Apparently, Aniq Adjaye is a lot like Jane Marple and Jessica Fletcher. He is not a
little old lady, but murders seem to follow him around. He successfully cleared
his name when he was accused of killing pop star Xavier in season one, so this time
around, he must prove the innocence of his girlfriend Zoe Zhu’s sister Grace.
Unfortunately, he uncovers a lot of embarrassing dirty laundry for the Zhu
family in season two of creator Christopher Miller’s The Afterparty,
which premieres today on Apple TV+.
Despite
being a murder suspect, Adjaye managed to win over Zhu, his high school crush,
during the Xavier investigation. He wants to take things to the next level, but
her parents really seem to hate him. At least Grace likes him and so does the
groom, as far as Adjaye can tell. Edgar is a wealthy tech tycoon and crypto
investor, but he is definitely a cold fish. He only shows real affection
towards Roxanna, his pet lizard he always carries on his shoulder. Awkwardly,
he will also be murdered on his wedding night.
Edgar’s
boozy mother Isabel immediately accuses Grace, so Adjaye calls Danner to find
the real killer. She retired from the force after solving the Xavier murder,
for reasons that will be explained during her flashback. Like season one, each Rashomon-style
witness statement is rendered in a different style, but it is not always immediately
obvious what genre each episode is spoofing.
The
black-and-white film noir homage is obvious for Travis, Grace’s schlubby
conspiracy theorist boyfriend. Edgar’s adopted sister Hannah seems to exist in
a Wes Anderson film, while the victim’s business partner Sebastien gets the
split-screen caper treatment of the Ocean’s movies or The Thomas
Crown Affair. Danner’s story is sort of a 1980s erotic thriller, much to
Adjaye’s discomfort, whereas the perspective of the bride’s father, Feng Zhu
(Ken Jeong doing his sad clown shtick), unfolds entirely through smart phone
videos. Unfortunately, the longest episode is also the slowest: Grace’s Austen-esque
costume drama explanation of her unlikely romance with Edgar.
Adjaye
and the bride provide a lot of exposition in the first two installments, but
the second season gets much funnier once they finish. The assorted directors
helming episodes, including Miller, Eric Appel, and Anu Valia, nicely handle
the flashbacks, rather slyly revealing more context and explanation with each
eye-witness account. Each guests’ recollections fit together rather cleverly.
Usually, in movies or TV, high school reunions are either the setting for slasher
horror (Mostly Likely to Die, etc.) or super-awkward cringe comedy (D Train and so forth). These partiers returning for their fifteen-year get
off easy, because there is only one dead body, at least for most of the show
(granted, the cops “lose” a suspect or two, but they are dumb enough to simply misplace
them). Unfortunately, poor Aniq will suffer all sorts of comedic indignities. He
also finds himself the prime suspect in creator-director Christopher Miller’s The
Afterparty, which premieres today on Apple TV+.
Everyone
is excited to see the Vanilla Ice-ish rapper and actor “Xavier” at the reunion,
even though they all hated him in school, when he was known as Eugene. Nice but
nebbish Aniq is the exception, for reasons that will be revealed over time.
However, still attends, in hopes of re-connecting with Zoe, his former
lab-partner and eternal crush. Rather inconveniently, suspicion immediately
falls on him when someone pitches Xavier over the edge of his Hollywood Hills
mansion, to his death below.
Regrettably,
Aniq was passed out for most of the night and when he woke up, he immediately
started shouting incriminating threats towards Xavier, who would take his swan
dive shortly thereafter. Det. Danner and her bumbling partner, Det. Culp immediately
key-in on him, but at least they go to the trouble of getting the other guests’
statements, which collectively paint a Rashomon-ish picture of the
night.
Everyone
is comparing Afterparty to Only Murders in the Building, but it
is far less neurotic, because how could it not be. It also has its own peculiar
charm. Although Aniq is ostensibly a straight-man-like character, Sam Richardson
(who played a similar personality-type in Werewolves Within) gets a
surprising share of the laughs with his deadpan responses. He has appealing maybe-yes-maybe-no
romantic chemistry with Zoe Chao, as her namesake, and also nicely riffs along with
manic Ben Schwartz, playing his goofball friend (and failed musician) Yasper.
Based
on the seven episodes (out of eight) available for review, it seems Miller and
his co-writers were undecided whether Danner is dumb-as-a-post or
crazy-like-a-fox. Weirdly, Tiffany Haddish’s loud bull-in-a-china-shop
portrayal maintains that uncertainty, which is arguably a real trick. In
contrast, the totally on-point Ilana Grazer is scathingly acerbic as the boozy,
scandal-tarred Chelsea (think of her like Juliette Lewis in Yellowjackets,
but without the shotgun).
