A couple of months ago, a TV show came up in conversation that I had absolutely no frame of reference for, which is odd, since I basically watch TV for a living. I’ll admit, the program premiered at a time when I was burned out on a certain type of comedy — the kind centered on dysfunctional 20-somethings barreling through life on clueless charm and inflated egos alone.
Okay, that was a harsh statement. But the hipster comedy subgenre that brought us shows like Girls and Easy never spoke to me. That bias led me to immediately write off another show that looked cut from the same cloth.
Well, egg on my face. It wasn’t.
I’m talking about Search Party. It hit Netflix (and my eyeballs) back in February, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. In fact, I may be late to the party, but I think this quirky little show is the best TV comedy I’ve seen in years. I began binging the series — which originally aired on TBS before moving to HBO Max for its third season — and in less than a week, I had devoured the absurdist brilliance of all five seasons.
Alia Shawkat, John Reynolds, Meredith Hagner and John Early star in Search Party.
To describe Search Party, in its entirety, without giving spoilers is challenging. So let’s discuss the gist of the first season, which kicks off the whole affair. Alia Shawkat stars as Dory, a young Brooklynite who’s unhappy with the direction of her life and, in her search for purpose, finds herself determined to track down a missing college friend.
She enlists her group of friends to accompany her on this murder mystery, including her man-child boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds), her vacant-but-lovable actor bestie Portia (Meredith Hagner) and her self-important, yet extremely flawed, friend Elliott (John Early). The power of the series lies mostly in these four characters, who, like in Seinfeld, are somehow unlikable antiheroes the audience can’t help but root for.
The person they set out to track down is Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty), someone none of them really knows. Yet Dory sees her in a missing-person poster she passes on the street and, amid the emotional maelstrom of her life, decides this is the purpose she needs to get back on track. Spoiler: It doesn’t.
Clare McNulty stars in Search Party.
The strength of the series lies in its sharp satire, observational humor and cast. I was already familiar with Shawkat for her work on Arrested Development, but her performance as Dory knocked me back a few times. She brings a surprising depth of emotional resonance to her work here, and with each season, a new layer is revealed, showing her acting talent runs deep beyond her epic comedy chops.
John Early is another standout. I was unfamiliar with him before this series, and found myself yearning for more Elliott whenever the show strayed from his storyline. But honestly, everyone on screen delivers solid performances with effortless flair.
You can tell as the seasons progress that Search Party tapped into the pop culture zeitgeist, as a whole array 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, Cole Escola, Louie Anderson, Kathy Griffin, John Waters, Griffin Dunne and Jeff Goldblum.
Jeff Goldblum stars in Search Party.
Needless to say, the journey of Dory’s search party doesn’t end well in Season 1, and the chaos the group of friends finds themselves in ends up informing the direction of the next four seasons — but in ways you’d never expect. Crimes are committed and repercussions are felt, yet as the story world grows more outlandish with each season, the comedy remains, keeping the emotional stakes from ever feeling offputtingly heavy.
Search Party begins as a brooding murder mystery and reinvents itself in unpredictable ways with each new season, culminating in a final run that debuted during the pandemic and feels tailor-made for pandemic audiences — where every outrageous idea and visual is presented with the goal of entertaining, no matter how absurd things get. And hoo golly, do things get wild.
I’m honestly surprised that I am still thinking about Search Party. This series has lived rent-free in my head for the past couple of months, and I regret not watching it when it premiered a decade ago. Ten years later, the show is still wildly resonant, making a strong case that it was ahead of its time. If you ask me, it still is.