You might not be familiar with their names, but you certainly have seen their work. Chris Miller and Phil Lord are the Academy Award-winning duo behind 21 Jump Sreet, the Lego series of films, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and the Oscar-winning animated superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Now the two are back together to bring you a unique murder mystery with a twist of comedy.
Reunion Turn Murder Scene
The Hillmount High class of 2006 is holding a 15-year reunion at their old high school and everyone is there.
Some are there to meet old friends, some to recapture old flames, but most of them are there to meet Xavier, their pop superstar, actor, and celebrity humanitarian classmate.
After the reunion, a close circle of guests have assembled at a private VIP afterparty at Xavier’s sleek Marin County cliffside home. Along with their issues, baggage, and history.
All things considered, the party is off to a great start, until Xavier’s body was found on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff below the balcony of his lavish home.
The Suspects
Enter Detective Danner, an ambitious detective who recently arrived in the Bay Area
from Los Angeles, and her eager junior partner, Detective Culp.
They interview each suspect one by one and learn that almost everyone at the afterparty had an issue with Xavier in the past and had the opportunity to commit the crime.
No Two Are The Same
Each episode in The Afterparty is told from the perspective of a different character and is done in a different style.
For example, in the first episode Aniq, a geeky puzzle maker looking for love recounts his story like a rom-com.
In another episode Yasper, an aspiring singer who does A/V installation on the side and Aniq’s best friend, tells his story in a musical.
There’s also Zoe, a recently-divorced mother and artist craving a good time and Aniq’s high school crush, who tells her story as a cartoon.
A Mystery full of Puzzles and Great Talents
The cast of The Afterparty is an enable of some of the top extraordinary ensembles of comedic actors.
There’s Tiffany Haddish (Detective Danner), Sam Richardson (Aniq), Zoe Shao (Zoe), Ike Barinholtz (Brett), Ben Schartz (Yasper), Ilana Glazer (Chelsea) and Dave Franco (Xavier) just to name a few.
The show is also designed to be full of secrets and hidden messages.
Lord and Miller collaborated with the magician and puzzle creator David Kwong, along with fellow puzzle master Dave Shukan, to create various complex cyphers that the art department clandestinely inserted into the eight episodes.
In every episode, we’ve hidden a bunch of coded messages that are extra bonus hints for who did it. In the set dressing, there are all these hidden things and if you freeze-frame you can decode hidden messages.
Chris Miller
Chris went to great lengths to sneak many clues and easter eggs into the series, and he provided me with a roadmap during prep on how we could send puzzles and secret messages to the audience. It will be a lot of fun to see how many people pick up on it!” Lord adds.
Phil Lord
Where To Watch
The Afterparty premiers on 28 JAn with new episodes available every Friday.
It is an Apple TV+ exclusive, however, until next week (7 Feb), you can catch the first episode, in full, on YouTube and get a taste of what the show is all about.
