Review: 'Only Murders in the Building' stars turn a whacked-out whodunit in season 3 into comic gold

With perennial Oscar winner Meryl Streep playing an acting loser and nice-guy Paul Rudd cast way against type as a narcissist jerk, season 3 of Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building" kicks off on a guest-star high that sparks its series regulars to new levels of mirth and mayhem.

If we're being honest, season 2 of this comic mystery thriller was a letdown after an Emmy nominated freshman debut that featured Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez as true-crime podcasters who hit paydirt by solving murders in their own upmarket Manhattan building, the Arconia.

Now, Broadway is the setting with Short's Oliver Putnam directing his first show after a spectacular flop with "Splash: The Musical."

With Martin's washed-up Charles-Haden Savage acting in the show -- a murder mystery called "Death Rattle," about infant triplets accused of murder in Nova Scotia -- Gomez's Mabel Mora is left to handle the podcast as Bloody Mabel.

The boys join in when "Death Rattle" star Ben Glenroy (Rudd), best known for "CoBro," a hit film franchise about a zoologist who turns into a 20-foot cobra to fight crime, collapses on stage on opening night, a scene that served as the cliffhanger of the season 2 finale.

Ben eventually winds up dead. Flashbacks reveal him as an insecure egomaniac who alienates so many people that anyone could have done him in. And Rudd has a blast showing Ben's worst sides to the camera.

Among the likely killers, besides Charles, for whom Ben harbored a secret grudge, is Streep's Loretta Durkin, who a smitten Oliver casts as the nanny to the triplets. It's a hoot to watch Streep in the role of a nobody, teasing her own propensity for playing characters with accents.

But murder is what drives this series, and Loretta has a hidden connection that needs uncovering, as do Ben's relationships with co-star and TikTok influencer Kimber (Ashley Park), his brother-manager Dickie (Jeremy Shamos) and the mother-son producing team of Donna (Linda Emond) and Cliff Demeos (Wesley Taylor) whose Oedipal attraction is cringey to the max.

Potential killers are everywhere, along with surprise cameos from the likes of Matthew Broderick and Mel Brooks. Still, the series -- co-created by Martin and John Hoffman -- belongs to its three stars.

Interestingly, Short is the only Emmy nominee among them for season 2. And he's better in season 3, finding unexpected warmth under Oliver's flamboyant facade.

It's Oliver's decision to turn "Death Rattle" into an over-the-top musical that kicks the action into overdrive. Martin has a hilarious patter song about which of the triplets did it. And Streep stops the show with a heartbreaking ballad about surrogate motherhood from Tony-winning "Dear Evan Hansen" composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

OK, there are times the plot loses track of catching a killer, what with all the hugely entertaining Broadway glitz. But the actors are always in the winner's circle. The underrated Gomez shows the loneliness eating at Mabel as she loses her aunt's apartment at the Arconia and fears the separation will break her connection with the two aging clowns who make her feel needed.

It's not easy sustaining an emotional subtext in a mystery built for laughs, but Gomez, Short and Martin do the trick while turning a wicked, whacked-out whodunit into comic gold.

The last two episodes were not sent to critics, which only increases the fun of guessing the killer. So, join the party.

The delicious deviltry of "Only Murders in the Building" season 3, premiering Aug. 8 on Hulu, is too good to miss.