Well, it's compare and contrast time again here on the Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Today we're looking at two series where crime and comedy intersect, one ending and the other just beginning.
Brooklyn Nine Nine aired it's series finale last week.
Bringing in a TV series finale for a landing is perhaps one of the hardest jobs in television. On one hand, the series is ending; there is no need to preserve the status quo and fans expect some kind of changes or some closure. On the other hand, change the status quo too much and fans get pissed off.
For the most part,Brooklyn Nine Nine sticks the landing. Yes, there are changes. Raymond Holt ends the series as deputy commissioner and Amy Santiago is a police chief. There is one other departure that may seem incongruous with what see saw of this character in season 1 episode 1 but has been telegraphed in earlier episodes.
Jake Peralta leaves the Nine Nine to be a stay at home dad. Man, all Jake ever wanted to be the was the best and coolest police detective ever. But now he is equally determined to be best dad to his son and not be the type of dad his own father was.
The last hour is centered around a heist, a wild and wooly caper as the members of the Nine Nine including Rosa Diaz and a returning Gina Linetti in an ever escalating cycle of can you top this gags. It is a wacky ride that recaptures the more free wheeling lunacy of Brooklyn Nine Nine that has otherwise been missing during the 8th and final season.
It was a sad and tragic waste when Fox sent Brooklyn Nine Nine to the curb after 5 seasons. But the show got to redeem itself with a renewal at NBC and got to end on it's own terms.
As Brooklyn Nine Nine was ending, another show where comedy and crime intersect was debuting.
Only Murders in the Building was co-created by Steve Martin who stars in the series with Martin Short and Selena Gomez. They play three neighbors in the Arconia, an upscale apartment building in New York City. They start a true crime podcast that covers their investigation of a murder in their building. The victim was Tim Kono who was not well liked by the other residents in the Arconia but about whom very little is known.
Steve Martin is actor Charles-Haden Savage who starred in a popular 1980s detective drama before drifting into obscurity.
Martin Short is Oliver Putnam, a struggling Broadway director whose dreams are bigger than his talents. His lifestyle in the Arconia is bigger than his bank account.
Selena Gomez plays Mabel Mora, a young woman who is ostensibly remodeling her aunt's apartment in the Arconia. While Charles and Oliver are struggling to find who Tim Kono was and why someone would kill him, Mabel knows more about Tim than she's let on.
Steve Martin has a dry self deprecating wit as he slowly peels back layers of Charles' lonely existence in the Arconia. Selena Gomez gives Mabel a level of bemused snark that hides her growing affection for these old men who have entered her orbit and her own sense of dread of what Tim Kono's murder might mean for her.
Oliver Putnam epitomizes Martin Short's excesses as an over the top dramatic Broadway star but Oliver is a tragic character as much as a comic one. Oliver is not as big and beloved as he thinks he is and Martin Short perfectly plays to that balance of narcissism and regret.
We're at the half way point of the first season as Mabel's secrets become exposed and all three of our cast are exposed to danger as they blunder through their investigation and their podcast.
Only Murders in the Building is a remarkable balance of comedy and tragedy. And at the midpoint of it's first season, the show has already been renewed for a second.
In the next Tuesday TV Touchbase, let's compare and contrast what the hell is going on with Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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