Search Party Finally Seeks Closure

Search party
Search party

Search Party does theatre of the absurd better than anyone in the current entertainment scene- something its cast and crew know. Precisely the reason why the show will be debuting its final and fifth season on Friday. The show has a simple premise- a sweltering July afternoon in the Navy Yard at Brooklyn, where one of those combative news talk shows is getting taped.

The sort of news talk on which the host would be grilling the guests until everyone starts yelling at one another. And the guests are sitting to produce and sell some wildly imaginative product that has just hit its billion-dollar valuation. Today’s sale was based on enlightenment, which would then be peddled by a peacefully brunette millennial in a billowing white robe. 

Search Party’s Final Season Premieres Today

When Search Party initially premiered in November 2016, it was marketed as a broad comedy about millennial ennui, which opened up with its fore core members- Dory, her on and off boyfriend Drew, flighty actress Portia, and loose cannon Elliott at brunch. And then, the story turned from Dory’s obsession with their college classmate’s sudden disappearance which moved into murder, kidnapping, and court cases alongside wacky send-ups of pop culture. 

Search Party’s quality is such that it keeps the cast and crew in awe too. Shawkat, one of the cast members, spoke about the creators Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, and how much she used to trip out on them. The cast’s main question to the creators was ‘What are you guys doing?’, for it was their way of making sense in the how by portraying an extreme version if Dory was indeed real. For the creators though, this was simply a coming-of-age show.

Now, Search Party could have easily gotten hold of the formula that has rendered many shows a critical darling- comedy and mystery with some Nancy Drew-esque marketing. But rather than turning it into a snoozefest in the later seasons, the creators have mashed genres upon genres in every season to bring out something new.