‘The Afterparty’ season 2 review: Anchored by a stellar cast and inventive storytelling

A still from season 2 of ‘Afterparty’
| Photo Credit: Apple TV+

After hanging her detective boots up, Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) is looking to break through the publishing industry as an author; however, she is struggling to put pen to paper. Aniq (Sam Richardson), like a gentleman, swoops into her rescue as he calls her to inform her of a murder at a wedding. She quickly abandons her artistic pursuit and dons the detective coat to head to the scene of the crime.

After a successful first season, Afterparty is back with a stellar cast and a convincing plot to encourage the audience to clink their glasses to the clues required to solve a murder.

Aniq and Zoë (Zoë Chao) are now dating and they are headed to Zoë’s sister Grace’s (Poppy Liu) wedding to Edgar (Zach Woods), a wealthy investor with a peculiar interest in board games, lizards and cryptocurrencies. But bells toll when Grace wakes up to Edgar’s dead body the morning after their wedding.

Spread over ten episodes, the show follows Danner questioning family members, star-crossed lovers, and business partners, and listening to their retelling of the weekend. The suspects on the groom’s side include Edgar’s mother (Elizabeth Perkins), his adopted sister, Hannah (Anna Konkle), and his business partner, Sebastian (Jack Whitehall).

On the bride’s side, we have her parents Vivian and Ken (Vivian Wu and Ken Jeong), her uncle Ulysses (John Cho), and her ex-boyfriend Travis (Paul Walter Hauser). Each episode of the show explores a different character’s account of the fateful evening, all told through the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals to match the storyteller’s perspective.

The first episode titled ‘Aniq 2: The Sequel’ is fashioned after a modern-day awkward rom-com and does a remarkable job at setting the premise and luring the audience to invest in the characters’ storylines. The pace picks up in the second episode titled ‘Grace’ which is narrated like a period drama from the point of view of the bride.

The thought and effort that went into curating the genres to suit the characters pay off and the storytelling device feels like a breath of fresh air.

Despite employing the Roshomon style throughout, the show does not prioritise the antics that come with jumping genres with each episode and sticks to ensure that the story feels grounded in its universe. While exploring the same events through the eyes of ten characters might get a tad boring, the actors keep you engaged, a task that according to Ken, came easy to the cast.

The actors easily mould their characters to fit into the point of view of the narrator of the episode, adding suspense and mystery to the show as it is hard for the audience to truly get a whole picture of the character in question. And Zach Woods particularly shines through in this aspect.

With affable jokes and tense mystery, the show promises to be one of Apple TV+’s successes while leaving the option of a third season open.

The first two episodes of The Afterparty are currently streaming on Apple TV+ with a new episode releasing every Wednesday.