©Hulu & Disney+Despite all the controversy surrounding him in recent times, few would dare dispute the influence Woody Allen has exerted and continues to exert on other comedians, writers and directors.
Filmmakers like Rob Reiner and Martin Scorsese have in movies like 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Bringing Out The Dead' paid homage to the New Yorker's comedic style and his visual flair.
Noah Baumbach has also taken on the mantle of Allen's natural heir with movies that share his quirky, self-deprecating wit and his penchant for an intense family relationship drama.
Steve Martin is another long time admirer, identifying the New Yorker as a key influence in a 1999 interview with Carrie Fisher in the LA Times.
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©Hulu & Disney+Allen's influence is plain to see in some of Martin's best work.
'LA Story' takes elements of 'Manhattan" - particularly the central character's relationships with women - and transplants them into a cinematic ode to California's biggest city.
With its gang of no hopers and talentless Hollywood dreamers, Frank Oz's 'Bowfinger' is reminiscent of the struggling New York variety artists and their resolutely optimistic manager in 'Broadway Danny Rose'.
The film shares the same underdog slapstick humour.
©Hulu & Disney+Allen's influence could also be found last year in Martin and John Hoffman's Hulu and Disney+ series 'Only Murders In The Building'.
Set in New York, the show shared the same dynamics of Allen's 1993 comedy 'Manhattan Murder Mystery' in which the Oscar winning director and Diane Keaton play a couple who suspect their neighbour may have killed his wife and end up investigating it.
Like Allen's comedy, 'Only Murders in the Building' won over its audience by mixing old fashioned murder mystery tropes with sharp New York wit and the occasional piece of well executed physical comedy.
Cleverly sending up the world of crime podcasting, at its heart were three cracking central performances from Martin Short, Selena Gomez and Steve Martin as unlikely amateur sleuths brought together by their fascination with a crime podcast.
©Hulu & Disney+Martin's Charles Haden Smith is an actor whose best days and biggest role in a hit TV detective show are long behind him.
Short's Oliver Puttnan is a garrulous Broadway producer with a penchant for eating dips.
Gomez's Mabel Mora is a struggling artist with a tendency to attract trouble.
Fascinated by the murder of their neighbour, Julian Cihi's Tim Kono in their apartment building, the trio create their own whodunnit podcast.
©Hulu & Disney+To their surprise, the podcast becomes a hit - much to the annoyance of their neighbours, the police and Tina Fey's rival podcaster Cinda Canning.
Against all odds, though, Mabel, Oliver and Charles go on to unmask the killer.
Series one ended on a cliffhanger, with the gang's celebrations turning to disaster with the murder of the president of the Arconia Apartment Building's residents board, Jayne Houdyshell's Bunny Folger.
This was made worse by the fact that Mabel was also found covered in Bunny's blood.
©Hulu & Disney+At the start of Season Two, Mabel, Charles and Oliver are arrested shortly after this discovery and are frogmarched out of the building by the NYPD.
Questioned about Bunny's stabbing by Da'Vine Joy Randolph's Detective Williams and her colleague, Michael Rapaport's Detective Kreps, there is no evidence to link them specifically to the murder apart from Mabel's blood soaked jumper.
But at a time when they ought to be celebrating the success of their podcast, they are left reeling by the murder with the tabloids loving their discomfort and Gomez character earning the monicker "Bloody Mabel".
The controversy comes at a time when Charles should be celebrating the revival of his old show 'Brazzos' but his character is rewritten as a wheelchair confined dementia sufferer because the producers are nervous about the negative publicity around Bunny's death.
©Hulu & Disney+Oliver should be enjoying advising his son, Ryan Broussard's Will Putnam as he directs a production of 'The Wizard of Oz'.
But not only is he dealing with the unwarranted attention around Bunny's murder but he is shocked to learn that Will took a DNA test that appears to suggest that he might not be of Irish heritage and, therefore, possibly not his son.
Mabel is invited to an art gallery by Cara Delevingne's Alice Banks and is romantically drawn to her.
However she can't help mulling over Bunny's last words to her which were "savage" and "fourteen".
©Hulu & Disney+The trio are initially reluctant to investigate Bunny's death.
However when Cinda Canning creates her own podcast focusing on Mabel entitled 'Only Murderers In The Building' with the help of her meek assistant Adina Version's Poppy White, they feel they have little choice but to clear their names.
Sneaking into Bunny's apartment, they encounter her parrot which mimics its owner's voice.
They are forced to hide when Jackie Hoffman's cantankerous neighbour Uma Heller and Michael Cyril Creighton's cat lover Howard Morris enter the apartment.
©Hulu & Disney+Uma and Howard are shocked that an erotic painting Bunny had appears to have disappeared and when Mabel, Oliver and Charles sneak back upstairs they are rattled when they find the painting in Charles' apartment.
It depicts Charles' father, a struggling actor, in flagrante with the artist, Rose Cooper who he was having an affair with.
The discovery triggers painful childhood memories for Charles of his dad being arrested after Rose went missing.
Deciding to smuggle the painting back into Bunny's apartment, they encounter her mum, Shirley MacLaine's Leonora Folger who owned the painting.
Panicking, Charles temporarily hides it in a dumpster but when he goes to fetch the painting, he discovers it has gone.
