Once Upon a Time in the West

It makes me genuinely happy that a show like this can be made. From season one I was hooked and the opening episode of season four is perhaps the best so far. Everything from camerawork, editing, sound effects and music (the opening theme by Siddhartha Khosla is perfect) and last but not least the writing is craftsmanship. You can tell everybody cares and respects the medium and it's a joy to behold.

John Hoffman and Steve Martin knows the shows characters so well and it and it absolutely translates to the screen. One minute I'm laughing and the next I'm deeply concerned about the well being of our trio.

The supporting cast is is the icing on the cake, I can't remember any supporting role that is boring or without something that ads to the show, nobody is bland or boring.

I'm swooning, forgive me. But I just cant wait for episode two.

I'll end on two notes, Gravey in the sweater is perfect and I think we have already been introduced to the killer ...

Have fun with the season:)

The final episode of season three ended with Sazz getting shot in Charles' apartment.

The first episode begins without anyone knowing about Sazz's death. Instead Oliver's musical has closed to bad reviews.

Another failure that Oliver has racked up. The good news is the trio are off to Hollywood as Paramount wants to make a movie of their podcast. They have even got two well known actors to play them. Oliver thinks his double was the little boy from Home Alone as he fails to recognise Zack Galifianakis.

Just like the movie, Once Upon a Time in the West. This is a slow burn opener. Unlike the previous season openers, no one leaps into action to investigate a murder. The trio do not even realise there has been a death until much later.

There are references to Hollywood movies. That New York street scene in the studio lot might have been a tribute to Do the Right Thing.

There was comedy but also darkness as Charles realises what occurred to Sazz.

There was cleverness by referencing Sergio Leone's movie to the title of the episode. To me not that clever but I hope the rest of the series throws a few more curveballs.

What a wonderful episode, for one side we get some break, a holiday, from all the murders and the mysteries, which was refreshing, but at the same time, the mystery is still lurking around the corner.

I don't understand the complaints about the cameos of celebrities, Only Murders was always about Hollywood and Celebrities, finally, Hollywood is part of the story and they criticize it and belittling it, which was a blast to watch.

It's such a blast to see Meryl Steep back for another season, she was wonderful last season and I hope we will see her character having a good storyline this season.

Once again this show delivers layers and depth way beyond what it needs too. There is so much detail and cleverness going on but it's not delivered in a hey look how clever I am way. It's delivered as if the writers expect this standard of everyone including themselves.

They only had a year since the last series but they had another good idea in the chamber and are not resting on their laurels in any way.

To be fair Selena Gomez is still an awkward fit and the weak link in the chain but the strength of the other factors keeps it together strongly.

There is a love and respect of the craft of cinema and storytelling going on here and the team are not taking the success of the show lightly. It's great to see a show go above and beyond and actually raise the benchmark for everyone.

It's 2024 and screen writing has gone down the drain. All TV writing? Well one show manages to hold off cliché story telling and disneyesque predictability with the magic potion of - sticking to its guns. Last season ended with a cliffhanger, most shows would jump right into its exposition. "Only Murders" doesn't. It builds a frame for this season - the team possibly relocating to LA for a movie adaptation of their podcast - while slowly building on the actual mystery that will be the central theme. And they're brazenly referencing "One upon a Time in the West" both in the title and the plot, basically saying "let other people hurry, we're gonna lay out our mystery as slowly as we please".

It's not going to work for everyone - I personally love pop cultural references (I opened this review with one), but not everyone will recognize Sazz's LA apartment (it's from a famous film but I'm not gonna say which one). Gen Z could find Sergio Leone movies almost impossible to sit through - nothing happens for 15 minutes! When will they finally shoot each other? But for Gen X people and nerds starving for well written content, this opener is a reason to hope that the creative ebb in screen writing may end.