Danner

The Afterparty Season 1 Episode 7 shifted the focus from Xavier's murder to an unrelated case that Danner worked back in her days before becoming a detective.

While this episode was fun enough in its own right, it didn't have anything to do with the main plot. As a standalone, it's fine. But it comes at an awkward point in the series where we need an "ah-ha" moment or two as we go into the finale with theories substantiated by what transpired to this point. It might have been different if the central flashback story had gotten a proper resolution, but it didn't. All we knew was that Willow didn't go down for a murder she didn't commit, but without Vaughn going down for his wife's murder, it felt too open-ended to be satisfying. Honestly, it's puzzling. How did Danner get to her conclusion about Xavier after recalling this particular case? How did seeing the open door to the recording booth trigger her light bulb moment? Is it something to do with Aniq, Zoe, or Yasper? It feels like there was a lot of padding here, but then maybe there were clues that we initially overlooked that will all make sense upon rewatch. The implication is that Danner will be interviewing Maggie next. Though, to be fair, Danner hasn't interviewed Jennifer #1 (though it's clear she doesn't like her), nor has she questioned Ned. Also, shouldn't Jennifer #2 be considered a suspect since she vanished after admitting to Zoe that she sent those texts to Chelsea? Couldn't she have snuck upstairs at that point? It was ambitious to make the whole episode Danner-centric. Unfortunately, it didn't pay off -- unless there are pieces that will make it all fit together in the finale. It wouldn't be surprising if that were the case. Christopher Miller has proven to be endlessly shrewd with his hints and clues, and his attention to detail has been superb. Tiffany Haddish has an easy, casual charm with a caring heart. Danner's efforts highlighted the broken system of public law enforcement and rampant misogyny. What are your thoughts, fanatics? Did you enjoy being side-tracked? Did you catch anything I might have missed?

Who do you think killed Xavier? What information could Maggie possibly have that would make it all make sense?

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE ALL THE CHARACTERS IN THIS THING THEY'RE SO DETAILED AND FLESHED OUT WHILST ALSO BEING OVER-THE-TOP AND HILARIOUS BROUGHT TO LIFE BY THE AMAZING CAST. Let's talk about the people who created this show, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. These people are brilliant filmmakers in my opinion- they tell stories in extremely effective ways using the tools of the cinematic medium and/or a diverse range of genre conventions/animation(or in this case all of the above plus the art form of television).

What I really want to talk about is how this episode (and every episode) is a masterclass in dialogue and writing- and telling the story on the television screen in a visual way... There's nothing I hate in TV shows more than bland filmmaking that distracts from a good script. Flashy camera moves that are flashy for the sake of it, don't tell the story and don't focus on the actors' performances when they need to because of awkward random framing and shaky cam that's cheaply pretending to be cinematic or something, you get the idea. The other thing I hate is bad dialogue- stuff that lacks subtext and visual storytelling is what's sometimes bad about certain Star Wars prequels for me (I love George Lucas' vision and there are some great scenes and world building in the prequel trilogy but too often the whole story comes to a stop simply because the dialogue is pointless and halting George's cinematic ideas). The Afterparty exists in a world where the characters spew their thoughts all the time in a totally obnoxious way- that isn't how anyone speaks in the real world. Firstly, this decision is genius because it's consistently used for comedic effect (like the musical episode) and it also works naturally for simply the way the characters are. However, Lord and Miller and the filmmakers also use these brilliant narrations to transition between flashbacks and visually shows us what's going on- in a perfect way for TV that doesn't at all rely on auditory exposition. The dialogue does not distract it adds to the story that is being told perfectly. The characters just naturally say the lines of dialogue but really the story is told from their facial expressions. I'm so excited for the finale of this thing- I kept going back and forth on who I think the killer is but now it's getting really interesting. CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS THING ENOUGH!!! The finale's most likely gonna bang there's no too ways about it- I can't believe how seamlessly this thing is coming together.

This episodes accomplishes many things in an enjoyable way. Danner gets some backstory, the entire detective thing is explained, and it's one of the funnier episodes after the last couple haven't been as funny. The killer is about to be revealed and I'm very excited!

Detective Danner is such an interesting character. Good episode and maybe one of the best in this show yet.

PS: really loved the guests of this episode.

Unless the final episode gives a major plot twist, I will review each episode with 1, because so far each one of them was dull and dumb, making each story by everyones different perspective ordinarily isn't stupid but this show managed to do so.