Amy Schumer, playing herself, has moved into the Arconia and into the apartment Sting occupied in Season One.
Running into Oliver, she pitches to him the possibility of her acquiring the rights to turn the 'Only Murders' podcast into a hit TV drama - how meta is that?
Realising Schumer has taken the painting from the dumpster, the trio engineer a meeting between her and Leonora.
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©Hulu & Disney+However they are stunned when Leonora declares the painting is not hers and is a fake.
As they piece together Bunny's last day, her replacement as residents board president, Christine Ko's Nina Lin becomes a potential suspect after it emerges she clashed with her mentor over plans to build an ugly glass extension on the roof of the building.
This being 'Only Murders,' though, there's a whole of raft of suspects.
Nathan Lane's disgraced dip king Teddy Dimas and his deaf son, James Caverly's Theo have returned to the Arconia, wearing ankle tags after being exposed in the last series as jewel smugglers.
©Hulu & Disney+Still harbouring a grudge against Oliver, Charles and Mabel, he threatens them in the lift on his return - insisting he will bring them down.
Alice Banks' sudden appearance in Mabel's life arouses suspicion as well, as Oliver notes how evasive she can be.
Cinda Canning also wants to destroy Charles, Oliver and Mabel's podcast and she cannot be ruled out.
Detective Kreps behaves oddly too.
©Hulu & Disney+When the police reveal Bunny was stabbed with a missing knife, the gang realise it was Oliver's and was stolen from his apartment.
When the knife ends up lodged in the ceiling of Charles' apartment, it is clear someone is trying to frame them.
Will Oliver, Mabel and Charles be able to find the real killer and clear their names?
And what is the secret network of tunnels for in the building?
©Hulu & Disney+As with season one, the second series of 'Only Murders in the Building' is very light hearted fare - toying with its audience by throwing them occasionally off the scent as it executes its murder mystery plot.
The show enjoys its array of suspects and its McGuffins.
Inevitably, the execution of the second season's plot is a bit more elaborate this time around - building on previous storylines and characters from series one.
Indeed, there are occasions when the viewer has to stand back and pause just to enable them to absorb all the information that is thrown at them.
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©Hulu & Disney+There's always a danger with shows like this that they can get too weighed down by all the clues they throw up and the need to reference previous seasons but fortunately, Martin and Hoffman get the mix of comedy and mystery just right.
Instead of getting lost in the rabbit holes they create, the show thrives on its three principal characters' undoubted charm.
It also helps that Hoffman and his fellow directors Jude Weng, Cherien Dabis, Chris Teague and Jamie Babbit keep a sturdy hand on the plot.
The show's new characters and guest stars fit very comfortably as well into the world Martin and Hoffman create.
©Hulu & Disney+MacLaine, Schumer, Delevingne, Rapaport, Ko, Ariel Shafir as Ivan the waiter in the local diner, Andrea Martin as Charles' new love interest Joy and Zoe Colletti as his daughter Lucy all make their mark.
But it is also comforting to see Lane, Caverly, Fey, Verson, Randolph, Creighton, Jackie Hoffman and Broussard back again and still on song.
Teddy Colucca as the doorman Lester, Vanessa Aspillaga as building manager and gut milk entrepreneur Ursula and Daniel Oreskes as the podcast fan Marv make a welcome return.
Jane Lynch also amuses as she reprises her role as Charles' overbearing stunt double Sazz Pataki, while Amy Ryan has a lot of fun again as the professional bassoon player Jan Bellows.
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©Hulu & Disney+Paul Rudd pops up at the end of Season Two as a Broadway actor Ben Glenroy, as Martin and Hoffman tee up what is rumoured to be the third and final series.
Ultimately, though, the success of 'Only Murders in the Building' hangs on its three leads and it is blessed in that regard.
Over the years, Martin and Short have proven their flair for physical comedy as well as their ability to deliver well honed, tight gags.
Gomez, though, continues to impress in their company and her chemistry with her older co-stars is the show's greatest asset.
©Hulu & Disney+Such is the trio's teamwork that it seems bizarre she has been passed over at the Emmys and also earlier this year's Golden Globes shortlist for comedy acting, while Martin and Short have been recognised.
Of the three, though, Short turns in arguably the funniest performance once again - delivering some of the show's best lines as Oliver gets carried away with himself.
Martin again demonstrates in the season's final episode his brilliance as a physical comedian with a hilarious gag involving slow mo.
In an era of grim dramas about corrupt cops, feuding families, ruthless business people, bloodthirsty knights, vicious gangsters and dystopian societies, 'Only Murders in the Building' stands out from the pack because of its refusal to play the game and its resolutely light touch.
©Hulu & Disney+The timing of the show has been perfect - feeling like a welcome respite from a world weighed down by dishonest populist politicians, wars, a challenging pandemic and an impending financial recession.
Its murder mystery feels delightfully retro and yet it is all somehow refreshing.
We desperately need laughs right now and 'Only Murders in the Building' delivers them regularly and delivers them well.
That ability to make us laugh in times like these is a precious commodity.
Season Three cannot come quickly enough.
('Only Murders in the Building' was released on Hulu and Disney+ between June 28-August 23, 2022)
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