I seldom go crazy for a tv show. To an extent of avoiding movies in favor of it. To an extent of looking forward to it in the evenings. To an extent of thinking about it when not watching it. And I certainly never expected a show about a bunch of privileged millennials to do that to me and yet…lo and behold, Search Party. Blowing away all expectations.
I admit, this was a random, on a whim, selection based on a generally high opinions of Alia Shawkat’s acting and comedic abilities. Well, it seems that the quirkily funny cousin Maebe is all grown up and has become positively magnetic to watch. Sure, Search Party is an ensemble thing, but make no mistake this is very much a Shawkat’s show, albeit with a surprisingly excellent supporting cast of unknowns and randos. The show spawns from the slightly demented and wildly amusing minds behind the Wet Hot American Summer, so that should give you some idea of what to expect, but then again…maybe not. Because Search Party does that thing tv shows (a medium almost entirely reliant on predictability) seldom does, it surprises you, over and over and over again. Every season (and there have been four so far, renewed for fifth) is its own thing in tone, mood and themes. It begins sure enough with a Search Party, season one is all about the gang…Shawkat’s Dory, her hirsute Ichabod of a boyfriend Drew (a ridiculously sleepily charming John Reynolds, who looks simultaneously like a perfect hipsterish boy/almost man and also a middle aged dad in the making) and the sidekicks of a flaming gay and a ditzy blonde (you’d think these would be cliches but you’d be wrong, they are surprisingly (once again) layered…looking for someone they went to college with. They don’t mean to and don’t want to, but Dory (the driving force behind them) becomes positively obsessed with this case as a quest to give her relatively meaningless life some meaning. So the entire season is both mysterious and hilarious. It’s by far the funniest of the bunch, they get serious later, but by then you’re too hooked to mind. And it all avalanches, building up speed and momentum until a strikingly lethal ending. Season two gets darker as the characters deal with the ramification of their actions and perfect the art of lying. Season two is all shadows and cover ups in mood, think spy fiction. Season three is essentially a court drama, albeit a perversely heightened in its surrealism…think Ted Bundy’s trial. Because, of course, it isn’t just the characters who are on trial, it’s their very privilege. They are all some version of young, upwardly mobile, white (though technically Dory is of Iraqi descent), college educated, liberal snowflakes living in NY. They live in the 90s sitcom style oversized apartments, often with no obvious financial means of support. Dory works/worked as a personal assistant to a hilariously out of it aged out trophy wife, Drew appears to have been an unpaid intern, Portia’s a sometimes actress, their token gay friend doesn’t work and hysterically enough doesn’t want to. That’s where most of the comedy and tragedy of the show really comes in…these people have the easiest cushiest lives with barely any merit to them and they proceed to unnecessary complicate them for no good reason, slowly unraveling and erasing whatever’s inner goodness they might have had to begin with. This is most obvious with Dory (as most things, she is the lead, after all), her vehement rejection of traditional values of past generations, her drive to forge her own path that has meddled and stalled and resulted in some seriously tragic and terrible things. But then again, that’s the drama of it all and Search Party is by design more of a comedy, albeit a very dark comedy and one that gets progressively darker. Cue in season four, the punishment after the crime, albeit much in line with the show’s general mien, a very unorthodox one. Featuring a demented twink and a delectable Susan Sarandon’s guest appearance. And once again, a search party, this time to find Dory. Which is to say the first time they looked for someone who didn’t deserve the attention and now they are looking for someone who may not want one. Well, these search parties are well intentioned by nature, but no one said they were well advised. Some writer/director mindf*ckery at the end of season four and voila and presto, it’s season five ready when it might have very well ended right then and there. I’m ambivalent about that, since I do like a show that knows when to bow out with grace. Most take the outstaying their welcome and milking the initial attraction approach. But having that been said, I wouldn’t say no to season five. Though glad to have some time in between. If this review gives you the impression that Search Party is some sort of a scathing polemic of millennials…it isn’t. it’s nowhere nearly that simply and reductive. In fact, the characters here are more crippled that buoyed by their generational inbred (in more ways than one) specialness, privilege and self absorption and that’s what’s so fun and fresh about it. It’s about people who have been told they are special for so long, they’ve come to believe it and will do whatever it takes (lie, pretend, cheat, steal, kill) to support that notion, because they don’t know what they are without it. These kids here don’t want to grow up and NYC provides a perfect Neverland for them, a place to play at life. They prop each other up in their unfounded beliefs, because otherwise the emperor’s without clothes. It’s a lie that works if everyone buys in, the meritless specialness. And it has never been more cleverly and more subtly presented, observed and critiqued as in this show. And so, yeah, the unexpected surprise of Search Party, the unexpected appeal of the millennials if only as laughing stock of punching bags, there it is. That’s what it is when it’s done right. Subtler than you might expect, funnier that it would seem, infinitely more well acted than the traditional standards demand (seriously, how has Shawkat not been nominated for at least. Golden globe for this, she’s so terrific in this and she’s essentially playing four different characters that’s how different the seasons one from one to the next) darker and certainly cleverer than what the general population might appreciate…this show is deservingly addictive. Though with short episodes (under 30 minutes) and short (10 episode) seasons it won’t steal too much of your time and it’ll be totally worth it. Search for it. Watch it. Enjoy.
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