The Afterparty is wrapping up its first season and it has proved it is a highlight of the 2022 television season. Here’s why the hit show is worth adding to your watchlist!
The Afterparty, a new murder comedy from creators Phil Lord and Christopher Miller of 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie fame, is airing its season finale this Friday. The season, so far, has been an absolute treat with hilarious characters portrayed by a comic all-star lineup, a compelling mystery, a unique episodic style and easter eggs in each episode for eagle eyed viewers and theorists. At just over 4 hours, it’s also easy to fit in your busy watching calendar. Here are just a few reasons why you need to add this show to your watchlist.
The Characters
The basic premise of The Afterparty follows a group of high school friends who have an afterparty following their high school reunion at a now famous classmate, recording artist Xaiver (Dave Franco)’s mansion. Xaiver ends up dead and the mystery of who killed Xaiver and why is unkown? Was it Aniq (Sam Richardson), who is at the reunion for a second chance at love with his unrequited crush Zoe (Zoe Chao)? Was it Xaiver’s former bandmate Yasper (Ben Schwartz) desperate to break out as a musician himself? The scorned and distressed Chelsea (Llana Glazer) who blames Xavier for ruining her life? Zoe’s ex-husband Brett (Ike Barinholtz) furious at Xaiver for trying to steal his wife? Each character is developed and defined over the course of the season. The exploration of their interactions, their vendetta’s and their grudges are all comic gold and brought to life by a terrific ensemble of A-list comic stars.
The Episodic Stylings
Each episode of The Afterparty is from a different character’s from their own point of view, as they tell their story to Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish). Each story is a different genre and plays with different tropes such as romantic comedy, musical, noir, etc. This allows for genre specific humor and for characters to change each episode depending on who’s telling the story, giving the cast the opportunity to play many unique beats. It’s a clever structure and breathes life into the typical suspects being questioned by a cop narrative.
A Compelling Mystery
The characters and episodic styling help to keep viewers engaged in the story. The story consistently changes each episode as each POV reveals a different angle of the evening. From the high school reunion itself to the afterparty and each character’s actions, sympathy changes frequently. There is a significant flashback episode partway through the season that shows why certain characters are looking for vengeance or justice. The unraveling of the mystery has viewers combing through episodes for changes and posting all their theory’s to social media; behavior that the series encourages.
Easter Eggs
The creators gave a little hint in each episode to eagle eyed viewers or theorists. This is to capitalize on the social media aspect of series watching, where viewers can find the clues and then post their theories on the killer and rationale on social media. A unique hint that The Afterparty gives viewers is a code word for who the killer isn’t. Every episode, the show reveals that one of the characters is not the killer. We won’t reveal it here, but it has fans guessing a select few characters as the killer heading into Friday’s finale.
It’s A Quick Binge
In this era of miniseries that run long or seasons of shows that can feel too long, The Afterparty is a quick alternative. At 8 episodes clocking in around 30 minutes each it’s a 4.5-hour watch, counting the yet to be released finale. That’s nothing compared to the 9- or 10-hour miniseries’ that are currently popular or about to debut. And with the humor, it’s a super fun time.
The Afterparty airs its season finale on Friday on Apple+.
