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a few months ago, TV show It came up in a conversation that I had absolutely no frame of reference for, which is weird, because I basically watch TV for a living. I’ll admit, the show premiered at a time when I was tired of a certain type of show comedy – the kind centered around dysfunctional twenty-somethings who go through life with clueless charm and inflated egos alone.
Well, that was a harsh statement. But the subgenre of hipster comedy that gave us shows like Girls and Easy never spoke to me. This bias led me to immediately write off another show that seemed cut from the same cloth.
Well, egg on my face. It wasn’t.
I’m talking about the search party. He was hit Netflix (and my eyeballs) last February, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Actually, I may be late to the party, but I think this weird little show is the best TV comedy I’ve seen in years. I started watching the series – which originally aired on TBS before moving on HBO Max for its third season – and in less than a week, I had devoured the absurd brilliance of all five seasons.
Alia Shawkat, John Reynolds, Meredith Hagner and John Early star in Search Party.
Describing Search Party, in its entirety, without giving spoilers is difficult. So let’s discuss the gist of Season 1, which kicks off the whole affair. Alia Shawkat plays Dory, a young Brooklyn woman who is dissatisfied with the direction of her life and, in her search for purpose, finds herself determined to track down a missing college friend.
She enlists the help of her group of friends to accompany her in this Murder mysteryincluding her man-child friend Drew (John Reynolds), her vacant but lovable actress Portia (Meredith Hagner) and her self-important, but deeply flawed, friend Elliot (John Early). The strength of the series lies mostly in these four characters, as in Seinfeldare somewhat unlikeable heroes that the audience can’t help but root for.
The person they set out to track down is Chantal Weatherbottom (Clare McNulty), someone none of them really know. However, Dory sees her in a missing person poster she passes on the street, and amidst the emotional turmoil in her life, she decides that is the purpose she needs to get back on track. Spoiler: No.
Claire McNulty stars in Search Party.
The strength of the series lies in its sharp satire, humor and cast. I already knew Shawkat from her work in Arrested Development, but her performance as Dory blew me away several times. She brings a surprising depth of emotional resonance to her work here, and with each season, a new layer is revealed, showing that her acting talent extends beyond her epic comedic chops.
John Early is another standout. I didn’t know him before this series, and I found myself longing for more of Elliot the more the show moved away from his story. But honestly, everyone on screen gives a solid performance with an effortless flair.
You can tell as the seasons progress that Search Party has tapped into the pop culture zeitgeist, as a whole host of noteworthy guest stars grace the screen, including Ron Livingston, Michael Showalter (who co-created the series), Rosie Perez, Christine Taylor, Parker Posey, Susan Sarandon, Jay Duplass, Kohl Escola, Louie Anderson, Kathy Griffin, John Waters, Griffin Dunne, and Jeff Goldblum.
Jeff Goldblum stars in Search Party.
It goes without saying that Dory’s research team’s journey doesn’t end well in Season 1, and the chaos that the group of friends finds themselves in ultimately ends up informing the direction of the next four seasons — but in ways you’d never expect. Crimes are committed and the repercussions are felt, but as the story world grows more bizarre with each season, the comedy remains, keeping the emotional stakes from feeling disgustingly heavy.
Search Party begins as an unsettling murder mystery that reinvents itself in unexpected ways with each new season, culminating in a final outing that debuted during the pandemic and seems tailor-made for a pandemic audience — where every gruesome idea and visual is presented with the intention of entertaining, no matter how ridiculous things get. Oh my God, are things getting wild?
I’m honestly surprised I’m still thinking about the Search Party. This series has lived rent-free in my mind for the past couple of months, and I regret not watching it when it premiered a decade ago. Ten years later, the show still resonates greatly, making a strong case that it was ahead of its time. If you ask me, it still is.