Times may be tough, but the new TBS series Search Party nails societal commentary for this generation.
“What would true crime look like if it was trying to be solved by idiots?” Is how co-creator Charles Rogers summed up TBS’s newest hit Search Party when the cast sat down for a live taping with 2 Dope Queens at a Pop Up Shop to promote the series in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
When a girl named Chantal goes missing and old college acquaintance, Dory (Alia Shawkat) becomes obsessed with finding her. The idea for Search Party, which is a dark millennial comedy, came in part from a really tragic story. Although the cast and crew really aren’t supposed to talk about what happened, Rogers let us in on the secret that when he was a child his father was kidnapped. The secret was meant to protect his father but as Rogers pointed out, “No offense, but I don’t think the kidnappers are listening to 2 Dope Queens.”
“I don’t know,” responded co-host Jessica Williams. “Sometimes kidnappers are woke.”
Rogers’ father is alive and well, so it is all good.
That covers a lot of the darker parts of the story but there is also some heavy millennial satire going on. Search Party is the result of trying to examine millennial culture in middle of a genre show. Dory, her boyfriend Drew ( John Reynolds), and friends Elliot ( John Early) and Portia (Meredith Hagner) are classic brooklyn hipster millennial types. They brunch, thrift for clothing, and are attached to their Twitter feeds with an umbilical chord.
Rogers and his co-creator Sarah-Violet Bliss had really clear intentions about how a group of friends during this stage of their lives react to a tragedy like this. Rogers and Bliss liked the idea of how having a generation obsessed with social media would play into this quasi-true crime narrative. Social media puts up this veil of insincerity and so throughout the series there’s almost two narrative running alongside each other: how the main characters really feel and the emotional shitstorm the pretend to feel on the internet.
The real compelling part of the series, though, is the group of characters that Bliss and Rogers have created. All the actors represent a different group. Dory is the eager-to-please one still trying to find herself. Drew is confused and not always good with cues but really trying to help deep down. Portia is a struggling actress vying for attention, and Elliot is a homosexual male dealing with love and who he is. All the characters shine individually and though they are sort of exaggerated versions of real people, they still have real human emotion and qualities underneath it all.
Hagner, while talking about her character Portia and her insecurities, mentioned a really important point. “There is no male gaze in this,” she told the audience. “She gets to be all of her,” Rogers responded. “Without worrying about how that’s perceived. It’s true for female characters that when there is a male gaze present then their outfits and high heels and personalities become muted by whatever stereotype or “appeal” is put on them. Rogers and Bliss, took all of that out not only for a character like Portia, but for every character. They wanted each one of them to be all of what they are without that outside influence warping it. It’s clearly evident in each episode.
Search Party is really the perfect series for these times. It’s dark and hysterical, yes, but it also makes really strong commentary on society and a generation.
*Photo via 2 Dope Queens Twitter*