By: Christopher James
Is Apple TV+'s new comedy "The Afterparty" worth attending? Read on to find out.
High school reunions are nightmares, but they’re nightmares that you can’t miss. Where did your high school crushes end up? What scores do you need to settle with old rivals? Will you murder the famous pop star from your graduating class? Well, hopefully the latter is not on your bucket list.
The new Apple TV+ comedy, The Afterparty, is a fun whodunnit comedy that centers around the murder of a celebrity following his high school reunion...
The show opens on Xavier’s (Dave Franco) body splayed on the rocky beach under his posh beachside mansion. Did he simply fall, or did someone push him with the intent to kill? Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) and her not so trusty assistant, Detective Culp (John Early), show up on the scene to find out. A mystery is only as strong as its subjects, and not all members of The Afterparty are created equal.
Xavier (Dave Franco) may seem to have the perfect life, but he doesn't get to enjoy it for long as he winds up dead following his high school reunion.
We’re still dealing with the high school trope of the “nice guy” who comes back to the reunion hoping to win over his high school flame. In The Afterparty, the “nice guy” is Aniq (Sam Richardson) and his crush is Zoe (Zoë Chao). She’s just gotten a divorced from her hot-headed husband, Brett (Ike Barinkholtz), and Aniq sees his opportunity. His best friend and hype man Yasper (Ben Schwartz) is almost even more invested in Aniq and Zoe getting together. The one thing Aniq didn’t factor in was nerd-turned music superstar-turned actor Xavier (Dave Franco). He swoops in having clearly won the game of “who has done the best since high school” and everyone is throwing themselves at him. However, Xavier only has eyes for Zoe. How will Aniq compete?
Murdering Xavier would certainly be one way. At least that is the first instinct that Danner has. Soaked with beer and covered in sharpie drawings, Aniq knows that he didn’t kill Xavier. If he didn’t do it, who did? Aniq and Yasper must do their own sleuthing if they want to clear Aniq’s name and figure out who among the group is the actual killer.
Tiffany Haddish's Detective Danner loves nothing more than solving a good crime.
The show is structured around Aniq as a protagonist and Sam Richardson is an affable, lovable presence. However, his character always feels like more of a blank slate and it’s hard to get invested in his pursuit of Zoe. There’s little spark between Richardson and Chao. Instead, it all feels forced and hinges too much on the tired “nice guy” persona.
Instead, Tiffany Haddish does a much better job carrying the show. The more we lean on Danner’s investigation, the more fun the audience has. Haddish makes the great choice of having Danner be a crime-solving fan. Every new interview and every new clue has her rapt with attention. This is the role an audience surrogate should play. They should make you hyped up and excited for whatever is going to come next.
Every episode focuses on the account of a different person at the party. Based on this structure, some episodes are better than others. Throughout the show, Ben Schwartz steals every scene with his ADD, frazzled energy. The Yasper focused episode has the highest number of jokes-per-minute and the strongest energy. Meanwhile, the normally funny Ilana Glazer gets stuck with one of the weaker characters, Chelsea, a once promising student who has now become a sullen drunk.
The only thing worse than passing out at a party is getting framed for murder at said party.
The tone of the comedy in The Afterparty feels a tiny bit off. Creator Chris Miller is known for rapid-fire, pop culture based humor, such as in The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street. In The Afterparty, all the jokes feel slight. It’s never raunchy or shocking enough to be a high school reunion comedy. On the other side of the coin, it’s never clever enough to be a cool subversion of the Rashomon and Knives Out structure. There’s a bit of tenuousness to its jokes. Miller should’ve picked a direction and gone farther with it, perhaps stretching further into absurdity or cartoonishness. One of the later episodes from Zoe’s point of view does a good job of being striking and inventive. More of that innovation should’ve been spread around the whole series.
It’s worth accepting the invite to The Afterparty, even if you might not be the best party of your life. The performances are fun, particularly from Tiffany Haddish and Ben Schwartz. With half an hour episodes, it never overstays its welcome, particularly in a week-by-week format. Finally and most importantly, it keeps you guessing. The finale hasn’t been made available for review and I’m still excited to find out who killed Xavier. Isn’t that what any good mystery wants - to keep the audience guessing? B-
What do you think of The Afterparty, now streaming on Apple TV? Let us know in the comments.