Only Murders in the Building Season 5: Must-See NYC Filming Locations for Fans

New York in the fall is catnip for TV, and no show milks that better than Only Murders in the Building. Season 5 is here, the leaves are turning, and the Upper West Side once again looks like it was lit by a team of romantics who keep extra golden-hour in a bottle.

Season 5: Back in the Arconia, back in trouble

Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, and Martin Short are back as the Arconia's most nosy neighbors, still juggling murder investigations with their DIY true-crime podcast. This time the mystery knots together powerful billionaires, old-school mob types, and the building's own eccentric residents. Yes, it is a bit fanciful. Also yes, that is the entire point.

"Like if Nora Ephron made a murder mystery."

That line from a reviewer nails the vibe. The show swirls Ephron-style Manhattan coziness with a whodunnit and throws in a little old-school neurotic New York energy for seasoning. The corpses are the hook; the city is the draw.

The city is the co-lead

Only Murders treats the Upper West Side like a muse: brownstones, bookshops, street markets, pre-war grandeur, and all that amber light. It is basically a valentine to the neighborhood's bohemian, artsy streak. If you are in town, walk it. Wander from Harlem down to the Lower East Side and just look up. The skyline after dark does its usual sparkle-and-shadow thing, and the turn-of-the-20th-century facades bring a kind of Ringstrasse-on-caffeine neoclassical swagger. Between the on-and-off-Broadway bustle and those farmers markets stacked with traffic-light produce, it is hard not to feel like you have stumbled onto a set.

Where the fiction meets the sidewalk

If you want to chase the show's locations (and a few other TV touchstones) in real life, here is your cheat sheet:

• The Arconia, for real: The Belnord has played the Arconia since day one. It takes up an entire block at W86th and Broadway and has been doing so since 1909. You cannot go inside, but you can see the courtyard fountain through those gilded gates and appreciate the Italian Renaissance Revival bones: 14 stories of limestone and brick capped with a heavy cornice.
• Seinfeld stop: The facade of Jerry's apartment is at 129 W81st Street. Interiors were shot in LA, because TV magic.
• Will & Grace nod: Will Truman's building frontage is 155 Riverside Drive. Quick photo, then keep moving.
• American Museum of Natural History: A slam-dunk for families in the October half term thanks to its Night at the Museum self-guided tour that matches real exhibits to the movies. Say hi to the blue whale overhead and the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton.
• Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Home base for the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. The campus leans airy, cubic, mid-century modern, and it is catnip if you are into architects like Philip Johnson and Eero Saarinen. Autumn even brings a performance by Andrea Bocelli.
• The Dakota and Strawberry Fields: John Lennon was murdered outside the Dakota 45 years ago this December, where he lived with Yoko Ono. Across the way in Central Park, Strawberry Fields is the living memorial — paths, plantings, and that mosaic — built to evolve with time.
• Stay in the neighborhood: For the full Upper West Side mood, Hotel Belleclaire sits at Broadway and W77th with a splash of Secessionist-meets-Art Nouveau personality. The Lucerne is a stately brownstone option nearby. Feeling spendy? The Mandarin Oriental at Columbus Circle looks straight over the coppery treetops of Central Park.

How to watch

Only Murders in the Building Season 5 is rolling out weekly on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK. Seasons 1–4 are also streaming on Disney+ if you need to catch up or rewatch the clues you definitely missed the first time.