Review: Only Murders in the Building, "Blow-Up" | Season 4, Episode 6
They were trying to find a killer and found footage instead
I don’t want to overstate the intentions behind this “found footage” episode of Only Murders in the Building. There’s not really any kind of substantive statement being made about the genre here: the Brothers Sisters’ clandestine efforts to film a behind-the-scenes view of the movie through a variety of cameras—hidden ones in the characters’ apartments, Howard on a camcorder, a drone, their own Super 8s—is basically a gimmick designed to take an episode of structured exposition and give it flair it would otherwise lack.
It is, however, an effective gimmick, and one that helps the show feel like it’s working in new territory even when the story itself is mostly hitting the same beats we would expect. Before I hit play on the episode, I was thinking about how this is a show where we tune in each week in search of resolution—last week’s episode ended with a literal shooting, and part of why we tune in this week is to see the direct aftermath of the latest twist in the case. Bu…