"The Afterparty" is back with a new murder mystery and a new group of suspicious suspects. This season isn't as straightforward as the first, having a more difficult mystery to puzzle out, but it keeps the gimmick of having every potential murderer recount their version of events in the style of a different movie genre. With the more obvious genres out of the way, this season offers some more oddball choices, like a "Bridgerton" style period romance, a Wes Anderson indie comedy, and a found footage documentary.
Aniq and Zoë from the first season are back, now a happy couple, and attending the wedding of Zoë's sister Grace (Poppy Liu) to a rich eccentric named Edgar (Zach Woods). Edgar is found dead the next morning with Grace being the prime suspect. So Aniq enlists old friend Detective Danner to help, and they quickly start interviewing suspects before the police show up - Zoë's parents Feng (Ken Jeong) and Vivian (Vivian Wu), her uncle Ulysses (John Cho), Grace's ex Travis (Paul Walter Hauser), Edgar's sister Hannah (Anna Konkle), his mother Isabel (Elizabeth Perkins), and the best man, Edgar's childhood friend Sebastian (Jack Whitehall).
The cast is a fun mix of actors getting to play over-the-top characters, some against type. John Cho is great as the adventurous globetrotter who arrives at the wedding on horseback, and relays his personal history as an epic romance. Paul Walter Houser is a walking pratfall, who seems to really enjoy getting a chance to wear a fedora and do physical comedy. Conversely, Ken Jeong gets a few surprisingly dramatic scenes to sink his teeth into. It helps that Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao are playing more level-headed, well-rounded versions of their characters this year, and not obliged to be in rom-com mode most of the time. And Tiffany Haddish is back in fine form, filling us in on what Detective Danner has been up to via a steamy '80s erotic thriller version of recent events.
The movie genre spoofs are the least successful part of "The Afterparty." It's more apparent than ever that the show just doesn't have the resources to pull off some of the more complicated conceits. We've all seen Wes Anderson parodies, and the one featured in "The Afterparty" looks worse than many amateur attempts. There's a very half-hearted feel to some of the spoofs, especially the shorter ones where it feels like the creators ran out of ideas. The last two for Zoe and Vivian, are literally just one scene apiece in the finale episode, and very close to spoofs we've already seen before. Fortunately, the comedic murder mystery formula is sturdy enough by itself that I still found this season very watchable.
Continuing the audience interactivity from the first year, there are secret messages and puzzles all over the place, with hidden clues aimed at helping the viewer solve the bigger mystery. I didn't participate in this part of the show this time, though I think that those who did probably had more fun with the season overall. I didn't figure out the identity of the killer at all, while I thought the answer in the first season was pretty obvious around episode three. Instead, I was mostly watching for the cast, who are all gamely playing along with some very ridiculous scenarios. I want to single out Zach Woods for making Edgar into a fascinating weirdo, and I'm a little disappointed we didn't get to learn more about him.
There's a big tease for a third season in the finale, but I don't know if "The Afterparty" can sustain another round if it sticks with its current formula. There have been a lot of whodunits lately, and all I could think during many episodes was that Rian Johnson's "Glass Onion" did a lot of the same material better last year, with a much more high profile group of performers. I'll keep watching regardless because "The Afterparty" offers some easy mystery thrills and diverting humor, but it's not at the level of quality I wish it was, and it's not a show I'll be going out of my way to see.
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