What to Watch Now That the Strike is (Half) Over: The AfterParty
First of all, congratulations to the WGA for reaching a tentative deal! As someone who benefits from your hard work on literally a daily basis, I’m ecstatic you got most of what you were looking for. Huzzah!
Now, while all those i’s get dotted and t’s get crossed, allow me to point folks at another fine few hours of video diversion: The AfterParty. Last week I told you about One Piece, which I only watched because I’d heard people raving and I had nothing better to do. Well, I only watched The AfterParty because it was on Apple TV and I had nothing better to do. At this point you might be thinking, “Susan, maybe you should start getting something better to do, your life sounds kind of sad.” To which I say, “Mom! I had no idea you read my newsletter.”
Anyway.
The idea behind Season 1 of The AfterParty is really quite clever. A bunch of friends gather for the titular event after their high-school reunion. At some point during the party, one of the gang is murdered by one of the other guests, but who? And why? Each episode of the show fills in some of the events of the evening by focusing on a single character as they give their statement to the investigating detective, played by Tiffany Haddish. The characters crossed paths multiple times during the reunion and the party, what pops up as a minor detail for one is the majority of another’s tale. As the season winds on, events seen in passing from one character’s perspective are huge to others, and the completeness of the night comes more and more into focus until finally the killer is revealed. It’s well made and the solution makes sense, for the most part.
You shouldn’t watch Season 1, though.
The thing about having each episode star a single suspect is that if that character isn’t all that interesting, or couldn’t really have done it, it feels like a waste of time. Season 1 spins its wheels a lot, spending far more time than it needs providing context for hurt feelings and explaining jokes that happen in the background. Clever, for sure, but not all that engaging when we’re meant to be finding a killer.
Season 2 takes those notes and perfects the formula by making every character (for the most part) a scene-devouring joy to watch. And while they don’t all have great motives for murder, they are all hiding something. It also wisely brings along Season 1’s standout character Aniq, played brilliantly by Sam Richardson. (Quick aside: If you’ve never seen him in Werewolves Within, I highly recommend it.) Aniq is an affable escape room designer with a knack for untwisting puzzles — a handy guy to have in the middle of a murder mystery. He’s a modern-day Poirot, but way less smug about it.
He and high school crush Zoë (Zoe Chao) reconnected in Season 1, and have been together for a year as Season 2 begins. They’re at a lovely country estate to attend the wedding of Zoe’s sister, Grace, to the ultra-rich Edgar (Zach Woods). Aniq doesn’t make a stellar first impression on his partner’s family, a fact he worries about constantly, even after Edgar turns up dead.
The rest of the season unfolds the same way Season 1 did: Tiffany Haddish reprises her role as Detective Danner (though she’s since quit the force), and together, she and Aniq question all of the wedding guests to try and figure out whodunnit. It must be said that Haddish can’t keep up with the acting of literally everyone else in the cast, but her role is fairly minor, save for one excruciating episode that has nothing to do with the murder.
The suspects are whoever was staying over in the main house after the wedding — thus how it ties into the “afterparty” idea. The sheriff — a close pal of Edgar’s mom, Isabel — is on his way to arrest Grace, who Isabel is certain killed Edgar for his money. Aniq only has a few hours to figure out who the real killer is…unless it really is Grace? Turns out just about everyone at the wedding had a decent reason to kill Edgar, and hers is one of the best. Awkwaaaaaard.
The mystery is well-crafted and everyone is having a blast with their role as either a guest of the Groom or Bride, but what makes Season 2 so much fun is The AfterParty’s other gimmick: Each episode is modeled after a particular genre of film or TV. The episode focusing on Edgar’s odd sister Hannah, for example, is a pitch-perfect copy of a Wes Anderson film. “If she doesn’t get an Emmy nom I will riot” Elizabeth Perkins fills in her part of the story via Hitchcockian noir. (Another quick aside: Perkins has the scene of the season as Edgar’s mom giving a speech at the wedding. It cannot be missed. Don’t look up anything about it, just trust me.)
The stylistic changes could be jarring, but aren’t, instead elegantly complementing the suspect they most prominently feature. Aniq’s version of events is told like a rom com because that’s the situation he’s in, as he tries to impress Zoë’s parents, with disastrous results. The Jane Austen-esque period piece motif used for Grace’s explanation of her courtship with Edgar serves to underscore the financial gap between her family and his. Season 1 did the same thing, just not quite as well. It almost felt like S1 thought the style changes were what you were showing up for, and oh, yeah, there was a murder going on too, if you care about that sort of thing. Season 2 flips that around, so that the genre changes serve the story and give us insight into characters’ states of mind. They’re accents, not distractions. They’re also just plain done better. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for faux Wes Anderson. (I am, but they’re also just more successful overall.)
I am not a believer that if you want to watch a show you must always start at the beginning. Shows take a while to find their feet sometimes. Go back and try to watch Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Seriously, go give that a shot. It is rough. You can see the potential, for sure, but it needed a while to figure out what it wanted to be. The AfterParty is the same; Season 1 is a solid proof of concept, but for the real deal, skip right on ahead to Season 2. Three of the characters carry over, but you don’t need to know anything about the events of the previous murder. Oh, the dead guy was named Xander. There, you’re all caught up. (Fair warning, though, S2 does reference Xander’s killer.)
The other great thing about Season 2 of The AfterParty is it doesn’t matter if there’s ever a Season 3. If there is, cool! Always on board to spend more time with Aniq. And if there isn’t? Also cool, because Season 2 is a complete thought. With so much emphasis on turning entertainment ideas into universes or, worse, starting with a plan and getting cut off at the knees partway through, it’s nice to have a series that you can thoroughly enjoy without worrying about what’s going to be done with it when you wrap up the final episode.
It’s not quite as whip-smart as Knives Out, but The AfterParty definitely channels that same energy. And, for real, Elizabeth Perkins’ wedding speech is worth the journey, I promise.