With intellectual property at a premium these days, it shouldn’t be surprising that filmmaker Kenneth Branagh pulled his dusty Agatha Christie mysteries off the bookshelf for cinematic fodder. “Death on the Nile” was released last year, while “A Haunting in Venice” came out in 2023. While there’s nothing wrong with Agatha Christie, period mysteries aren’t exactly new or even fresh. But the genre still has life in it, if you look beyond crusty Christie rehashes.
“The Afterparty” sounds like a too cute Gen Z series, but fans of whodunnits and, yes, Agatha Christie will find plenty to love in the Apple TV+ series. Each season revolves around one murder, and Tiffany Haddish plays the lead investigator role as Detective (and, in season two, former Detective) Danner, piecing together the puzzle of who committed the murder by interviewing different party guests in each episode. To jazz up the traditional investigation format Agatha Christie fans will remember, a different style of filmmaking is used in each episode ranging from ‘70s soap opera to rom-com and film noir. It could be a heavy handed technique, but so far it’s been fun or at least not irritating, which is all anyone could ask for.
While the first season focused on an afterparty following a class reunion, the second season moves to the wedding of a tech mogul, with Haddish being brought into the action by one of the suspects (proved innocent) in season one, escape room designer and wedding guest Aniq Adjaye (Sam Richardson). Adjaye is the plus one of Zoë Zhu (Zoë Chao), whose sister Grace (Poppy Liu) is tying the knot. There is, of course, an afterparty to the wedding reception and there is, of course, a murder. In season one, it’s pop star Xavier (David Franco) and in season two, it’s Edgar Minnows (Zach Woods).
While some tropes get dragged out of the closet (everyone does gather in one room to reveal the killer, for example), they get updates or loose interpretations. Guessing the killer is never as easy as you think (I’ve guessed wrong twice) and even better, though there’s some salty language, it’s fairly family friendly — there isn’t gore or sex, so older kids can watch. “The Afterparty” will likely be back for another season, but there’s no reason not to catch up now. See if you can solve each mystery before you burn through an entire season. It may not be set in a dusty 20th century format, but the series is all the better for it.
This article was produced and syndicated by MediaFeed.
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Featured Image Credit: Apple TV+.
