
Mundane Crime Board
PROP
FUNCTION
Visual Support
DESIGNER
Hunter Popalis, Emma Stensaas
TV SHOW
Only Murders in the Building
YEAR
2021 – Present
DIRECTOR
John Hoffman
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Patrick Howe
GRAPHIC ARTISTS
Ginger Ingram LaBella (S2-S5), Valerie Schuman (S3-S5), Hunter Popalis (S1-S2), Kimberly Osborne (S3), Emma Stensaas (S1)
Only Murders in the Building is a comedy-mystery television series that follows three fans of true crime podcasts and unlikely neighbours—Charles, Oliver, and Mabel—who investigate murders that happen in their New York City apartment building. The crime board presented multiple times in Charles’ apartment was made by the protagonists, who investigate a murder, showing its progressing stages of creation. Compared to other archetypes of this same prop, usually more articulated, crowded, and sophisticated, a crime board made by three mundane residents should rather have a simple layout, covered with everyday objects like drawings, sticky notes, and flashcards fixed with a pin. The board also serves as a visual support for the audience to follow the characters’ reasoning, by seeing the suspects or the questions about the murder, and adding or removing items from the panel.
