TL;DR: The opening of Only Murders in the Building Season 5 is equal parts hilarious and heartfelt, with a mystery that matters because it’s personal. Lester’s death gives the show new emotional weight, and the trio’s chemistry is as strong as ever. Four stars, and plenty of reason to keep watching as the season unfolds.

There’s a moment early in Season 5 of Only Murders in the Building that hit me harder than I expected: a shot of the Arconia’s courtyard, lit the same way it’s always been, except this time the fountain is no longer a landmark of luxury or comedic hijinks—it’s a crime scene. Lester, the building’s longtime doorman, lies lifeless, and suddenly the whole show feels like it’s staring mortality straight in the face. Which, ironically, is a very funny thing to say about a comedy that’s always been about death. But this is the strange magic of Hulu’s star-studded whodunit: five seasons in, it still knows how to gut-punch you with sincerity and then hand you a martini chaser of absurdity.

When Only Murders first arrived back in 2021, I thought it might be a cute one-season gimmick. Steve Martin and Martin Short clowning around? Selena Gomez throwing in some dry sarcasm to balance the dad-jokes? A mystery podcast as the narrative glue? Sure, why not. But what I didn’t expect was for the show to grow into a cultural anchor—a kind of comfort TV that still manages to needle at the anxieties of modern life. If Succession was about the rich eating each other alive, Only Murders is about what happens when regular people stumble into that same ecosystem and start asking pesky questions with microphones.

Season 5, or at least its first three episodes, leans into this tension. On the surface, it’s still a murder mystery set in a fancy Upper West Side building with quirky residents and even quirkier murder suspects. But beneath the comedy, it’s asking: how long can a community like this survive? What happens when technology (or billionaires, or mobsters) tries to bulldoze over the fragile ecosystem of neighbors and oddballs? The Arconia has always been a character, sure—but this time, it feels like the show is putting it on trial.

And that’s where Lester comes in. Teddy Coluca has always played him as the quiet heart of the building, the guy you nod to on the way in without really thinking about his inner life. The first three episodes dare to ask: what if we had paid attention? In one of the early highlights of the season, we get a flashback through Lester’s decades of service, and suddenly the Arconia feels haunted in a way no staged murder ever could. His death isn’t just a puzzle to solve—it’s a eulogy for the overlooked people who keep communities running.

But don’t get me wrong: this isn’t suddenly The Leftovers. The laughs are still there, and the trio’s banter is as effortless as ever. Steve Martin’s Charles continues to be the king of low-key panic, Martin Short’s Oliver still walks around like his entire life is a Broadway rehearsal, and Selena Gomez’s Mabel—bless her—remains the dry, stylish millennial heartthrob that glues this chaos together. Watching them squabble over suspects, podcast strategies, and their own personal baggage is still the highlight of the show. And in these opening chapters, the writers lean harder into their vulnerabilities. Charles panics about being left behind by his friends, Oliver grapples with being a newlywed at his age, and Mabel… well, she finally looks like she’s living her twenties instead of hiding in her thirties.

The suspects introduced so far are flashy: billionaires (Christoph Waltz, Renée Zellweger, Logan Lerman) who treat lives like Monopoly pieces, mob ties that stretch the Arconia’s history back decades, and—because 2024 apparently won’t let us escape it—a literal AI doorman named LESTR. Yes, you read that right: a robot valet that makes ChatGPT look like Clippy. It’s an on-the-nose commentary about automation and replaceability, but the show is self-aware enough to make it funny. Watching Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton, an underrated MVP of the series) bond with the robot like it’s his emotional support Tamagotchi is ridiculous in the best way.

What makes these first three episodes sing, though, isn’t the suspects or even the central mystery—it’s the community aspect. The show has flirted with this idea before (remember the building-wide blackout in Season 2?), but here it doubles down. Lester’s death forces everyone to reckon with what the Arconia actually means. Is it just a building? Or is it a home because of the people who’ve stubbornly filled its halls with trivia nights, feuds, and late-night gossip sessions? Already, the season feels like it’s circling back to the very roots of the series.

Does Season 5 stumble out of the gate? A little. The tech satire can feel clunky, and some of the billionaire caricatures are so broad they might as well be wearing “Hello, I Am Capitalism” name tags. But honestly, who cares? The charm, the chemistry, the mix of melancholy and comedy—it’s all still there. If anything, the rough edges make it feel alive in a way glossy prestige dramas don’t.

So, three episodes in, here’s where I land: Only Murders in the Building is still the coziest murder mystery on TV, still one of the sharpest comedies streaming, and still capable of sneaking up on you with an emotional gut punch when you least expect it.

Final Verdict:

The first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building Season 5 prove the show still has plenty of life left, even while it wrestles with death. By centering its story on Lester and the Arconia itself, the series deepens its heart without losing its humor. The mystery is just heating up, the guest stars are flashy, but the real triumph is how much this show continues to care about its characters and its world. Hulu’s comedy-mystery remains at the top of its game.