The Afterparty

It's a very specific kind of humour, and I totally get why people would find the cast annoying - and for me that's a positive point for the series. The exaggeration and campiness of it is part of the whole format, and I think it's a fresh breath of air. It's not easy to sustain a 45 minutes comedy, and I think this show does it well so far.

This is a funny, clever whodunnit with smart writing and an A-List ensemble of comic actors - but I had never heard of it - I am bombarded by trailers and promos for shows 24/7.

I don't know what the folks at Apple TV+ were thinking by slipping this ingenious gem under the promotional carpet.

It's a playful, smartly constructed mystery from The Lego Movie guys, with each episode being told from the point of view of a different suspect - each in a different movie genre style: romcom, action, thriller, musical, animation, and so on.

Everyone in the cast is at the top of their comic game, and they all seem to be having a great time. Now stop reading this and go watch it.

Season 1 (8/10)

In The Afterparty, a murder is committed after a high school reunion and a cop tries to solve the case by listening to each suspects story, episode by episode.

The cop, Tiffany Haddish, is hilarious as usual, as is the rest of the cast. The episodes are each done in a particularly genre - action, musical, cartoon - based on the personality of the suspect. Through it all, main suspect and mystery-room designer Aniq tries to find the real killer and woo the girl he should have dated in high school.

This is all really funny, and the series does a nice job of character development, as the initial cartoonish characters are proven to have more depth than is at first apparent (at least in some cases).

The weakest aspect of this is the genre thing, which feels very half-assed. While a couple of episodes fully commit - the musical and the cartoon - for the most part all episodes are filmed in the same style with minor adjustments for the genre (a guy kinda slides along his car hood in the action episode, the high school episode has people a little extra angsty.

Tiffany also gets a flashback of her own and it's the worst episode in the series. It's not funny or necessary and feels like they just ran out of ideas for all the episodes. But all the rest is really good.

It would have been great if they had really done it up, with distinct film styles for each episode, but it's still very funny, the characters are generally likable (except the ones who aren't supposed to be), and the mystery keeps you guess and has a persuasive finale.

I loved this and binge-watched it. It's no "Only Murders in the Building" but it's still a great comedy mystery for fans of that genre.

Season 2 (7/10)

The second season followed, and in places even improved on its formula. Unfortunately, it was much more hit and miss.

Once again each episode is mainly told as a take-off of a particular genre. While the first season half-assed this concept, this time they really commit to creating something that has the look and feel of whatever they're going for. At its best, this results in a hilarious, dead-on Wes Anderson take-off and a turgid melodrama.

But for the most part the comedy is weaker. The worst episode, as was true of the first season, is the one built around Danner, but this time it's really horrendous. A lot of the other episodes are just so-so, like one featuring Ulysses, which was a big disappointment because John Cho did such a great job with the character.

The cast is solid, especially Cho and Elizabeth Perkins, and the mystery is intriguing, even if I didn't love the denoument.

Not a must-see like season 1, but still very fun.

The first season of "The Afterparty" is somewhat similar to the concurrent "Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window": both have an eccentric sense of humor and march to their own beat, switch genres from episode to episode (hint: pay close attention to the opening animated credits), do not always give audiences what they want, and sometimes sideline the crime investigation part altogether. The quality varies from episode to episode, with 3 being thoroughly brilliant (it demands to be seen more than once) and 7 being the weakest (perhaps the only time where a bold narrative choice does not quite pan out). Episode 1 is very sweet, episode 6 is very creative, and episode 8 proves how elaborately and carefully designed the whole mystery plot is. Overall the season is very enjoyable, and the whole cast works together beautifully: even minor characters like Indigo or Walt are great. The second season is about as good as the first on the whole: perhaps it has nothing on the order of S1 E3, but it may be more consistent, with just one weak spot (E6). It maintains the same mix of deadpan humor and intricate plotting (with every episode we gain new insights), and most of the genre homages (particularly the one to Hitchcock) are spot-on. The S2 finale certainly ties everything together neatly, yet I found it ever so slightly underwhelming - I expected something a little more shocking. I will still be watching any future seasons of this show made by the same people. 8/10.

I've seen quite a few murder mysteries lately, so I'm glad this series does something different. By shaking up the murder mystery genre, each episode is...a different genre. Seeing a mystery unfold from different characters perspectives isn't entirely new, but the way it's presented in the show is. All the characters are pretty interesting and all have motive. The cast has great chemistry with each other. The show isn't quite excellent but it's a fun mystery to solve and I was genuinely surprised by the ending.