#Cinda Canning

[potterandpromises]

Cinda Canning x Bev Melon... their ship name could be Canned Melon

[essentialalls]

However this is admittedly the first season without Theo Dimas

Tina Fey

And Steve's wife (I know she's not useful to the plot, but it was cute to see her here and there).

And that, my friends, is not good.

[dragonsareawesome123]

"You can crack this. As long as you have the right partner."

Only Murders in the Building (2021-), 3x04 - "The White Room"

[ghosthorse-tracks]

lowkey obsessed with the fact that Cinda’s new Poppy assistant also has shoulder-length blonde hair, tortoiseshell glasses, and a beige sweater. She still can’t stand working with people who don’t look like her 😅

[itsthenovelteafactor]

OMITB + The Onion (I)

[martinihours]

[ginandweas]

- ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING “I Know Who Did It.” (2x20)

[fourdiagnosesinatrenchcoat]

I'm waiting as eagerly as anyone for Only Murders season 3 but what I'm still confused about is why Cinda Canning was worried about being a "one hit wonder" podcaster if she's won two Peabodys and has a $30M podcast production (?) deal. Like, Poppy/Becky already knew who she was when she pitched her All Is Not OK so obviously THAT wasn't her "one hit."

[postguiltypleasures]

My Peak TV Journey *Only Murders in the Building*

I had a hard time getting started writing about the third season of Only Murders in the Building. I liked it. I definitely intend to watch the upcoming fourth season. I love the show’s love of theater and in someways that made it a better season than the previous two which focused on podcasting and co-op politics. It’s also greatcoat they found a way for Tina Fey’s character Cinda Canning to cause tension about the future without any flash forwards the way the first season did. Keep the regular jumping around in time to flashbacks while new information is revealed is for the best. 

The second season ended with flash forward to a supposed murder of a character never seen before in the midst of the opening performance of a Broadway play. The play is directed by lead character Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), who had been unemployed for years, and it co-stars another lead character Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), who it turns out, does not to get along with costar, a movie star trying out the stage named Ben Glenroy, played by Paul Rudd. They go on stage to begin the play, only for Ben to fall down, presumably dead, with blood coming out of his mouth. 

For the time between the second season finale and the third season premiere seemed that for once, Oliver, Charles and Mabel (Selena Gomez) would be investigating a murder in a different building. The third season premiere did something of a double fake out. First they reveal that Ben survived his mysterious collapse. For a few minutes we wonder if this season will be investigating an attempted murder. There are other tensions going on including how Charles is already pretty miserable in the production, Mabel wants to get back to podcasting but does not have as subject, and Oliver is romantically interested in Loretta, one of the other cast members played by Meryl Streep. While the characters wonder about how Ben’s near death almost put them on different paths, there is the second fake out, where Ben’s actual dead body is discovered in a scene reminiscent of Claude Chabrol’s Le Boucher, though more violent and less disturbing than in that film. 

The show’s creators said that Mabel would have the most changed storyline, but I didn’t really see it. She had similar plot points to previous seasons, complete with new love interest with an ambiguous connection to the case. She’s still worried about being directionless, and this is heightened by the fact that she must leave the apartment she’s been living in. It was owned by her aunt, she was staying in it to renovate it, and now it’s sold. Mabel doesn’t even have any of the paperwork needed to be approved for a lease, which is kind of relatable. The most surprising aspect of Mabel’s plot was that she got the role of the stand in for people who actually liked Ben Glenroy, his fans. It kind of puts her at odds with Oliver and Charles, leading them to an even later start than usual at making the podcast from which the tv series takes its. (This also meant that the podcasts fans are not part of this season. While I like the actors who play they fans, I didn’t miss the characters.) 

More than the second season, the third one seems haunted by Charles’s season one love interest Jan also being the season’s killer. Both Charles’s romance with Joy (Andrea Martin) and Oliver’s with Loretta have shadows over them because of that, leading to some understandable self sabotage. How can any of them trust their romantic instincts after what seemed like a good thing between Charles and Jan? I also really wish we got to see Charles and Joy together more, because I really like Andrea Martin, and I think I like her character here better than the one on Evil. Oliver and Loretta are pretty appealing, making one forget what an odd pairing Martin Short and Meryl Streep would be anywhere else.

Generally speaking, there were fewer appearances from the reoccurring characters in the building this season. Last season’s sub plot about the new co-op board president’s plans for the building didn’t come up at all, and I wanted an update. However, this season finally an episode from Uma’s point of view. As someone who always enjoys seeing the great Jackie Hoffman I appreciated it, especially the reveal of her kleptomania,  Also enjoyed her in the audience for the opening night of Death Rattle Dazzle, the now musical version of Oliver’s directorial efforts.

