Bonafide comedy kingsPhil LordandChristopher Millerare taking their talents to Apple TV+ with the new murder mystery comedy showThe Afterparty. Lord and Miller are no strangers to the world of television, having worked together and individually in a variety of roles on shows including (but not limited to)Clone High,How I Met Your Mother,Hoops, andBless the Harts. Now, withThe Afterparty, Lord and Miller will join an already strong line-up of comedies in the works at Apple TV+, who have already greenlit shows fromSchmigadoon, starring Cecily Strong, toPlatonic, starringRose ByrneandSeth Rogen.
The Afterpartytakes aRashomon-like approach to the murder mystery (with a heavy dose of comedy) genre as it follows the events of a murder at a high school reunion afterparty. Over the course of eight episodes, each of the characters at the center of the story will get a chance to tell their version of events to Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) and her partner, Detective Culp (John Early). The characters at the high school reunion include: Aniq (Sam Richardson), a loveable escape room designer who hopes to reconnect with his high school crush, Zoe; Zoe (Zoë Chao), a former artist turned school administrator who is newly separated from her high school sweetheart; Yasper (Ben Schwartz), Aniq’s relentlessly positive best friend who dreams of a career in music; Brett (Ike Barinholtz), Zoe’s ex-husband, an arrogant, former high school athlete; Chelsea (Ilana Glazer), the former high school valedictorian and class president; Xavier (Dave Franco), a formerly dorky high school drama student who is now a famous pop star and actor; and Walt (Jamie Demetriou), once ignored throughout high school, he attends the reunion with hopes to be remembered.
The only problem I have withThe Afterpartyat this point is that I cannot watch it immediately. This series is packing some serious comedy heat with its cast — and that is amajorselling point. There are some mini-reunions happening here, including Franco re-teaming with Lord and Miller post-21 Jump Street, as well asThe Oathco-stars Haddish and Barinholtz coming back together. It will be interesting to see how the Lord and Miller flavor plays out within the confines of a murder mystery comedy built for streaming. And, to be clear, I don’t think there’s any chance it will be bad; it will simply come down to whetherThe Afterpartyis very good or very great.
We’ll keep you posted asThe Afterpartydevelops. In the meantime, get even more Apple TV+ updateshere.
Allie Gemmill is the Weekend Contributing Editor for Collider. You can follow them on Twitter@_matineeidle.
