User Reviews

I have to say I'm actually shocked by how much I enjoyed The Afterparty. Is it one of the best shows I've ever seen? Absolutely not. But for a show I put on because I was bored and thought what the heck, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I binged both seasons over the course of a few days. The episodes are only 35-40 minutes apiece so it didn't take that long but I just couldn't get enough. It seems most people seem to agree with me, it has an excellent 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even though both seasons were good I prefer the first one a little more. If you're looking for a good murder mystery with some comedy then give this show a try. You won't be disappointed.

I thought The Afterparty was going to be some corny comedy with juvenile humor. I was wrong. It is so much better than I expected. This is actually a pretty good murder mystery and the casts are terrific for both seasons. I love how each episode is told through the perspective of a different character, it makes the show seem original and clever and not just another who dun it show. It's almost impossible to guess the killer for each season (which makes it that more interesting). The best way to watch this is to binge it. As much as I was looking forward to this second season after how good the first one was, I still waited for all the episodes to drop before I started it. I suggest you do the same for future seasons because the story just flows better not having to wait a week between episodes. I really hope they keep doing new seasons with all new casts, kind of like what they do for The White Lotus. I think they can keep this going for several more seasons before it gets repetitive.

I almost watched season 2 first because it had all the actors I had been seeing in the advertisements, and I didn't even know there was a first season. I kind of wish that I had watched in reverse, because season 1 was so good and season 2 fell flat. While season 2 appears to have a bigger budget, and it is more cinematic, it just doesn't have what season 1 had... humor.

Actually if I had watched season 2 first, I probably would have just turned it off. Season one feels like a real murder mystery, but it's also funny, the characters are likable, the music is great (Xavier's closing credits track is a legit banger), and it pulled me in so well that I binged the whole first season in a day.

Season 2 has been difficult to get interested in. After finishing an episode I have no desire to watch another, so I turn it off for a few days. You do not feel as attached to the characters as S1, so you don't really care who is the killer. In S1 I found myself guessing, but also hoping that it wasn't a character I liked. Also, in S1 I felt that any one of the characters could potentially be the killer, same way I felt watching Scream as a kid. But in S2, no one's motive seems strong enough to kill for really, and again, I don't really care enough because you do not feel as attached to the characters as S1.

Maybe it is because S1 takes place after a high school reunion, so the bonds feel more real. The story of these people having history and long term grudges is more believable and better explained. S2 takes place at a wedding where virtually everyone is a stranger, even the bride and groom. The relationships are flimsy, the grudges are silly to none existent, and the sense of urgency is gone.

As of writing this, only 7 episodes of S2 have been released, and I've watched them all. By the 7th episode (not counting the whole S1 I just watched) I should care about the characters and the story, but I don't. This is not to say they're bad, because they aren't. The actors are great, and they've done some cool episodes which are each a nod to a style of film, but the magic isn't there.

I highly recommend season 1 and the song from it "Imma live Forever" by Xavier. Season 2 is neat but meh.

I've seen quite a few murder mysteries lately, so I'm glad this series does something different. By shaking up the murder mystery genre, each episode is...a different genre. Seeing a mystery unfold from different characters perspectives isn't entirely new, but the way it's presented in the show is. All the characters are pretty interesting and all have motive. The cast has great chemistry with each other. The show isn't quite excellent but it's a fun mystery to solve and I was genuinely surprised by the ending.

This is a funny, clever whodunnit with smart writing and an A-List ensemble of comic actors - but I had never heard of it - I am bombarded by trailers and promos for shows 24/7.

I don't know what the folks at Apple TV+ were thinking by slipping this ingenious gem under the promotional carpet.

It's a playful, smartly constructed mystery from The Lego Movie guys, with each episode being told from the point of view of a different suspect - each in a different movie genre style: romcom, action, thriller, musical, animation, and so on.

Everyone in the cast is at the top of their comic game, and they all seem to be having a great time. Now stop reading this and go watch it.

This show is super fun to watch, likeable characters, detective lady is so cool y'all, no laughter track and clever jokes. Yasper (Ben) is my favourite character (for now). Ben schwartz was super awesome in Parks and Recreation too. Xavier is kinda like Justin Beiber. Can't wait for the 4th episode!

Season 1 (8/10)

In The Afterparty, a murder is committed after a high school reunion and a cop tries to solve the case by listening to each suspects story, episode by episode.

The cop, Tiffany Haddish, is hilarious as usual, as is the rest of the cast. The episodes are each done in a particularly genre - action, musical, cartoon - based on the personality of the suspect. Through it all, main suspect and mystery-room designer Aniq tries to find the real killer and woo the girl he should have dated in high school.

