Search Party — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Plot

Search Party depicts the lives of Brooklyn resident Dory Sief, her passive boyfriend Drew Gardner, flamboyant show-off Elliott Goss, and flighty actress Portia Davenport. Serving as a contrast to the group is Dory's ex-boyfriend Julian Marcus, a journalist whose blunt nature frequently puts him into conflict with others.

The first season focuses on the disappearance of Dory's college acquaintance Chantal Witherbottom, whom Dory sets out to find, with Drew, Elliott, and Portia reluctantly joining her investigation. While her friends also deal with difficulties in their own lives, Dory obsessively focuses on her pursuit of Chantal, believing her to be in danger.

The second season focuses on the aftermath of the death of Keith Powell, a private investigator who is killed as a result of Dory mistakenly believing him to be a threat to Chantal. As the group struggles to return to their normal lives, they also attempt to cover up Keith's death, which affects them in various ways.

The third season focuses on Dory and Drew being tried for murdering Keith, which Dory denies any involvement in, forcing them to battle against the evidence proving they caused his death. A media circus soon circles around the trial, while the friends have their relationships tested, and Dory's sanity gradually deteriorates.

The fourth season focuses on Dory's abduction at the hands of Chip Wreck, an unstable man obsessed with her. The abduction sends Drew, Elliott, and Portia searching for Dory as Chip attempts to manipulate Dory against her friends.

The fifth season focuses on Dory becoming a cult leader after a near death experience causes her to feel a spiritual awakening while she rekindles her relationship with Drew and begins a romance with Portia, who quickly becomes a devotee and Elliott struggling to control his unsettlingly adopted son. Assisted by her friends, billionaire tech mogul Tunnel Quinn, and the top social media influencers, Dory attempts to create a pill that will replicate her experience, oblivious to the dangers of her endeavor.

Themes

While the show is a dark comedy, Search Party undergoes shifts of tone and genre in each season. The first season is a mystery, revolving around the disappearance of Chantal Witherbottom and the story nods to classic detective stories such as Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, as underlined by the promotional art designed by Sam Hadley. It also includes comedy-drama elements, since the mystery plot is echoed by Dory's search for meaning and purpose. The creator Charles Rogers stated that the show explores "what it means to be "a good person"" and "the difference between wanting to be seen as a good person and being an actual one". The first three seasons also have a running theme around the toxic nature of deception, both deceiving others and self-deception. Télérama labeled the first season as an existential quest. According to Rogers, the title highlights this multiplicity:We wanted a title that conveys this blend of comedy and drama, but all our propositions were incongruous or far-fetched. Until we figured out that the most simple phrase used to talk about organized searches when a person's missing, "search party", was perfect : "search" represents mystery and "party" is the fun part. The heroes of the show don't really know what they're doing. For them, it's a light and entertaining thing. They shouldn't get involved in such detective work...The second season features psychological thriller elements, as underlined by the Alfred Hitchcock-inspired promotional art. Alia Shawkat asserted that the main theme of the season is "Hitchcock's paranoia".

Dory and Drew's trial in the third series introduces a "courtroom drama" narrative, influenced by the works of John Grisham. The legal plot was inspired by the real-life trial of Amanda Knox, who was convicted of murder in 2007. Moreover, the satire is mostly focused on fame and the media, with Rogers referencing the satirical crime film The Bling Ring and the cult dark comedy film To Die For, whose postmodern style is echoed throughout the season thanks to the inclusion of fictional true-crime shows and interviews of the main characters. The fourth season was described by Sarah-Violet Bliss as "being the kind of 'captive' genre" and drew comparisons to Misery. Critics described the fifth season as surreal science fiction and zombie horror.

Shawkat characterised her character's arc as showing "how desperate and how far you’ll go — all the different versions of yourself you will try to find out which one sticks."

Reception

The first season received positive reviews from television critics. Los Angeles Times wrote that it was "tightly made and effective on multiple levels". GQ wrote that it is "a flawless oddity, a once-in-a-lifetime piece of art. It's not the weekend's best show, it's the year's best." It holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The site's critical consensus reads "Search Party is an engaging, weird, dark, funny mystery elevated by exceptional performances throughout." On Metacritic, the season holds a rating of 81 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim". The show earned a nomination for the 2017 Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Series – Long Form.

The second season of Search Party received positive reviews from television critics. It holds a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The site's critical consensus reads "With a never-better Alia Shawkat in the lead, Search Party's second season delves deeper into the deliciously dark dramedy that makes the show so addictively entertaining." On Metacritic, the season holds a rating of 78 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

The third season of Search Party received positive reviews from television critics. It holds a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The site's critical consensus reads "Search Party's third season changes the satirical scenery without losing any of its bite, while giving its capable cast plenty of moments to shine." On Metacritic, the season holds a rating of 78 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Following the final season, The New York Times critic Dave Itzkoff summarised that the show "evolved from a low-fi if knowing satire of youthful narcissism into an unexpectedly intricate and baroque series, free to follow its muse down some very dark corridors." Mashable's Proma Khosla hailed it as "one of the most impeccable, twisted, and incisive comedies in years." Critics praised the show for its depiction of millennial adulthood in the increasingly fractious society of late 2010s America. Time critic Judy Berman remarked "In its journey from realism to absurdity, Search Party captured something that an Obama-era show like Girls—which, like its predecessor Sex and the City, quickly aged into triviality—never could." Chris Vanjonack of Electric Literature wrote "[b]e it climate collapse, an AI apocalypse, an even more virulent variant, or, god forbid, nuclear war, the show’s writers dare us to imagine what we might look like inside of those moments of crisis, forcing us to consider that even in the face of certain death, we’ll be stuck with all the worst parts of ourselves."

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