Everything about Death Rattle, a supposedly old fashioned, but obtuse murder mystery becoming the musical was absurd Death Rattle Dazzle. No one with any experience in theater would believe it. But that’s part of what makes it a comedy. Anyway, they didn’t want strong parallels between the play and the series, in a way that a less non-sensical play might invite. I haven’t been a theater person as an adult, so I am not sure if the series created the concept of the White Room, or it is a real thing amongst theater people. I loved the White Room, and not just for the chance to see Steve Martin make ridiculous, blissed out faces. I liked it for the sense of the one’s mental safe space is also what prevents one from growing. After the season aired I found articles in both Vulture and The Ringer about how the show is kind of nightmarish under the humor. Neither article mentioned the White Room, but I think the feel its existence, and how it scares people who see someone else in it, is an encapsulation of the uneasy tone that the writers of these articles are discussing. 

[becausebuckley]

how would we feel about a 911 only murders in the building au

[okerum]

to the people of tumblr. i implore you to read my favorite book series of like 6 years, the shattered realms by cinda williams chima, which contains my #1 ship of all time and happens to have like 5 other fans on planet earth and im not sure any of them are alive today. you cannot give up at the first book you have to make it to book 3 because thats when my alltime favorite characters start getting more attention (in the first two they're established as antagonists from other characters' povs but theyre trying to do good :c)

if it'd help persuade a single person, i drew all the main characters here as well.... i just need someone to talk to about desvan....... please ......

if u want more info abt the series, it's a young adult wartime fantasy that has a good amount of focus on the political aspects of the war. my fav is destin karn, lieutenent and spymaster for the 2 kings of the antagonistic kingdom :P

he and evan are in a canon queer relationship which brings me such joy and its such a fun dynamic, with a troubled soldier x free pirate, bonded through an unlikely encounter. they have such fun exchanges as well!

when i say i need someone to talk to about it i MEAN it i would like nothing more than to compare notes i have been keeping this to myself since early middle school and theres, like, one substantial post abt the series on tumblr and no other social media apps and hardly any more fics about it. ive reread the third and fourth books probably like 8 times (+ at least 8 more for just the beginning of book 3 and the end of book 4) and it just sits in my head rotting because i can only turn destin and evan over in my microwave brain so many times before they get burnt or something

this is a cry for help and tumblr is my final hope. tumblr, home of the niche fandoms and readers and also gay people.... heed my call !!! i beg of thee!!!!! read my favorite series !!!! whole post literally begging and pleading!!!!

[potterandpromises]

Episode 4 is easily my favorite episode of the season so far. It makes such a difference for the trio to be together + I enjoyed spending time with Cinda. Oh what familiar characters and relationships can do for my happiness.

Other thoughts:

He isn’t my favorite for the role, but Howard’s behavior this episode is making me like him more for the moriarty/mastermind role that John Hoffman has talked about (him and Oliver having a ‘layered relationship’ wherein he doesn't hand over the keys when he doesn't want to even though he works for Oliver, him being ‘the eyes and ears of this production,’ the lying.)

��Like a sweater… unraveling.’

Okay, my hope for the Joy/Charles stuff is that he ends the season realizing he doesn’t want a (heteronormative) romantic relationship and what actually makes him happy is his found family with Oliver and Mabel and Lucy. However, now might be a good time to mention that I think Lucy might be getting Oscer’d. (A review said she isn’t in the first eight episodes.)

Oh! Kimber’s line about Ben looking like a 50 year old baby feels meaningful when in the play everyone’s meant to think a baby did it. It's a point to the theory that Ben faked his own death when he collapsed on stage.

I think this is the first time Mabel's worn white and not gotten blood on her.

Maybe Tom (piano guy) did it. I say this solely because of the lack of focus on him.

[calowlmitygoddess]

i've had a small freak out on twitter after deciding to read ahead on Stormcaster and finding out Han eventually started to use the sul'Alger tittle/last name

[sidleyparkhermit]

Guys, I have had Sarah Koenig conflated with Sarah Vowell since 2013. That is how much I never actually paid attention to Serial. I 100% did know who Sarah Vowell was, had heard her many times on the radio, and read at least two of her books in the late aughts. I just vaguely thought she had pivoted to become a credulous true-crime podcaster.

[ghosthorse-tracks]

ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING | 3x04 | The White Room

[martinihours]