Meryl Streep and Melissa McCarthy beat the st out of each other on OMITB, and its an Emmy-worthy masterpiece

If you haven’t seen Meryl Streep and Melissa McCarthy beat the s–t out of each other on “Only Murders in the Building,” then, to borrow a phrase beloved by Aaron Sorkin, you haven’t seen Shakespeare the way it’s meant to be done.The Hollywood heavyweights duked it out on the seventh episode of “OMITB” Season 4, “Valley of the Dolls,” and I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard. In the episode, the “Only Murders” podcasters – Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) – decide to hightail it out of the city to hide out on Long Island at the home of Charles’ sister, Doreen (Melissa McCarthy), as they try to evade this season’s unnamed killer. Not long after arriving at Doreen’s house of dolls (there are dolls everywhere — even a Taylor Swift doll), Oliver’s girlfriend, Loretta (Meryl Streep), shows up demanding to know why he broke up with her over text (and then turned his phone off). Oliver and Loretta — widely rumored to be dating in real life — quickly kiss and make up, much to Doreen’s dismay.The Crystal Light-loving Long Islander has developed a crush on Oliver and has even tried to put the moves on him.

It is this love triangle that sparks Streep and McCarthy to throw down.  “There’s going to be a catfight, basically over Oliver, between you and Melissa McCarthy,” co-creator and executive producer John Hoffman revealed to Streep over dinner before Season 4 began filming.Streep’s reaction, as told by Hoffman to TV Line: “I watched her raise her hands over her head, and she went, ‘I bet on me.’”McCarthy was ecstatic when Hoffman pitched her the idea.

“I’m going to hang up because I’m going to pass out.I’m so in love with everything you’re telling me,” he recalled her telling him.

When it came time to film the scene, Hoffman and the “Only Murders” team had stunt people on set and a plan of how it would all go down.Streep and McCarthy were und...