The best elements of Apple TV’s “The Afterparty” exist in a space between murder mystery and flat-out genre parody. The concept is wonderfully clever: Every episode uses a different genre to dig deeper into a murder investigation that largely takes place in a single setting. The first season detailed the death of an abrasive pop star played by Dave Franco, likely killed by someone at the afterparty for his high school reunion, someone who might have hated him for years. Season two shifts the stakes and the action to a wedding, where the wealthy groom ends up not breathing the morning after his nuptials. Once again, genres are playfully skewered, which leads to a season that feels almost like an anthology series in that some of these experimental comedy efforts are more successful than others. The batting average this season is a bit lower than the first due to slightly inferior writing in a few of the weaker episodes and a sense that the overall ensemble—which has been almost entirely recast—isn’t quite as strong, but there’s still more than enough to like here for fans of the first season or the show’s leads. And the standout episodes, including a noir riff and erotic thriller spoof, are some of the funniest TV of the year.
But it’s not all new faces in Season 2 of “The Afterparty.” Once again, the very funny Sam Richardson leads the way as Aniq, headed to a wedding in the premiere with his partner Zoë (Zoë Chao). It’s the union of Zoë’s sister Grace (Poppy Liu) with the incredibly wealthy and bizarre Edgar (Zach Woods), who ends up poisoned that evening. The list of suspects is so long that Aniq convinces Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) to help out with the investigation, and, once again, every episode consists of a genre-tinged flashback that fills in a specific character’s motivations and actions on the fateful evening with Aniq, Danner, & Zoë’s continued investigation the day after the wedding. Cast members joining the festivities this season also include John Cho, Paul Walter Hauser, Ken Jeong, Anna Konkle, Elizabeth Perkins, Jack Whitehall, and Vivian Wu. There are some memorable later-season cameos, too, but let’s not spoil those.
It’s clearly an ace ensemble, but the first season set the bar pretty high with memorable turns by Ben Schwartz, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer, and more. None of the talent here is really to blame, but there’s more of a sense this season that some of the ensemble hasn’t quite been given enough comedic material to make a memorable impact. For example, “Pen15” star Konkle gets an episode with a genre that could basically be described as “Wes Anderson” complete with on-screen graphics, framing, and music choices straight out of the AI-generated TikToks that have been so popular lately. That’s all cute and fine, but the actress just isn’t given enough to do beyond that gimmick, and it runs out of steam fast. Similarly, an early-season spoof of period romance dramas like “Pride & Prejudice” feels twice as long as its runtime, and a late-season one that takes place mostly on a smartphone doesn’t produce enough laughs and even saddles its star with emotional material that the performer flatly can’t handle.
However, the missteps this year are more than balanced out by the episodes that connect fully with this show’s odd funny bone. Hauser flexes his comedic timing in a noir spoof that feels like something Mel Brooks would have loved—an idiot stumbling his way through a very personal case related to a cryptocurrency scam run by Edgar that may be the reason he was murdered. Hauser gets some of the best throwaway laughs through the entire season. A sort of tangent episode that takes the season off the case a bit to detail how Danner got here is simply amazing, featuring some of the aforementioned cameos. Finally, the always-good John Cho rocks a chapter that plays like a melodramatic romance gone wrong.
When the writing leans too heavily on its genre—like the Wes Anderson asides—the season sags. But when creator Christopher Miller and his team simply use the spoof structure as a platform for talents like Hauser, Haddish, and Cho to go nuts, “The Afterparty” remains of the funniest shows on TV. There’s also an easy comic timing to Haddish and Richardson’s chemistry this season that shouldn’t be undervalued. Even when episodes don’t click, the two leads will share a look or a quick exchange that gets things back on track quickly. They’re both undeniably funny performers, and their dynamic is even better this season, with Aniq being a more consistent crime solver than a potential suspect. It’s also worth praising Mr. Woods, who nails a kind of lazy privilege that makes so many enemies over its lifespan that his murder feels almost inevitable.
Not all parties are created equal, so saying that the sophomore outing for this comedy series isn’t quite as fun as the first is only faint criticism. It’s close enough to hope that Apple agrees to throw a third soiree to see who gets an invitation. And who knows? Maybe a third season of this may help Miller smooth out this show’s set-up to perfection. [B]
