monday. The streaming service is better known for its Little Darlings. Shows that have a small niche audience, and usually give off a cozy feeling like one would get from say, reading a saucy little murder mystery novel…..
Hulu finally found its show to get people buzzing while still not breaking the bank. Only Murders in the Building had people talking, and speculating, for weeks. Everyone wanted to know who killed Tim Kono. Not that anyone cared about Tim Kono. Both the character and the actor weren’t anything to cry into your pillow about but the thrill of watching our trio sneak into apartments, uncover clues, and dance on the knife’s edge of peril was enough to bid time all week until the next episode.
So last week the gang finally reached the last chapter and the unmasking of our villain was finally revealed to be…. Jan. Um… really? Jan?! Like THAT Jan?
Jan, played by Amy Ryan, was the bassoon-belting cutie across the courtyard that joined the sleuth-crew after playing a few duets with Steve Martin’s character, Charles-Haden Savage. Making her the murderer hit many by surprise (moi included.) Sure there were clues from the beginning, I guess. And the red herrings sprinkled about kept us on our toes and away from the smoking gun sitting next to us the whole time.
But something just doesn’t feel right.
I don’t mind Jan being the murderer. I even love the sexy reverse card on the age gap and the last episode being a big cat and mouse game. It’s not the who in the whodunit that bothers me, but the whydunit? Our red herrings included a millionaire Deli King slash grave-robbing jewelry thief, an old friend straight out of prison coming back for revenge, and even our own sweet little Mabel. All of them had motives that I would buy but Jan being loony-toons and trigger-happy just felt so lame.
I am sick of the “crazy-for-crazy-sake lover” trope. There are psychopaths in the world, I even dated some, but people don’t murder without a motive, even the evilest and insane have their own reality where their decision makes sense to them. Jan being jilted is just not enough for her to put her own life on the line, not just with Tim but with Charles as well. Beyond jealousy being a weak motive, the way she went from being a mild-manner WASP to a bad guy out of a Tim Burton Batman movie was cringe.
I wanted this murder to be caught in an intricate web of layered fuckery, not a safety net of a black widow.
Alright, maybe I’m mad because I had money on Tie-Dye guy but more than that I am a feminist, even for the ladies that kill. Our femme-fatales deserve motives beyond school girl feelings, and Rube-Goldbergesque murder plans and not stereotypical poisonings.
Overall, I still loved the show. I didn’t care who killed Tim Kono. I just wanted to see Steve Martin and Martin Short having fun and being funny. I also enjoyed Selena Gomez’s wardrobe. The ending didn’t kill the show for me, just left a bitter taste in my mouth.
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