This is all really funny, and the series does a nice job of character development, as the initial cartoonish characters are proven to have more depth than is at first apparent (at least in some cases).

The weakest aspect of this is the genre thing, which feels very half-assed. While a couple of episodes fully commit - the musical and the cartoon - for the most part all episodes are filmed in the same style with minor adjustments for the genre (a guy kinda slides along his car hood in the action episode, the high school episode has people a little extra angsty.

Tiffany also gets a flashback of her own and it's the worst episode in the series. It's not funny or necessary and feels like they just ran out of ideas for all the episodes. But all the rest is really good.

It would have been great if they had really done it up, with distinct film styles for each episode, but it's still very funny, the characters are generally likable (except the ones who aren't supposed to be), and the mystery keeps you guess and has a persuasive finale.

I loved this and binge-watched it. It's no "Only Murders in the Building" but it's still a great comedy mystery for fans of that genre.

Season 2 (7/10)

The second season followed, and in places even improved on its formula. Unfortunately, it was much more hit and miss.

Once again each episode is mainly told as a take-off of a particular genre. While the first season half-assed this concept, this time they really commit to creating something that has the look and feel of whatever they're going for. At its best, this results in a hilarious, dead-on Wes Anderson take-off and a turgid melodrama.

But for the most part the comedy is weaker. The worst episode, as was true of the first season, is the one built around Danner, but this time it's really horrendous. A lot of the other episodes are just so-so, like one featuring Ulysses, which was a big disappointment because John Cho did such a great job with the character.

The cast is solid, especially Cho and Elizabeth Perkins, and the mystery is intriguing, even if I didn't love the denoument.

Not a must-see like season 1, but still very fun.

The first series was great fun with good characters and a lot of laughs. There were some great one-liners. I wish I had written them down because I can't remember them now I can only remember laughing a lot. It reminded me of the Japanese film Rashomon, because of the varying testimonies of the suspects.. I am sure that has happened in murder mysteries before, but I think it was really very well done in series one, which is very entertaining. The detective work does not fully add up, but I can forgive season one for that because it made me laugh so much. Buoyed up with enthusiasm after season one, I dipped my toes into season two. Sadly, season two has caused my enthusiasm for the show to wane. The writing is not as witty, and the acting seems less zany and less natural. It all seems rather forced. I have watched the three episodes of season two that are currently out. I may or may not watch the fourth episode of season 2.

The first season of "The Afterparty" is somewhat similar to the concurrent "Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window": both have an eccentric sense of humor and march to their own beat, switch genres from episode to episode (hint: pay close attention to the opening animated credits), do not always give audiences what they want, and sometimes sideline the crime investigation part altogether. The quality varies from episode to episode, with 3 being thoroughly brilliant (it demands to be seen more than once) and 7 being the weakest (perhaps the only time where a bold narrative choice does not quite pan out). Episode 1 is very sweet, episode 6 is very creative, and episode 8 proves how elaborately and carefully designed the whole mystery plot is. Overall the season is very enjoyable, and the whole cast works together beautifully: even minor characters like Indigo or Walt are great. The second season is about as good as the first on the whole: perhaps it has nothing on the order of S1 E3, but it may be more consistent, with just one weak spot (E6). It maintains the same mix of deadpan humor and intricate plotting (with every episode we gain new insights), and most of the genre homages (particularly the one to Hitchcock) are spot-on. The S2 finale certainly ties everything together neatly, yet I found it ever so slightly underwhelming - I expected something a little more shocking. I will still be watching any future seasons of this show made by the same people. 8/10.

It's a very specific kind of humour, and I totally get why people would find the cast annoying - and for me that's a positive point for the series. The exaggeration and campiness of it is part of the whole format, and I think it's a fresh breath of air. It's not easy to sustain a 45 minutes comedy, and I think this show does it well so far.

Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Ben Schwartz and Sam Richardson. I may be a little biased but anything these guys do has me on board. Its not for everyone, but Ben and Sam are seemingly allowed free reign with their ad libbed, improv style comedy. If this type of thing is at all your cup of tea you might enjoy it. Also Ike barenholtz is always a treat.

This is a strange one indeed. It's not a particularly good murder mystery, the humor usually misses (in my opinion the cops are a bit too silly to be believable, even within the context of it being a comedy), the themed episodes don't ever commit and don't add anything to the story, and overall it just lacks cohesion and ultimately makes me wonder what the point of it is. It's never particularly bad, but it just feels like some people had an idea, and then stretched this idea into an 8 episode arc that could've easily been a 90-minute movie, if that.

