Apple TV has uploaded the full first episode to watch online for free right now…
Sometimes the final product is the exact end result of the sum of its parts.
Created and produced (and written and directed) by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The LEGO Movie, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse), The Afterparty sees the duo amass an incredible collection of comedy performers for their latest venture.
Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip), Sam Richardson (VEEP), Zoe Chao (Living With Yourself), Ike Barinholtz (Blockers), Ben Schwartz (Parks & Rec), John Early (Search Party), Ilana Glazer (Broad City), Jamie Demetriou (Fleabag), Dave Franco (The Disaster Artist)… all superbly funny scene-stealers in their own right, and each of them firing on all cylinders throughout The Afterparty.
When a Justin Bieber-esque celebrity (Franco) is found dead at his mansion during the afterparty for a 15-year school reunion, a police detective (Haddish) keeps all of the guests at the scene of the crime, interviewing each of them one-by-one, hoping to solve the case before a big-name detective arrives and takes the case from her.
As each suspect is interviewed, the related episode takes us into their version of events, and their own uniquely genre-focused outlook on how the night played out.
So in the first episode, which tells us Aniq’s (Richardson) story, we’re given a lovely romantic comedy.
The second, Brett’s (Barinholtz) episode, is a Fast and Furious’y actioner.
Yasper (Schwartz) takes the third episode in a full-on High School Musical direction.
Episode four has Chelsea (Glazer) adopt a Gone Girl, psychological thriller vibe, and so on.
Each of the suspects has an understandable reason for the murder, but each of them also seems to have a reasonable alibi for the time of the killing, too.
While the show remembers to be very funny, at times calling to mind the constant genre inventiveness of Community at its very best, it also knows to keep the mystery interesting, too.
You will absolutely be setting up little WhatsApp groups with friends watching the show, discussing theories – “I’ll kill all ya!” / “Koala!” – and rearranging suspect lists.
Recent times has seen the comedy murder-mystery make a killer comeback, with the likes of Knives Out, Only Murders in the Building, The Woman in the House… and The Flight Attendant. The Afterparty ranks right alongside those as absolute must-watches.
The first three episodes are available on Apple TV+ right now, with the remainder of the series arriving each Friday.
You can check out the full first episode of the show right here:
Clips via Apple TV
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