SummaryDory (Alia Shawkat) becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl she barely knew in college with reluctant help from her boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds), her narcissist friend Elliott (John Early), and actress friend Portia (Meredith Hagner). TBS will air all 10 episodes over one week, with two episodes per night.
SummaryDory (Alia Shawkat) becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl she barely knew in college with reluctant help from her boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds), her narcissist friend Elliott (John Early), and actress friend Portia (Meredith Hagner). TBS will air all 10 episodes over one week, with two episodes per night.
Search Party’s ambitious and implausible conclusion is emblematic of its main character in a way; it’s terrifying, fearless, and goes big because there really is nothing left to lose. There are some minor misses along the way, but the anarchy of the final season sharpens the show’s understanding of the zeitgeist.
I've completed watching all 5 seasons of Search Party.
Again, I find the casting to be among the best efforts I have experienced.
Casting directors Gayle Keller, Seth White, Cody Beke did exceptional work.
The acting, directing, writing, costumes, makeup, etc all came together to result in one of the most satisfying serious I have ever experienced.
I always find it hard to give comedies high ratings - but, I'm rating this series a 9 which I believe is probably the highest rating I have ever given a film of this genre.
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I am in the middle of season 3 and I have returned for the second time to raise my rating. I almost never rate any film - and definitely not comedies as high as a 9. The casting and directing of Search Party blows me away. This is one of the very few series I have rated as high as a 9. Acting and writing are solid 7s to 8s.
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Search Party is a sit-com involving a group of gen-z friends searching for a missing friend. I had never thought I would watch this series - but, it consistently gets favorable reviews - so, I watched season 1.
The casting is very good and makes me wonder why so many films have such bad casting.
Gayle Keller was the casting director and, in my opinion, she is one of the prime reasons Search Party is of such high quality. Seth White, Cody Beke continued the excellent casting in seasons 2 through 5.
Regardless, the good acting and good writing mesh well and make for some entertaining distraction.
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I'm halfway through season 3 and I came back to Metacritic to raise my rating from 7 to 8 - primarily on the strength of the directing.
But, the casting continues to empress me. In a scene near the end of season 3, episode 3 there is a meeting of 21 women. I re-watched the scene a couple of times because there was exactly 1 actor who was bad. She didn't have a speaking part - but, she stood out so much because she was surrounded by well cast actors. The bad actor was just sitting there doing absolutely nothing and almost ruined the scene.
I think casting directors think they can slip bad actors into a film and it won't make too much of a difference - but, it does.
I thought it was a fitting end to a show of the like that we might not see again. Not only did they switch genres through mystery, to courtroom drama ,to psychological thriller, through to , but they kept the pitch dark writing and pitch perfect cast on point throughout.
The main four were outstanding again, especially Alia Shawkat in full cult leader mode. The guest stars continue to nail it - Jeff Goldblum, Trudie Styler and John Waters get added to the likes of Susan Sarandon, Christine Taylor, Ann Dowd and Busy Phillips.
Yes there were a few too many balls in the air by the end and a couple of storylines were dropped like red-hot potatoes, but it's brave, daring writing - not just more of the same like you get with 95% of the sitcoms on TV today. In my mind, this is right up there with The Good Place as one of the best sitcoms of the last five or so years.
It’s as inconsistent as the show has ever been in terms of plotting and theme, but there’s also something riveting about its insane structure and ludicrous final episodes.
Search Party was always a bold and surreal comedy series that managed to shift genres while maintaining a consistent sense of dark humour and absurdity in its tone. It also managed to ground its larger-than-life characters in the constantly shifting scenarios they got thrown into.
Season 5, however, might have leapt a little too far, and I think they knew it. The main characters barely act like themselves, and it jumps into some genres which are hard to reconcile.
Nonetheless, there is a part of me that really enjoyed the season as an elaborate prank. The writers had to know they were not only pushing the envelope, but inventing a humanoid android powered by moon cheese to shove it off the table full force with its mechanical baby toe.
And because it goes to such extremes, and throws all rationality out the window, I have no choice but to accept this season as a dream, some sort of grand delusion with the events of the real story having ended somewhere in season 4 or early on in season 5.
Man, seasons 1-4 have their own hang ups, but are worth enduring because they felt incremental and contextual to the plot and characterization that came before .
Season 5, however, is completely ungrounded and unnecessarily goofy.
Awful season.
It was pretty clear what they were trying to say, but in my opinion they totally missed the mark.
I understand the willingness to match the world's current tone and trying to be snary with a parody of it, but when it falls into distasteful random **** the execution is definitely not there.
What's even more aggreiving to me is that Season 4 had a pretty cool and nice ending for the show, that they had to waste with the post-credit scene and the whole Season 5 after that.