I give it a 6 because there are some genuinely good moments and some good jokes, but ultimately because Walt really carried the entire show at a certain point. I don't think I've ever seen an actor nail the awkward guy better than Jamie Demetriou does in this show. Without him in the cast, I would probably give this show a 4 or 5. Decent if you have nothing else to watch or if you like some of the actors, but otherwise I don't think it's really worth your time.

Every character in this movie is a cartoon which makes sense since Chris Miller has worked on many of them. After thirty minutes and no laughs I just started feeling uncomfortable and realized this was a train I needed to get off. Compare the performances of Sam Richardson in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates and John Early in Search Party and you'll see the disparity in the quality of writing for their characters. When this was greenlit didn't anyone say hey this isn't funny? I understand the need for content these days but we don't need it this bad.

The basic idea is actually pretty neat: a classic, almost Agatha Christie-esque whodunit, with a cunning detective tasked with finding a culprit among a wide gallery of inconspicuous characters, in this case told through several episodes rather than one long feature film. It could have been really good, but I feel the authors never really landed on one specific theme, opting instead to be all over the place, almost as if they thought this would be their one and only chance to shine.

The different motifs that dictate each different episode, from a musical to a cartoon to flashbacks to something else, are aesthetically nice, but lack cohesion and frankly feel more like someone trying to show off than to drive a narrative forward. The plot loses its momentum halfway through, particularly because the same scenes are shown over and over again, albeit from different characters' perspectives. After a while, I got a bit tired of that.

Like I said, it's a fun idea, but needed a more focused approach.

I'm still waiting for newer episodes to come out, but for now I love this show. The show just continues to get better and better throughout the episodes and I LOVE the comedic scenes. I also loved how we were able to hear every character's perspective of the story, and how scenes weren't just reused but actually filmed again depending on the character's perspective. I'm so excited for the next episodes!!!

This show is pretty good so far! I think the strongest thing about the series is the storytelling switching genres each episode, it makes for a unique, fresh, and dynamic story each episode. The show is funny but the mystery isn't that interesting and there are some annoying characters. Sometimes the genre switching works against it and restricts how funny the episode can be. The constant flashbacks also sometimes worsen the pacing of the show but they do a decent job of building the characters. Overall the show fluctuates between interesting and funny and never really achieves both perfectly, but it's still enjoyable and worth watching. The season finale was very very good and the show is absolutely worth watching for the ending.

This was an extremely pleasant surprise. Based on commercials this show didn't look great, but as a big fan of Lord and Miller I gave it a shot anyways. It was one of the better mystery stories I've seen: very well written, awesome cast, fantastic direction and change of genre per episode. Really enjoyed this and really can't go wrong with Christopher Miller.

The only school reunion "after party" I have ever been to was a boorish drunken fest. Since then I refused to attend school reunions of any sort. And this new series proves why. But at least The Afterparty is more entertaining.

The creator and director, Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump St), borrows from classics to tell this story of an after party death at a school reunion, where all the attendees are suspects. Each episode deals with a party-goer's outrageous perspective, allowing the episodes to take on different genres and styles to suite the ego driven stories. To the point where Episode 3 was a hilarious musical of some sort!

For the film buffs, Miller has borrowed from movies such as Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Japanese classic, RASHOMON, set in samurai times where a murder is committed and each witness recounts their version of events. Then throw in, John Hughes' Breakfast Club (1985), that showed the diversity of school students who all feel the same pain, but deal with it in different manners. To me it felt as if those Breakfast Club kids grew up and attended this party!

Then to top it all off, throw in some Agatha Christie's delicious murder mystery novels, mostly the Hercule Poirot kind (that Kenneth Branagh has resurrected with Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile). In this series, Detective Danner wishes she was a Hercule Poirot, and in a bumbling sort of way is slowly breaking through the cracks in the case (or is she?). The comedy aspect reminds me of Neil Simon's mystery spoof, Murder By Death (1976). Minor detail, but worth putting it out there.

With all these ingredients, Miller comes up with entertainment-of-the-silly-kind where the actors are having the time of their lives just hamming it up for our pleasure of some sort. Along the way there are some interesting issues brought up, dealing with shattered childhood career dreams, bullying, jealousy, and other horrible emotions from school that some carry for the rest of their lives. Hopefully The Afterparty will resovle those issues for our enjoyment!

Basically this ticks a lot of boxes Murder Mystery you can't immediately know the answer to? Check Half decent comedy love triangle (rectangle?) Some really good comedic actors you love from other things.

