For a profession that tries to make its own labor invisible, stunt performers are in the spotlight in 2024. First there was Ryan Gosling’s “The Fall Guy,” a popcorn flick centered on a body double; now comes Season 4’s “Only Murders in the Building,” in which the victim of the latest mystery is Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch), the longtime stand-in for ex-procedural star Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin). Sazz’s disappearance after being shot in the Season 3 finale sets up a season that’s just as bonkers as its predecessors, but thematically more focused on the idea of doppelgangers and what they tell us about ourselves.

A new investigation is par for the course for “Only Murders,” the hit Hulu comedy about a trio of neighbors turned true-crime podcasters battling both chaos and urban alienation. What Season 4 adds to the mix is a hefty dose of Hollywood satire. Unbeknownst to Charles, theater director Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and aimless millennial Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), their story has inspired a screenplay that, by the twisted logic of this universe, is now a full-fledged production ready to roll. All it needs is our heroes’ signature from power producer Beth Mellon (Molly Shannon).

Beth’s pitch demands a field trip to the City of Angels in the season premiere, but anyone hoping co-creator Martin will plot a revival of his 1991 opus “LA Story” will be disappointed. But fans who look to “Only Murders” for consistent comfort food can rejoice: Summer is waning, sweater weather is in the air, and we’re back at the Arconia, the palatial Upper West Side compound that’s a world unto itself. (The only West Coast these Manhattanites recognize is right next to the Hudson River.) With only a bunch of show-business types hanging around, Oliver, Charles and Mabel have a new corner of the building to explore.

If “Only Murders” doesn’t abandon Arconia, it can at least inject some novelty by introducing a new group of townspeople to arouse our suspicions. Arconia has a long-forgotten outhouse directly across the street, and the bullet hole through Charles’s window points in their direction. In keeping with the show’s rising profile (Meryl Streep is now just one of the cast!) and increasing absurdity, this latest crop of suspects have even bigger personalities and more familiar faces than the co-op committee members we’re used to. There’s the patch-wearing Stink Eye Joe (Richard Kind), an absent-minded film professor (Griffin Dunne), and a Christmas-obsessed fitness influencer (Kumail Nanjiani, whose character seems designed to reflect his post-Marvel physique). And Mabel, still of no permanent residence, decides to squat in an empty apartment that’s a possible crime scene.