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Only Murders in the Building: Who Is Tim Kono?

"Why are you hanging out with a couple of old weirdos?"
"They're trying to help me find someone who cared about you."
"Good luck with that."


Our sleuths need to put a face on Tim Kono, but trying to unlock his life splits open the Arconia like a can of worms. As light is cast on each resident, they all wriggle away, hiding behind their unremarkable doors like worms burrowing under the ground.

The real drama is that Mabel already knew Tim Kono. She's just not ready to tell her new geriatric friends. But mistrust is a two-way street, and the senior citizen portion of the main cast is equally unsure about Mabel.

The inter-generational drama always works on this show. Here, Putnam and Savage are inept at the entire internet, like it was just invented, and lean on Mabel to find out if Kono left a trace online. The show handles these interactions very charmingly, without either side engaging the tired "Boomer vs. Millennial" trash talk. Our different generations actually benefit from getting to know each other. But I digress.

The meat of the episode starts when our heroes visit the memorial service for Kono, and the cast list (along with the suspect list) grows into something wild and massive.

-Meet Bunny. She runs the apartment, and she's the crankiest person on TV. Ever. I can't stand her.

-Meet Howard. He's sensitive and meek. Turns out he's crying because his cat died. Turns out everyone hated Tim Kono and is more sad about the cat.

-Meet Teddy Dimas. We only see the dips his catering company provides, but he lives in the building and is an important character.

-Meet Ndidi. Classic whodunnint suspect. She wanted Tim's apartment for herself, but I don't think a single viewer was fooled into suspecting her.

But that's just the contemporary crowd. We dive into Mabel's past with a few flashbacks and meet her 'Hardy Boys,' the buddies she used to play with when she visited the Arconia as a little girl.

-Meet Zoe. She's dead, under (currently) mysterious circumstances. And she was clearly a bad influence on the others.

-Meet Oscar. Nice guy of the group and Zoe's boyfriend. And he's clearly into Mabel.

-Meet Young Tim Kono. Insufferable, even as a child.

This episode gives you a lot of people to keep up with. But since it's so well made, the characters have their identities cleanly stamped into your mind. A lot of shows end up being a cluttered mess when they introduce so many characters, but Only Murders has taken the time to do things right.

DUN-DUN-DUNNN!!!! (The Spoiler Section)

The box of sex toys has a clue that unravels the whole case. Oliver waves it around a few times in the series. I could tell the producers were teasing me with a clue, but I didn't figure it out, even though I should have easily recognized a [redacted] when I saw one. Well done.

Under the Microscope

-The Hardy Boys book we see is about a gang with whale tattoos who steal things. (The gang steals things, not the whale tattoos.) Whale tattoos show up on Zoe and Mabel at times. OoooOOOOooo.

-Oliver is too funny when he puts on his director hat. I'd watch a show that was nothing but Oliver Putnam making stupid Broadway musicals.

-Lots of creative visuals happen in this series. Last time we saw Oliver falling off a porch and magically bouncing back. This time Mabel's talking to dead Tim Kono. The show relies on creative visual storytelling. It's the riskiest part of the series, and it pays off.

Final Analysis: This episode is an infodump of epic proportions, but it's non-stop fun and never feels burdensome. Five out of Five unhealthy dips.

Adam D. Jones is a writer, musician, and medievalist. He's also a bit of detective himself, having recently solved the case of the missing keys. (They were in his other hand.)

2 comments:

  1. I loved how mich everyone adored and mourned Evelyn the cat. My own cat plays the same role in my complex, visiting people's apartments to bring joy and dander.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, Evelyn is one of the best characters, despite so little screen time.

    ReplyDelete

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