Television series

Only Murders in the Building

Three mismatched, lonely New Yorkers bond over a true-crime podcast obsession and end up investigating an actual murder in their fancy Upper West Side building. It's a whodunit with the pace of a sitcom — Steve Martin and Martin Short doing warm, aging-actor bickering, Selena Gomez as the deadpan anchor — funny first, mysterious second. Cosy, starry, easy to binge.

TVMaze rating6.8

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Poker Face2023

Natasha Lyonne's human lie-detector solves a fresh case every episode with the same puzzle-box cleverness and character-actor delight as Only Murders, but structured like a classic Columbo — you see the crime, then watch her unravel it.

But No season-long mystery to sink into — if you want the slow-burn conspiracy of a building full of suspects, this scratches a different itch.

Poker Face poster

Knives Out2019

Rian Johnson's starry, gleefully theatrical whodunit shares the same DNA: a big ensemble of suspicious rich people, a detective having far too much fun, and a plot that rewards paying close attention.

But It's a two-hour film, not a series — you lose the slow accumulation of running jokes and character that Only Murders builds over ten episodes.

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The Afterparty2022no page yet

Another murder investigated by a scrappy amateur, but each episode retells the same night through a different genre lens — rom-com, action movie, musical — which is the kind of formal cleverness Only Murders fans tend to adore.

But The gimmick can feel more clever than emotionally grounded; less interested in genuine grief than Only Murders is underneath its jokes.

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Rear Window1954

It's the ur-text for 'nosy apartment-dweller solves a murder in their own building' — everything Only Murders plays for laughs, Hitchcock plays for dread.

Hitchcock's classic did the premise first and best: a bored, nosy neighbour becomes convinced someone in his apartment complex has committed murder, and starts investigating from his own window. Tense, elegant, quietly funny.

But Black-and-white, single-location, and genuinely suspenseful rather than comic — a very different rhythm from Only Murders' banter-driven whodunits.

Rear Window poster
More like this (8)

Search Party2016

Millennial amateur sleuths stumble into a real disappearance and slowly ruin their own lives trying to solve it — funnier and much darker than it first appears, with the same podcast-brain satire running through it.

But Gets considerably bleaker and more morally uncomfortable as it goes; not the cosy hangout the first season promises.

Search Party poster

Murder, She Wrote1984

The original cosy amateur-detective template — Jessica Fletcher stumbles into a murder every week and solves it with nothing but nosiness and a typewriter. Gentle, formulaic, endlessly comforting.

But Very much of its era: slow, procedural, and without a shred of the meta true-crime-podcast satire that makes Only Murders feel current.

Murder, She Wrote poster

A Murder at the End of the World2023no page yet

A true-crime-obsessed amateur sleuth investigates a death among eccentrics trapped together, with the same fascination for the mechanics of internet detective work, but wrapped in a colder, tech-thriller mood.

But Chilly and cerebral where Only Murders is warm and silly — the humour is almost entirely absent.

Elsbeth2024no page yet

A disarmingly chatty, seemingly scattered lawyer-turned-detective solves a murder an episode with colour and warmth rather than grit — great procedural comfort food with a genuinely lovable lead.

But Broadcast-network polish means it's tidier and less character-driven than the slow-simmer friendships at the centre of Only Murders.

Veronica Mars2004

A wisecracking amateur detective narrates her own investigations with the same dry voiceover wit and love of the genre's tropes, mystery-of-the-week stacked over a longer serialized case.

But Teen-noir setting and 2000s pacing feel a world away from the Upper West Side comfort of Only Murders.

Veronica Mars poster

Death and Other Details2024no page yet

A lush, slow-burn whodunit on a luxury liner with a starry ensemble and a detective who's seen it all — good if you specifically want more glamorous rich-people murder with banter.

But Uneven pacing and a much soapier tone; doesn't have the tight comic timing Martin and Short bring to every scene.

Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer2019

Same engine — amateurs crowdsourcing a murder investigation online out of morbid fascination — but stripped of comedy and shown as the uncomfortable, addictive thing it actually is.

A real documentary about ordinary strangers on the internet who band together, obsessively, to track down a killer using nothing but forums and deduction — the actual, unfiltered version of amateur podcast sleuthing.

But It's a real crime with real victims and no jokes whatsoever — genuinely disturbing where Only Murders is cosy, and it will sit with you afterward.

Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer poster

Barry2018

Both find comedy inside people who treat death as something to be managed, performed, or solved — Barry just refuses to let you off the hook for laughing.

A hitman stumbles into an acting class and tries to build a normal life while bodies keep piling up around him — the same trick of finding real laughs inside murder, but pushed until the laughs curdle.

But Far more violent and morally bruising; the comedy is a Trojan horse for something genuinely dark about self-delusion and guilt.

Barry poster

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