Diksha Sundriyal
Hulu’s ‘Only Murders in the Building’ sets itself apart by limiting the scope of the cases to one building in New York, the Arconia. The protagonists, Mabel, Charles and Oliver, call it home, and it is here that they solve one murder after another, every season. The fourth season, however, takes them on a different journey by not just removing them from the Arconia, but also from New York, even if for just a while. They go to LA for several reasons, one of which connects to their latest subject, Sazz. They visit her apartment in the Sunset Swan, which Charles remembers fondly. It is, however, not a real place. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Fictional Sunset Swan Opens New Doors in the Investigation of Sazz’s Murder
Charles, Mabel and Oliver go to LA to meet with the executives who have offered to make a movie on their podcast. To film the scenes related to LA, the cast and crew of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ flew to the West Coast, taking a break from their filming schedule in New York, which is where the show is set and has filmed for the past three seasons. For filming the Sunset Swan, the show’s creators turned towards a location in Hollywood Hills, finding the perfect place that would reflect Sazz’s character through her living space. The show’s co-creator John Hoffman revealed they “looked long and hard for the perfect, evocative place that could be the seed of something else,” considering how important the victim’s home is to figure out what happened to her.
The cast and crew were also seen filming at Paramount Pictures Studios lot on Melrose Avenue, which features prominently in the first episode. They also used another location in Hollywood Hills to film the party scene where Charles, Mabel and Oliver meet the actors Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria and Zach Galifianakis, who have been cast to portray the residents of Arconia in the upcoming movie.
Unlike the other seasons, where the trio usually chances upon the dead body pretty soon, it takes an entire episode for them to figure out that Sazz is not just missing but also dead. Their time in LA helps them make this discovery, especially after Charles realises that Sazz is not working with Scott Bakula, which is what he thought she had been doing. The eerie absence in her apartment, the wilted flowers and the uncollected mail point towards her unexplained absence and force the trio to break into her apartment to figure out what she meant when she told Charles, last season, that she wanted to talk about something important with him.
Read More: Why is Jesse Williams’ Tobert Not in Only Murders in the Building Season 4?
