overnights

The Afterparty Series-Premiere Recap: Meet Cute

The Afterparty

Aniq
Season 1 Episode 1
Editor’s Rating 4 stars

The Afterparty

Aniq
Season 1 Episode 1
Editor’s Rating 4 stars
Photo: Aaron Epstein/Apple

Growing up, movies and TV always made high-school reunions seem so great. I thought there’d be dance numbersNeck-shivvings to a New Wave grooveAdorable geriatric party crashers. Having watched the first episode of The Afterparty, I know now I can have all these things at my next shindig, so long as I mentally impose the right movie genre onto the festivities. The Apple TV+ series, which takes place at the 15th reunion of Hillmount High’s class of 2006, features characters who experience the night’s events through the lens of different film styles. Will we see a homicide depicted through Busby Berkeley–esque musical numbers? Time will tell!

We enter the story as Hungry Hungry Hippos thespian Xavier (Dave Franco) careens off his upper balcony and thuds onto the beach rocks below. It appears a crime has been committed, though thankfully just one; if Xavier hadn’t made the wise decision to forgo a shirt, the concealment of those pecs would be a felony in and of itself. Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) soon swoops onto the scene, determined to solve the case before the arrival of an L.A. ringer. She and her partner Detective Culp (John Early) scan the area, noting that the corpse is surrounded by cooked shrimp, a blond wig, and a jaunty hat, which is also how I’d like to be found when I’m a corpse. From the position of the jaunty hat and the cut on Xavier’s nose, Danner determines that the musician has been murdered. Cue the half-tempo violin version of “Maneater.”

Inside the house, the stragglers from Xavier’s after-party wait to be interrogated. Aniq (Sam Richardson), his face Sharpie-decorated with feline features, gazes at the winsome Zoë (Zoë Chao). At the same time, Zoë’s ex-husband Brett (Ike Barinholtz) smolders by the wet bar, and the boozy Chelsea (Ilana Glazer) wears a fluffy little half-coat that I want on my body immediately. Rounding out the suspects are A/V tech Yasper (Ben Schwartz), forgettable Walt (Jamie Demetriou), person-I-was-absolutely-in-a-Meisner-class-with Indigo (Genevieve Angelson), and smug marrieds Jenn No. 1 and Ned (Tiya Sircar and Kelvin Yu). Danner informs the group that she’ll be interrogating them one by one, and Indigo launches into an avant-garde recounting that makes Aniq look suspicious enough for Danner to pick him as her first interrogatee.

In the recording studio turned interview room, Aniq confesses to Danner that he went to his reunion for love, and his memory of the evening takes on a distinctly rom-com sheen. Whimsically plucked violin strings accompany his entrance into the high school, and Yasper is on hand as the convenient sidekick who has nothing better to do but act as a cheerleader for the protagonist’s love life. Zoë, Aniq’s former chemistry partner and longtime crush, leans in for a hug only to be stymied by a cluster of adorably meddlesome balloons. Stars are aligning, heartstrings are zinging … and then Xavier shows up in his cockblock chopper to ruin everything.

Aniq tries to reconjure that lovin’ feeling by karaoking the anatomical opus “My Neck, My Back,” but curiously, this fails to stop Zoë from cozying up to Xavier at the cool kids’ table. The adjacent loser table isn’t nearly as fun, as it’s occupied by Brett, who declares — complete with scary knife-flailing — that he plans to kill anyone who touches his ex-wife. Since Aniq’s No. 1 goal for the evening is to touch Brett’s ex-wife, this is upsetting news. But when Yasper corners Xavier about a musical collaboration, Aniq uses the opportunity to whisk Zoë through a montage of adorable extracurricular activities. Zoë is now vice-principal of the school and therefore has the authority to raid the cafeteria cookie bar with impunity and eat her fill of confiscated weed gummies. Who knew that vice-principalling would match my skill set exactly?

Aniq and Zoë wind up on the football bleachers, drinking and reminiscing about their halcyon chemistry days. Bunsen burners all aflame, the two lean in for their very first kiss, only for their exothermic process to be interrupted by Maggie (Everly Carganilla), Zoë and Brett’s daughter. The babysitter explains that Brett hired her to watch the kid, but that she suddenly has a Bacardi Limón emergency to attend to and must skedaddle. Zoë goes to chastise Brett, while Aniq fields several uncomfortable questions about how many bones he’s put into Maggie’s mommy, and if screenwriters could retire the trope where young’uns cutesily repeat back sex terms, that’d be great, thanks.

Once Brett collects his offspring, Aniq invites Zoë to grab a nightcap with him, but Xavier once again lures her away with the promise of hot ’copter fun times. Aniq, distracted by his daydreams of sticking Xavier’s X necklace where the sun don’t shine, wanders into the path of Yasper’s moving rental car. Despite experiencing at least minor brain trauma, Aniq insists that they skip a hospital visit and go straight to Xavier’s after-party; he has a woman to woo! Tipped off to the fact that Aniq has been canoodling with Zoë, Brett rushes after the rental in his racing-striped mid-life-crisis-mobile, bellowing out the window, “I’ll kill all of ya!” This is way too on the nose. Killers don’t proclaim that they’re going to kill everyone midway through the series’s pilot. It’s just not done. Brett, you’re innocent; I’m calling it right now.

By the time Aniq arrives at the party, he’s slugged down the contents of Chelsea’s flask and started on another drink, making this a super time to declare his undying passion for a newly separated woman he hasn’t seen in 15 years. Luckily for Zoë, he passes out, only to awaken covered in skis and Solo cups. Assuming that Xavier set him up to be drenched, Aniq stomps upstairs to confront the pop idol, hoping Zoë will follow, overhear him tell Xavier that his X doesn’t deserve her G-spot, and fall madly in love with this kickass bon mot. But there is no Xavier. No Zoë, either. Just the screams of a megastar hurtling to his death, a mirror to reflect his cat face back at him.

Danner can’t help but consider that Aniq had plenty of motive to kill Xavier and that he did storm into the same room Xavier had toppled out of. Dismissed from the interrogation room, Aniq hyperventilates to Yasper that he’s going to wind up in jail if he doesn’t use his escape-room prowess to solve the case by morning. Luckily, he discovers in the bathroom trash can a scrap of paper reading, “This is payback for what you did to me.” Whether this is helpful evidence or simply a section of resignation letter from whichever party caterer had to attach little shrimps to a topiary X, we’ll soon find out.

Stray Observations

• Ska-pe diem deserves a revival. If sea shanties can make a comeback, then by God, so can ska.

• Is there a market for PoochKicks? Having once put friction stickers on my dog’s paws (so he wouldn’t skid along the hardwood like a fuzzy Brian Boitano) and witnessed his disgruntlement, I can’t imagine most pups would react well to tiny Air Jordans.

• “I’m actually on an all-bread diet right now.” Same, Zoë, same.

• Joan’s Vote for Homekilling King: Based on this episode alone (and with the caveat that I’m woefully bad at solving whodunits), I’m going to guess that Walt is the murderer. Sure, he’s an obvious choice, what with his mustache-twirling declaration that, after this reunion, nobody will ever forget about him. But sometimes the obvious pick is the right one.

The Afterparty Series-Premiere Recap: Meet Cute