Good pilot, hopefully it remains strong.

The comedy--much of it understated, some of it over-the-top--may be what keeps you laughing, but it's the mystery that will keep you intrigued. At the afterparty following an often tension-filled high school reunion, one of the guests--a smarmy Hollywood type--is found dead, having apparently been pushed off a balcony while everyone else (except for his killer) was inside. Each guest is then interviewed by the detective in charge, one after another, and the episodes begin to offer differing perspectives and competing takes on the evening's events. The acting is terrific--Sam Richardson as the lovelorn mensch and Ben Schwartz as the enthusiastic but deluded would-be pop star are particularly good--and, most impressively, the tone shifts drastically from week-to-week; in one episode we're treated to lots of action flick fisticuffs, in another to a mini-concert. "The Afterparty" hasn't wowed me yet (I've watched four episodes of the first season so far), but I think it will only get better, and--as the mystery deepens and the plot gets even more outrageous--maybe even much better. If you haven't seen it yet, give it a go before you start season number two, which is already underway.

I think this is one of the best this on, from a comedy perspective.

It's brilliantly acted, each episode has its own personal flare which offers different dimensions in storytelling. The 'murder, who dunit' is a trendy forgotten theme, has been brought back in films and now a series.

Everyone love intrigue and suspense, and this brings it, but it's the storytelling that wins over everything else.

It offers fun fir all tastes, which I think is rare. I hope it continues to another few series due the where they can take it. Keep it coming.

I love it. Everyone particularly, Haddish is brilliant!!

The 4 stars are for Dave Franco. Tiffany Haddish plays Tiffany Haddish. The gimmick of each episode switching genre was a good idea. Unfortunately, it was not funny or entertaining.

Within 15 minutes of the first episode, I was ready to switch off and watch something else. This was truly awful television. The acting wasn't particularly terrible, but the script was dire, the jokes were so flat and so unoriginal and cliched I wasn't aware if most were supposed to be intentional. The whole direction was simply woeful. The programme appeared to struggle with what kind of show it wanted to be. Unfortunately, the campy, hammy, overblown performances missed the mark so widely, it just appeared a hideous turd of a show, with a hackneyed conceit and one-dimensional characters who were, simply, too unbelievable to suspend your disbelief.

Nevertheless, I persisted.

Nobody was more suprised than me when I found just how much the second episode picks up considerably. Aha! I realise the premise, now: each episode parodies a specific genre. The first failed so spectacularly, I wasn't even sure what it was trying to be. I don't think anyone involved in making it did. The second episode, however, entrenches itself in well-trodden action-thriller territory. It might overdo its parody of the Fast & Furious franchise, with Ike Barinholtz coming across like Mark Wahlberg & Vin Diesel's lovechild, but it's actually good fun, and well done.

I couldn't believe it was made by the same director.

The third episode ('Musicals') appears to have polarized most of the reviewers here, but I actually think it was a pretty good episode; even if Ben Schwartz is a 10-year-older version of Jo Keery from Stranger Things. The songs were catchy, if heavily Hamilton-influenced, and the comedy moments hit the mark more often and with sharper accuracy than any of the hamfisted attempts in episode 1.

Fourth episode brought in dramatic, psychological chiller vibes. It leans too heavily on haunting, swelling orchestral musical cues to set the atmosphere, and out-of-focus cliched camera tricks that have long gone out of style, but it's a solid episode, and gives a wider perspective on the events surrounding the high school reunion and subsequent aftermath.

Dave Franco is the standout actor. He manages to play the Xavier character with great depth and variety, capable of tonally shifting his character from the perspective of individual characters. Sam Richardson and Ilana Glazer go from diabolical to pretty believable in the space of a few episodes. Even Tiffany Hadish's overblown stereotypically sassy (click click) African American schtick becomes less grating as the episodes progress. She plays a remarkable turn of form from cliched to fairly believable by the Chelsea episode. I don't believe Jamie Demetriou is in any way American, but that's because I just see him as the Anglo-Greek Stath.

Overall, though, things improve significantly. NOW I'm invested, and I'm glad I stuck with it. I'm only at ep 5, but I would have happily given this a 1 star or less based on the first episode. It's ballooned to a solid six. Perhaps it might reach a seven by the time I'm finished, but I'll probably watch this, and then never think about it again. Does it make Apple TV worth it? Probably not, but it's no way near as bad as its dire opening suggests.

30min before I got a laugh (slideshow) 👎. Sorry just disappointed. Life's too short. I really wish that I could say more but I can't, trouble is that I have to type in 150 characters before I can post this review!