Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Episode 5 Review: Adaptation

Unfortunately, Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Episode 5, “Adaptation,” is another underwhelming episode. While still not bad, two underwhelming episodes in a row is not the best trend to start setting.

The theme of the episode is insecurity.

For Charles, it’s his investigative prowess. For Mabel, it’s her career, and Oliver’s girlfriend woes take on a new angle thanks to Loretta’s new, fit co-star. To top it all off, we have Marshall as the voiceover of the week, discussing his insecurities.

Each storyline has its moments.

Oliver’s run-through of the murder timeline is hilarious, and it’s always cute when Charles gets worked up about something. I’ve wanted to see more of Marshall since we met him on Only Murders in the Building Season 4 Episode 1, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and his return is as wonderful as I had hoped.

The biggest win from this insecurity theme is that we’re continuing Mabel’s journey of figuring out her life.

Now that she (seemingly) has a place to live, the focus shifts to her career. I do hope that the season ends with her on solid footing because it would be great to explore her character when she’s doing well.

Oliver’s career took center stage last season, and it would be fun and different to see Mabel killing it in the podcasting world next season. Perhaps, like Oliver’s play, Mabel’s next venture could tie into the Only Murders in the Building Season 5 murder.

The main issue with this episode is that it takes far too long for our trio to determine that more than one person committed the crime.

As soon as Marshall pointed out the timeline issue, the logical explanation is that one person couldn’t have done it all, so there is more than one killer.

Charles still could have gotten defensive about his murder board(s), but someone should have immediately brought up that they are looking for a second person.

It’s not a big leap to make, and despite “Adaptation” really leaning into the amateur aspect of the trio’s podcasting, Charles, Oliver, and Mabel aren’t idiots.

They’ve done this before and were obsessed with true crime before Tim Kono died. They’ve had to have encountered the “twist” of multiple people being involved before.

This makes you wonder about the pacing of the season. If we have to drag out our trio realizing that more than one person is involved, how slowly will the rest of the case developments play out?

The worst aspect is that this “a-ha” moment is the end of the episode, causing the entire episode to feel like a let-down. However, the gunfire does perk things back up a bit.

Stray Thoughts

• I love that Eva is brought into the trio’s scheme.
• Bev is a little much at times.
• Hopefully, we see more of Howard at work on the film set.
• Glen is still not all that entertaining.

What did you think of this episode of Only Murders in the Building? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

New episodes of Only Murders in the Building premiere on Tuesdays on Hulu.

Follow us on X and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!