The crew helped give each episode its own distinct and beautiful look. Many of the actors were writers, producers and creators themselves, so they could seamlessly adjust their performances to whatever shade each moment needed. Oh, and did I mention that we decided to hide a bunch of coded clues, ciphers and puzzles in the set dressing of each episode to give a meta-layer to the show for those nerdy enough to look? And all this was going to be filmed during the pre-vaccine pandemic.īut then we got to filming and … it turns out if you work with talented and wonderful people, they make you look good.
The ambition of “The Afterparty” was so much more than expected. The show’s mystery was intricate and episodes were interconnected, so changing the script for one scene in one episode meant adjusting corresponding scenes in every other episode’s retelling.Īwards Tiffany Haddish (‘The Afterparty’) on stand-up vs.
The animated episode would need an entirely separate production pipeline with an entirely different crew that would need to happen concurrent with shooting. The action episode would need a fight choreographer and planned-out car chase. The musical episode would need a songwriter and choreographer and prerecorded songs with the actors singing (could they sing?). Making each episode a bespoke genre meant we had to reinvent the wheel eight times. The reality set in of how complicated it would be to tell the same story from eight different perspectives, how intricate it would be to do a rom-com, a thriller, a musical and more, all in one show, all while planting clues and red herrings for a fair-play mystery. Then, as happens with every project we take on, we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. But mostly, making “The Afterparty” was going to be easy, breezy fun.
It would be an opportunity to say something about how we all see the world through our own myopic lenses, and how with a little understanding and empathy we can see each other as people instead of two-dimensional characters.
THE AFTERPARTY SERIES
Somewhere between a 7.5 and an 8 out of 10.“The Afterparty” started as a fun idea - a comedic murder-mystery series in which suspects would tell a detective their own version of the night’s events in a unique film style that matched their personality - a genre mash-up whodunnit at a high school reunion.
I would 100% watch a second season made by the same people. Overall the series is very enjoyable, and the whole cast works together beautifully: even minor characters like Indigo or Walt are great. Episode 1 is very sweet, episode 6 is very creative, and episode 8 proves how elaborately and carefully designed the whole mystery plot was. The quality varies from episode to episode, with 3 being thoroughly brilliant (I've watched parts of it several times once is certainly not enough) and 7 being the weakest (perhaps the only time where a bold narrative choice does not quite pan out). This series is somewhat similar to the recent "Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window" in that it also has an eccentric sense of humor and marches to its own beat, switching genres from episode to episode (hint: pay attention to the opening animated sequence), not always giving the audience what they want, and sometimes ignoring the crime investigation part altogether.
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