Only Murders in the Building Introduces The Latest Badass Italian Nonna Of 2025

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Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Only Murders in the Building season 5.

The popular show Only Murders in the Building is back for its fifth season, introducing several new faces. One character, in particular, highlights a major trend in television for this year.

This year, television has seen a surprising trend: supporting characters who steal the show are often tough, older grandmothers. The new crime comedy from Steve Martin and John Hoffman joins this trend with its own formidable grandma, and, like others who’ve become popular this year, she’s Italian-American.

The popular Netflix movie Nonnas, which was a global hit last spring, centers around four Italian grandmothers. And these aren’t your typical sweet grandmas – at least two of them are fiercely protective, particularly when it comes to their traditional cooking.

Badass Grandmas Are A Defining TV Character Trend Of 2025

Image via Netflix

Several popular TV shows this year have showcased strong grandmother characters, and Nonna is a prime example. Isabella Rossellini played Nonna in season 3 of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory – a feisty Italian grandmother who’s initially skeptical of her granddaughter’s boyfriend and his unusual pet dinosaur.

Ultimately, Nonna’s strong personality comes to the rescue when she saves Smoothie from a much bigger, meat-eating dinosaur. Like her, the grandmothers featured in other shows this year are also brave and aren’t afraid to speak their minds.

Rhea Perlman shines in Lena Dunham’s new sitcom, Too Much, playing Dottie, a funny and somewhat awkward Jewish grandmother. And it’s not just fictional grandmas – Oxygen’s upcoming true-crime series Killer Grannies, hosted by June Squibb of Thelma fame, shows that real-life grandmothers can be just as captivating.

Only Murders In The Building Is The Latest Show To Feature A Badass Nonna

Following the trend of strong grandmother characters, the fifth season of Only Murders in the Building introduces Nonna Caccimelio, the mother of a deceased mobster. In the season’s first episode, she’s initially shown aggressively carving meat and threatening Oliver Putnam (played by Martin Short) in Italian.

As the season progresses, Nonna Caccimelio takes on a bigger role, and we learn more about her family’s connections to the mafia. It turns out our initial impression of her was accurate – she’s a tough, powerful Italian grandmother.

Nonna Caccimelio Is A Key Suspect In Season 5’s Murder Mystery

Image via Hulu

From the beginning of season 5 of Only Murders in the Building, Nicky Cacciomello was a central figure in the show’s mystery. However, episode 9 reveals that Nicky’s mother, Nonna Caccimelio, is now a prime suspect in the murder of Arconia’s doorman, Lester Coluca.

Okay, so things just got a whole lot more interesting in the Arconia. Oliver, Charles, and Mabel have discovered a crucial piece of evidence – a tire track from a scooter right there in the lobby where Lester was found. And guess whose scooter it is? Nonna! This instantly puts her firmly in the spotlight as a prime suspect, and honestly, it’s a twist I didn’t see coming. This latest development in Only Murders in the Building is really ratcheting up the tension and making me eager to see where this goes.

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2025-10-22 17:08