We’ve entered into an era of half-hour cable series that aren’t really comedies, but aren’t dramas, either. They’re weird, low-key funny, awkward sad, but ultimately engrossing — thinkGirlsandLookingfrom HBO,Better ThingsandAtlantafrom FX, and evenBlunt Talkfrom Starz (although it is more overtly comedic than the others). But it is TBS, which has long been a home for sitcom reruns, that has been producing some of the most subversive half-hour TV content of late, including the alien abduction-focusedPeople of Earthand the undefinableAngie Tribeca. But none have come together as well as its latest series,Search Party.
InSearch Party(created by weird-comedy veteranMichael Showalter, alongsideSarah-Violet BlissandCharles Rogers), a group of Millennials — don’t tune out yet — get embroiled in the disappearance of a former classmate.Search Partyhas a wicked, sly sense of humor that augments each group member’s navel-gazing in a way that’s both satirical and sincere (it’s also reminiscent toPeople of Earth, which both makes fun of and lovingly embraces conspiracy theorists). But at its coreSearch Partyhas a more serious desire to find meaning and be thought of as meaningful, even if it ultimately lands in a deeply cynical place.
Search Party’s main focus isAlia Shawkat’s Dory, who is adrift until she starts becoming obsessed with solving the mystery of Chantal, a college acquaintance who Dory sees and briefly pursues after the world thinks Chantal is dead. Bolstered by a desire to want to help, Dory drags her sweet but clueless boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds), and her self-absorbed cohorts Portia (Meredith Hagner) and Elliott (John Early) into an increasingly bizarre set of circumstances in the hopes of giving Chantal’s family proof that she is still alive.
Search Partywould have made for a good movie, and it plays like one if you binge its 10 short episodes in one sitting (each one runs about 20 minutes). TBS, which will make the entire series available a week after it premieres, seems to agree. Its structure starts out like a Millenial Miss Marple, as Dory (in frumpy coats and fantastically untamed curls) involves herself in the business of others in uncomfortable but ultimately triumphant ways. She partners up with a P.I., Keith (Ron Livingston), and starts to do real investigative work, finding actual clues to what might have happened to Chantal. There are fits and starts along the way, but the pieces seem to connect into a dangerous conspiracy.
Meanwhile, the personal lives of the central quartet are in free-fall. Drew, who is against the idea to try and find Chantal from the start, becomes paranoid that Dory is cheating on him with her ex (Brandon Micheal Hall,whose character’s blunt, flat, confrontational manner feels at odds with the series' tone). Portia and Elliott also have to face some of their biggest fears — about careers, personal insecurities, and being discovered as frauds — although they prove loyal friends in Dory’s quest for the truth. And while the show does lampoon its characters’ narcissism and delusions of grandeur fueled by pop culture buzz-speak, the four also really come into their own over the course of the first season with well-defined arcs.
And yet, the season ends with a desperate act that complicates its future. Though the reveals that viewers are waiting for come to pass (in deeply sardonic fashion), the series also proves the adage about it being the journey rather than the destination. Everything that Dory & Co. experience inSearch Partyis instigated by its central mystery, but each is also wholly its own story. It almostfeels New Wave-y in how the group flits from one experience to the next organically, only briefly having to confront the deeper truths before them. One line from Elliott sums everything up: “I suffered like …allmorning, but I feel like I know so much more about myself now.”
Rating: ★★★★ Very good
Search Partypremieres with back-to-back episodes Monday, November 21st on TBS, and will continue each night through its conclusion on Friday, November 25th.
