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Only Murders in the Building is a brilliant comedy that captures the zeitgeisty fun of a true crime podcast as well as the quirks of apartment living. One of those quirks is the reality that other people are living complete lives above, next to, and below everyone else, and each of those people are the main character in their own story. In Episode 7 "The Boy From 6B," Only Murders in the Building shifts the focus from the core trio of Charles (Steve Martin), Mabel (Selena Gomez), and Oliver (Martin Short) to another Arconia resident and that shift results in the season's best episode so far.
"The Boy From 6B" is mostly told from the perspective of Theo Dimas (James Caverly), the deaf son of deli magnate and prime suspect in the murder of Tim Kono, Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane). Theo has shown up in previous episodes as an awkward background character, but walking a day in his shoes shows that Theo has been a key player in both of the Arconia murders all along. He (probably) didn't kill Tim Kono, but he did accidentally kill Zoe (Olivia Reis) ten years ago, and Tim was his only witness. Teddy Dimas' big secret is that he threatened to harm Mabel if Tim implicated his son, and Tim's silence put Oscar in prison. Also Teddy and Theo are grave-robbing gem thieves and Theo now has Oliver and Mabel in the trunk of his van. It's a lot to get through in a single episode, which makes the fact that "The Boy From 6B" only has one line of verbal dialogue.
Theo reintroduces himself to the audience with an ASL version of the show's trademark "talk about New York" monologues, but unlike the other characters he can sum his feelings up in a single sentence: "People talk way too fucking much in this city." Though Theo can read lips and communicate with his father in ASL, he is isolated and underestimated by the neighbors and peers that make up his New York. Caverly, who is also deaf, plays Theo with compelling frustration that stems not from his character having a disability, but from the way other people react to his deafness with discomfort and, in Zoe's case, fatal condescension.
Even though "The Boy From 6B" has no spoken dialogue, it's far from a silent episode. Aside from the show's soundtrack, which adds a touch of film noir with tense strings and punctuates moments of physical comedy, there's a constant, low thrum that signifies the physical vibrations caused by what Theo can't hear. This vibrational hum is brilliantly introduced in the episode's opening scene, which flashes back to a humiliating incident in Theo's childhood where his father tries to share a Broadway soundtrack with his son. Teddy squeezes headphones on Theo's ears to the point of pain, cranks up the volume, and becomes angry when Theo has no reaction to the music. Through all this, the soundscape only changes when Teddy does something physical, like placing his hand on a table or, more upsettingly, shaking Theo in frustration.
Theo's point of view also looks different than other episodes of Only Murders in the Building. Because the dialogue is in ASL, the scenes are shot in a close frame that highlights Theo's facial expressions and the rest of the cast's nonverbal communication. The camera only notices what Theo notices, so a knock on the door becomes a point of focus while Mabel and Charles sneaking around his father's apartment is negligible background action. Even the few scenes that don't feature Theo keep this perspective up, which gives the hearing cast access to the same set of tools Caverly uses and makes the lack of verbal dialogue in Theo's scenes feel like a complete choice instead of a gimmick.
Only Murders in the Building is not the first TV show to experiment with a "dialogue-free" episode to great success. In 1999, Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired the episode "Hush," which featured voice-stealing villains and is considered one of the show's best and scariest episodes; it's also the only Buffy episode ever nominated for an Emmy Award. 2016 brought BoJack Horseman's "Fish Out of Water," which had three minutes of audible dialogue in a 26-minute episode and was nominated for WGA and Annie Awards. Only Murders in the Building is the first to try the concept from a deaf perspective and star a deaf actor, and its incredible execution is a glimpse into a TV landscape where creatives with disabilities have more opportunities to portray their own experiences.
Only Murders in the Building is streaming on Hulu.
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