Search Party (2016)

This show is fantastic and hilarious. Most comedies are lucky to get a single chuckle from me over the course of a season; Search Party gets several genuine laughs every episode. WATCH IT

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. ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************************ 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. ************************************************* 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.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This is perhaps the most deeply cynical series I have ever seen. Virtually every character on the show is intensely unlikable with few if any redeeming qualities, and this includes peripheral characters who barely have any screen time. Some have said this show is an indictment of Millenials, but given that the cast includes people from other demographics, the show feels more like a "hate letter" to humanity. The only person who isn't a raging narcissist (Dory, the main character) eventually makes some incredibly bad, selfish choices. I found it impossible to root for *anyone* on this show, and that makes it hard to care about what happens. I initially gave up after season 1 episode 3. But a friend convinced me to stick with it, so I did. The life-changing event that happens at the end of season 1 drastically changes the tone of the show, and it made me want to know what the consequences would be. From that standpoint, the show becomes interesting as we watch the main characters fumble through their lives, hoping their collective, dark secret won't be revealed, and that's what's keeping we watching (it isn't the laughs, which are very few and far between, though some viewers will surely find the caricatures funnier than I do). However, while there have been a couple of exceedingly brief glimpses of humanity in a couple of characters, I'm now at the beginning of season 3 and haven't seen anything that makes me care any more about any of the characters. With only a couple of exceptions, I feel like I'm watching nothing but two-dimensional caricatures (well acted, to be fair) who consistently provide no reason to care about what happens to them. I honestly don't know how much more I can take of these people who are just mired in apparent disdain for everyone including themselves. Part of me wonders if the intent of this show is to make viewers feel better about themselves by portraying people who are so deeply unlikable that you can't help but feel you're not so bad. But it feels manipulative and hollow to me. I'll see if the story keeps my interest through season 3, but I'm gonna have to see some change in the characters to stick with this for 5 seasons.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]