What is it? A second series of the basically perfect millennial murder mystery comedy.
Why you’ll love it: In 2016, we first caught sight of Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat) and her stupid, self-obsessed, independently wealthy friends trying to solve the disappearance of their old college acquaintance, Chantal. Even though they totally, like, couldn’t stand her. #thoughtsandprayers. Dory, along with her limp boyfriend, Drew (John Reynolds), self-diagnosed narcissist and habitual liar Elliott (John Early) and beautifully vapid actress Portia (Meredith Hagner), is so bored with her own pointless existence she chooses to track a missing college pal for the intrigue alone.
The kids and audience alike are led into increasingly darker waters as the self-centered Scooby-Doo gang find themselves up to their necks, but not in the way you first expect. It all ends in a superbly operatic finale, seemingly leaving all concerned nowhere to go but down. It is flawless in its plotting, casting, writing and performing and needs no postscript. Or so I thought.
What show creators Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers and Michael Showalter have done with the second season is perhaps even better. Dory and friends, who began this tale with no genuine problems at all, are now tested to see what they do when they have something real and truly horrifying to worry about. And, thankfully, the answer is still to obsess about their own public perception, check themselves in their phone cameras and see the world as entirely there for them. Peripheral characters who appear in the first series do pop back to make things interesting, including Ron Livingstone’s wonderfully needy private detective and Keith and Dory’s pernicious downstairs neighbour, April (Phoebe Tyers). She takes a bigger role towards the end of this season which gives Tyers scope to ratchet up a performance that already hinted at madness.
It is hard to discuss in detail without revealing the twists and turns, but this show manages to have it all: a clear and accurate headshot on the mores of an egocentric social group and a firm grip on the rope on which the plot dangles. Please, don’t be put off by a recommendation for something already in its second series. I know I would usually be. But these easily edible half-hour episodes will whizz into the “already viewed” category almost without you noticing, so moreish and flavoursome is each mouthful. With 10 in the first series and another 10 to follow, you can kill the whole thing in one giddy, glorious weekend if you refuse all communication with the outside world. The mystery is carefully spun out to keep you hooked, but you will also stay for the monstrous yet somehow beautifully nuanced characters. If you are new to Search Party, I envy you and, like, totally want your life.
Where: All4.
Length: Two seasons of 10 30-minute episodes available to stream now.
Stand-out episode: Episode two, Conspiracy, sees a skilful gear-change in which the horrific unease gives way to the gang’s old dynamic.
If you liked Search Party, watch: Arrested Development (Netflix), American Vandal (Netflix).
