One doesn’t have to think too hard to come up with the elevator pitch for Netflix’s winning comedy The Thursday Murder Club. It’s Only Murders In The Building at an upscale British retirement community, rather than an Upper West Side apartment building; it stars a quartet of classically trained thespians instead of two American comedy legends. And while, yes, The Thursday Murder Club is technically based on a Richard Osman novel that predates the debut of Hulu’s true-crime-inspired series, there’s clearly a bit of a feedback loop in this whimsical adaptation from director Chris Columbus.
Only Murders and The Thursday Murder Club both trade in twee aesthetics, “cozy” murder mysteries, and jokes about aging. But there’s another key difference beyond their settings. In Only Murders, the comedy stems from Steve Martin and Martin Short turning themselves into lovable buffoons who are far less competent than they think they are. In The Thursday Murder Club, however, it’s the savvy septuagenarians who get the last laugh as the rest of the world underestimates them. As one character puts it: “Many of them were very strong, very powerful in their time.” The Thursday Murder Club suggests their time is still now.
The club is run by a group of friends who want to remain useful to the world as they spend their golden years at the ritzy retirement community Coopers Chase. Their focus: trying to solve cold cases the police have long-since abandoned. Retired psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif (Ben Kingsley) brings an attentive psychological perspective. Former trade unionist Ron Ritchie (Pierce Brosnan) provides working-class gumption. Sweet retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft (Celia Imrie) is roped in as the group’s newest member, thanks to her lifetime of medical expertise and talent at whipping up cakes. And club leader Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren) brings the dogged determination of a woman who may or may not have once been an international spy.
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