STORY: True crime podcast trio Charles, Oliver and Mabel are back as there’s been another murder in the building, Arconia. This time, however, they are the suspects. Incriminating evidence keeps mysteriously showing up at their apartments as they try to clear their names as well as keep the second season of the podcast running.

REVIEW: The Arconia needs to be modernised. The building needs to be preserved. The argument between the new and the old Board Presidents of the Upper West Side building may sum up the vein season deux of the comic murder mystery is in. It is slicker, pacier and more pumped up but has the same irreverence. Peculiarities of the situations, quirkiness of the characters, jabs on the showbiz world as well as the characters and the mad fun that was Season 1 is all still retained.

Early on, Mabel (Selena Gomez) says that they should all let themselves be a little boring again but the show will have none of that. A foe swearing vengeance, liars from the past and in the present and a killer podcast that will expose the killers make sure the bumbling trio of Charles, Oliver and Mabel have their hands full and the viewers glued on. The writing is top-notch as are the performances by Selena, Steve Martin as Charles and Martin Short as Oliver. The dialogues are snarky (a foul-mouthed character has ‘a secret elevator that goes to hell’) yet intense in many places (‘You can’t see ghosts until you are close to being one yourself’).

The stakes in the new season are high in that there are newer characters (Cara Delevinge as Alice and Amy Schumer as herself) and a lot of history and backstories. The show is still all about clues and suspects, conspiracies, betrayal and all that but also portrays a more human (vulnerable even) side of the characters. The ‘cranky old b*tch is a bad-ass and actually a nice person. Throughout, things are not what they seem and the viewer will be made to constantly wonder what’s up apart from whodunnit. But that also is the show’s Achilles' Heels. It seems like too many subplots, thoughts and characters have been packed in.

Overall, Only Murders in the Building Season 2 is a binge-worthy irreverent watch with undercurrents of philosophy — don’t make your life only about one thing because when it goes away, you will have nothing left.