Search Party

Books, comics, TV, music
1

Before we begin… I don’t love how the various streaming services and even Game Pass have led to a clumping-up of all our discussion on various movies, shows, and games into the big threads named after the streaming services instead of the specific titles.

So, in the spirit of be the change you want to see, I have created a thread for Search Party!

I’ve always heard good things about this show and season 4 recently premiered on HBO Max so I decided to give it a shot. So far I’m enjoying it quite a bit. It’s fun to see some Twin Peaks and Veronica Mars in this NYC comedy format. The central cast members are all growing on me and there are quality bit players all over the place like Rosie Perez, Parker Posey, and Ron Livingston. And Michael Showalter too since he’s a writer/director/creator on the series.

Has everyone already seen it and I’m just late to the titular party?

Now, on to the REAL REASON I started this thread.

One of the pleasures of the show is getting occasional glimpses of Alia Shawkat’s various, little tattoos. Like she has the word MUTANT in tiny letters arranged in an arc on her right shoulder. And I freaked out yesterday when I saw this shot from episode 8:

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Enhance 57-19. Track 45 left. Stop.

mr. jones

That’s Mr. Jones! From Dan Clowes’ graphic novel Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron! Here are two reasons why this is great:

  1. Alia Shawkat is just as cool as I thought she was.
  2. Discovering this tattoo on an actor on a TV show feels a lot like how this mysterious little guy appears to the main character named Clay throughout the book. Here’s a quote from the Wiki…

The happy-face icon of “Mr. Jones” also appears in various places through the story, tattooed into people, carved on to Clay’s foot, as a ghost-like character, in Hitler’s birthmark, and on the sign for Value Ape shops. It signifies the way in which logos pervade our societies, and links to the conspiracy elements of the story.

A while back I read that Claire Boucher (aka Grimes) briefly lived on a houseboat on the Mississippi River named Velvet Glove Cast in Iron.

So now Alia Shawkat joins Grimes in my pantheon of talented women who have hip, hip taste in surreal comic literature. Alia also has a hell of a big scar on one arm and I wonder what happened but I’m okay not knowing.

I’ll be watching the season 1 finale tonight. “CHANTAL!”

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3

On the other hand, her taste in men.

The “houseboat” story is pretty slapstick, too:

Although the headline is wrong. Floating is about the only thing it did well, it seems!

4

I hadn’t realized I’d been doing this lately. But you’re right! I’ll try not to. Which means going against our inclination here at Qt3 not to start new threads.

5

Yeah, I realized I’ve been doing it in the Game Pass discussion. Not exactly a huge problem but it makes searching for impressions a little more convoluted.

6

I just finished watching season 2 and I liked it a lot less than the first season. Dory as an eager/obsessive private eye working with her friends was a lot more appealing than Dory with a guilty conscience fighting with her friends. I guess I’ll stick with it because it’s addictive but I hope seasons 3 and 4 are better than 2.

7

My take was I really liked most of season one until the end. Season two less, season three even less, and season four less even less (from what I’ve seen of it). What happens at the end of season one felt like a pretty tired trope to keep the ball rolling and it ends up feeling pretty rudderless. A show should be about something, and Search Party felt like a show that only had a kernal of that something until the end of season one for me.

8

Ah, that’s too bad you felt the same about seasons 3 and 4. I didn’t like the story choice at the end of season 1 either since it felt like it went against the fundamental essence of the show I thought I was watching. I guess since I’m here primarily for the characters and comedy, it’s not a total deal-breaker.

9

I skimmed this a few times and if you mention it, apologies, but what is this show even about?

10

It’s about four friends living in NYC who find out that their college classmate Chantal has gone missing. Dory Sief, the directionless main character, is initially curious but then grows more and more obsessed with finding Chantal and she ends up unwittingly dragging her three friends into the mystery and danger.

11

Interesting! I love the season one finale, but have never really talked to anyone or read anything online about it. It really elevated the first season, in my mind, from good and occasionally great to something more. If the show ended there, it would be on the shortlist—if the not the very top—of best series finales I’ve seen. I agree that it runs counter to most of the show as presented, but I liked how jarring it was, how it pulled Dory back into reality. It felt like the exact sort of thing that might happen in real life.

Season 2 I remember thinking was funnier, but less compelling. Never got HBO Max to watch the others, but probably will eventually. The main four of the cast are all perfect in their role.

12

For me, season one was perfect when it was just about the missing girl and how that missing girl was resolved. Once Ron Livingston was killed and everyone decided to do the most tired, stupid plot thing ever - not tell the police and hide the body, I felt like the show was headed into some uninteresting, well-trodden territory. Second season proved that to me… it dragged out an improbable event in a fairly boring way for my tastes. Third season did more of that while also making me feel like there wasn’t a real vision driving the show. The fourth season has cemented my feelings that the show and characters are completely rudderless as it feels like how a soap opera keeps things going.

13

Yeah, I feel the same. The story keeps spiraling out in a chaotic way without the satisfaction of resolving plot threads and relationships along the way.

It’s still funny and addictive enough to keep going. Starting into season 3, I especially like Shalita Grant as Dory’s rookie lawyer Cassidy. She’s awesome. And I love Michaela Watkins in anything so I’m glad she’s onboard. (It was a recent AV Club Random Roles interview with Watkins that got me started watching this show.)

I’m mostly still in it because I love Meredith Hagner as Portia. Somehow I find her totally endearing even when she’s at her most annoying. She and John Early make quite the pair. And the guy who plays Drew is quite funny.

14

Agree with what you say. I find Portia to be the character I want to watch the most, and the attorneys in season three were the best part of the season for me.

15

Despite loving the season one finale, I don’t really disagree with either of your takes on it and its consequences for latter seasons (though again I’ve only seen it through two). In fact, I was surprised that it had a second season at all as it felt narratively spent afterward (finding the missing girl, the murder, the breakup, etc.). I thought season two’s comedic aspects worked well, but its dramatic arcs fell mostly flat. Which was still okay as I was mostly, like both of you seemingly, watching for the four main characters at that point.

16

I think my favorite Portia episode was when she met Matthieu in Montreal. In the scene where she was begging Dory to let her go have a drink with him, she kept petulantly kicking her heel up to smack it with her hand and it really cracked me up.

The woman who plays Chantal is really funny also… her new braces really complete the character.

I think my only real gripe is that the show split the four main characters apart and they haven’t been together nearly enough.

17

Well, wouldn’t you know it! The opening scene of the very next episode gets the gang back together, albeit in an unexpected setting:

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18

Cassidy in the courtroom is amazing. (Spoiler-ish for season 3.)

19

Just finished season 4 and once again the guest stars really came through…

Susan Sarandon as Aunt Lylah was amazing. It’s worth watching the entire season just for her. They put her behind the wheel of a very Thelma and Louise looking car for a truly inspired car chase and rotary gag.

At first I wasn’t sure about the main plotline, but then they revealed the twink’s face on the Lil Sticky’s wrapper and everything got funnier from there. It’s actually a plotline very similar to that Mr. Jones tattoo I was talking about in the OP.

I saw that the show was renewed for season 5 so count me in, I guess!

20

That car chase episode was the highlight of the season for me, really hysterical in my opinion. Agree that Sarandon stole the show But I will admit by the end my overall impression was that I hated this season.