The Afterparty Episode 1-3 Review: The Balance Between Serious Mystery And Comedy Is Perfectly Managed | Apple Tv+
Cast: Sam Richardson, Ben Schwartz, Tiffany Haddish
Creator: Chris Miller
Streaming Platform: AppleTV+ (click to watch)
Filmyhpye.com Ratings: 4/5 (four star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
With the review of the first episodes of The Afterparty, the new comedy series from Apple TV+ that debuts with three chapters together and then moves on to the weekly formula, we return to the world of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, filmmakers known for their self-deprecating and meta cinematographic approach, such as seen mostly in the first Lego Movie and in the two films from 21 Jump Street(epochal, in the second, the mid-credits scene with teasers and posters of various sequels, one more absurd and surreal than the other).
In this case, despite being able to count on his friend and companion in production and as the screenwriter of an episode, it is the only Miller who signs the show as creator and director, applying his stylistic code to the structure of the mystery, promising different variations on the theme for the weeks to come and thus giving the Apple platform a title that perfectly exploits its distribution strategy, because at the end of the third episode the anxiety of having to wait seven days for the next one is immediately triggered.
The Afterparty Review: The Story
The Afterparty is the story of a reunion between ex-high school friends (complete with an American response to Verdonian’s Fabris: Walt, whom no one remembers because he never did anything really remarkable at school). After the formal event there is an after at the home of Xavier (Dave Franco), the successful singer, but the evening takes a bad turn when the dead body of the star is found. Ignoring the orders of her superiors, policewoman Danner (Tiffany Haddish) pretends to be in charge of the investigation and makes sure that no one leaves the house.
Her method is based more on social factors than on the collection of clues: she likes to speak separately with each suspect, to get their side of the story or, as she puts it, their mental film. She is ready to listen to everything, armed with popcorn, and each episode changes genre according to the interviewee on duty: if the first is more of a romantic comedy, the second turns into an action zone, and so on until the end of the show.
The Afterparty Episode 1-3 Review and Analysis
Last year Disney + broke the hearts of the public with Only Murders in the Building, the effectiveness of which lay in being both an excellent sedan of detective story and a good example of the same, and Miller’s approach is basically the same, at least based on the episodes seen so far: laughter takes precedence in tonal terms, but the mystery is engaging and treated with the right respect, without slipping into pure mockery. Even the choice of the different types of films to be ape from episode to episode is pertinent in the context of the detective genre, with a more openly ironic reinterpretation of the figure of the unreliable narrator. Each is the protagonist of their own story, and at the same time an integral part of a choral mechanism that has nothing to envy to the classics of Agatha Christie, albeit declined in a more openly humorous key.
They are all in all – and on paper, having not seen the five remaining episodes – eight small films with a distinct visual identity; yet, even perfectly integrated into the unitary structure of the series, with the added value of a cast capable of working collectively and then, depending on the needs of the individual episode, dominate a specific storyline. Particularly hilarious is Ike Barinholtz, protagonist of the second chapter and able to perfectly combine a threatening aura and a more scatological context (from the anthology his “duel” with Franco in the bathroom), embodying the two souls of the show, sincere and crazy together, under the banner love for the mystery and the will to dismantle it ironically but with criteria. Criterion that makes this new weekly appointment based on intrigues and big laughter is yet another valid reason to follow Apple’s path in the field of streaming.
The Afterparty Episode 1-3 Review: The Last Words
In short, ‘The Afterparty‘ is a highly intelligent comedy that dominates humor to navigate this mystery that, why do we want to fool ourselves, matters less than enjoying the testimonies of its protagonists. A laugh-out-loud ride that will take us by the hand through eight fun-filled episodes that makes for a good double feature with ‘Only Murders in the Building‘.
