"The Afterparty" Is a Killer Blend of Comedy and Crime Drama

Created by Christopher Miller writer of The Lego Movie producer of Spiderman Into the Spiderverse and executive producer of Solo A Star Wars Story The Afterparty stars Tiffany Haddish pictured at top as Detective Danner John Early aka Bejohncamp233 as her partner Detective Culp Sam Richardson Champaign Il as Aniq Zoe Chao Love Life as his love interest Zoe Ike Barinholtz The Mindy Project as Zoe39s nasty exhusband Brett the Ben Schwartz as Aniq39s BFF Yasper Ilana Glazer Broad City as Chelsea Tiya Sircar The Good Place as Jennifer No 1 Jamie Demetriou Miracle Workers Dark Ages as the hilariously forgettable Walt and Dave Franco as their doomed celebrity classmate Xavier who is already becoming a social media celebrity IRLThere is so much funny to unpack in this thing that it39s hard to keep it simple But I39ll try Aniq is in love with Zoe but he didn39t make a move in high school so Zoe married Brett Just before the reunion Aniq finds out Brett and Zoe are divorced so at the reunion he tries to pursue her He39s pretty successful until Xavier who feels like if Justin Bieber had a short clone that also acted sometimes decides he39s got his sights set on her as well and steals her away to his afterparty Aniq gets plastered shows up at the party with Yasper and Chelsea then passes out eventually waking up just in time for it to look like he may have been the one to throw Xavier39s silly ass from the second floor balcony to his bleachblonde demise on the watery rocks belowAs the somewhat omniscient viewer we know well enough that it wasn39t him but we all know a little thing like innocence won39t prevent Aniq from getting locked up unless he can figure out who really did it especially since whoever did is still in the houseSo what moves this thing along is Danner39s investigation She39s determined to solve the case before morning when the actual lead detective will show up and send her home She also has very little interest in traditional CSIstyle evidence gathering and would rather have everyone explain their version of the night39s events to her because quotWe39re all stars of our own moviequot Those are quotmindmoviesquot to be exact and they are the visual representations of each suspects39 unique interpretation and recollection of the night not unlike the narrative concept established in Akira Kurosawa39s classic film RashomonThe way this is shown to us the audience is through a genrebend that takes place during each story based on the personality of the person telling it For example Aniq is a hopeless romantic so his recollection of the night plays back like a romcom Brett on the other hand is the school jock turned divorced dad so his sensibilities give his flashbacks a Fast and Furious feel You know a lot of macho bullshit and references to quotfamilyquot A party guest named Indigo Genevieve Angelson actually becomes the first example of this when she takes us on a blackandwhite arthousestyle romp during which she accuses poor Aniq of killing XavierAside from the engaging central mystery the constant changing of style and feel from episode to episode combined with what is definitely the funniest cast on Apple TV39s roster no offense Mythic Quest I love you is by far what sets this series apart Okay the cast of Ted Lasso is pretty dope too But nothing is funnier than watching Sam Richardson act a fool with Ben Schwartz or trying to take Bejohncamp233 seriously while he tries to take being a detective seriouslyIn fact the chemistry between the Afterparty cast members couldn39t have been more obvious during the livetweeting watch party held for the series premiere on Twitter last Friday night There weren39t too many truth bombs or major revelations coming from the creator or the actors that night but the experience served as a special features section of sorts There were plenty of little behindthescenes tidbits dropped like pictures of the crude storyboard Miller made for one of the scenes or how Richardson did his own stunts or how hilarious it was the day Channing Tatum came to shoot the fake Hall ampamp Oates biopic that he and Xavier made together called Private Eyes which might be the silliest 15 seconds in the entire first episodeSpeaking of spoofs fictional superstar Xavier has dropped a postmortem EP in real life and honestly that shit slaps There are four tracks quotDo Wetquot quotJust Like Uquot quotX Marks the G Spotquot which is a legit bop and the hilariously ironic quotImma Live Foreverquot which is great because you know he definitely doesn39t I first caught the video for the latter on my goto VevoMy only gripe with this series might actually be the scheduling Apple TV is doing that thing it does teasing us by dropping a couple episodes at the start in this case three and then making us wait week by week for more But I get that they are doing us a favor Like a number of their other shows The Afterparty also is too good to just blow throughThe real question here is how will this set us up for a second season if at all We had this same question about Schmigadoon because we all want more of that one too If the murder is solved then I doubt there39d be any reason for a second but something tells me that people are going to become increasingly obsessed with the quotmind moviequot plot device and I39ve personally got a least one more season of that left in me for sureGranted the rest of this first season has yet to play out But given how strong the show came off the line I have no doubt that like most poppin39 parties this is one I won39t want to endNew episodes of The Afterparty premiere Thursdays on Apple TVClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT | BECOME A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTOR

"The Afterparty" Is a Killer Blend of Comedy and Crime Drama

Author

Publish date

Channel

Ainsley Andrade

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

More Videos:

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT | BECOME A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTOR

"The Afterparty" Is a Killer Blend of Comedy and Crime Drama

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Ainsley Andrade

TAGS:

FEMA and the Ad Council Encourage AANHPI Communities to Enhance Disaster Preparedness in New PSAs - Ad Council InSites

Cookies