ICYMI: SEARCH PARTY

BY: Jeff Daugherty

In Case You Missed It is a new series on PROVOKR highlighting cult series that have recently made their way to streaming platforms.

If you missed out on Search Party during its original run on TBS, you really shouldn’t blame yourself. Despite boasting a killer cast led by Arrested Development’s Alia Shawkat and Stranger Things’ John Paul Reynolds, Search Party was always doomed to fail. With two under-marketed seasons on a cable network associated more with syndicated sitcoms than original, dark comedies, there was simply no way that this show was ever going to find an audience. 

And yet a small but dedicated fan community blossomed on Twitter and Reddit, comprised of the millennial hipsters that Search Party satirizes and Gen X fans of Michael Showalter, the comic genius behind Wet Hot American Summer who helped lead this show from concept to reality. HBO Max must have also seen something in the little black comedy that could, as the new streaming platform has picked up Search Party for its third season nearly three years after season two ended. 

Season one follows Alia Shawkat’s Dory, a Brooklynite hipster who’s generally bored with her life; out of her friend group made up of other bored New York twentysomethings, she’s the least successful and most resentful. She’s also deeply insecure, and her fears of being overlooked and forgotten by those closest to her lead Dory to what might be a hobby, or a distraction, or an obsession: investigating the disappearance of one Chantal Witherbottom. 

Chantal is a former college classmate of Dory and her friends who appears to have gone missing. One by one, these disaffected, pretentious gentrifiers get on board with the show’s titular “search party,” led by Dory. The first season plays like a parody of the thriller novels that were trendy in the years following Gone Girl; this iteration of the show could have been pitched as The Girl on the F Train. 

Season two ups the ante with new revelations and new characters while maintaining the Brooklyn setting. Between the cliffhangers, chilling atmosphere and the setpieces—oversized New York apartments, rooftop parties and pseudo-intellectual enclaves—this series feels like a happy marriage of the similarly high concept shows Bored to Death and You. Look for guest appearances from mumblecore faves like Ron Livingston and Jay Duplass as well as stars like Rosie Perez and Parker Posey. 

If you haven’t joined the Search Party yet, do yourself a favor and binge the first two seasons in preparation for what’s sure to be an explosive third. All episodes of season three will be available June 25 on HBO Max.