The Afterparty takes a dark turn with a corrupt L.A. cop procedural
Sometimes this show lives at an uneasy intersection between satire and a straightforward genre piece.
TV Reviews The Afterparty
The Afterparty is really revealing that the stealth subject of its story is depictions of Toxic Types of Dudes. As such, the Danner episode of the show finally makes clear why she’s been so anxious about the impending arrival of Detective Germain: Her past experience with him suggests he’s more interested in case clearance rates than finding who’s committed a crime.
Germain is worse than just that, though. He’s the type of polished-seeming handsome white guy who everyone likes, who skates upward through life with a smile for everyone—until anything at all threatens his success, at which point he turns vicious. He’s friendly enough to Danner when they meet in their cadet days, but even then his kindness is shallow, and has a lot more to do with what he needs from her in any given moment. His specific variety of awfulness is revealed in a cascading series of scenes that eventually force Danner to leave Los Angeles, from his arrogant dismissal of her upon her arrival at a crime scene to the payoff of the gross nickname he’s given her.
That nickname is perhaps the nastiest part of the whole episode, if not the season, an epithet that starts at condescending and racist and eventually and inevitably ends with the threat of violence. It’s almost too much for the tone of the show, which has otherwise stayed relatively light even as it touched on darker matters. Despite the fact that the show is at its core about a murder, The Afterparty has typically softened its various darker genres with satire. But long stretches of the Danner episode are without jokes entirely, before jarringly jumping to something quirky and comedic, like when she gets distracted by how to make the perfect deviled egg in the midst of her triumphant clearing of the delivery thief. It’s a too-bracing jolt of reality for a show like this, really. Yes, the LA cop drama usually involves some racist, crooked cops. But hearing a white guy call a Black woman “Mad Dog” repeatedly and then threaten to put her down is downright disturbing, and no matter how accurate it might be to the experience of a woman like Danner, it’s a leap for a show like this to make amidst its usual shenanigans.
As a dark LA crime drama, it hits most of the notes you’d expect, minus the part where her partner is either corrupt or the only one who has her back or both (instead, he’s just a buffoon). She’s the one good cop in a corrupt system, hamstrung by superiors who don’t care about justice and are chasing TV fame. And as with the rest of these characters, it’s hard to separate her fantasy of who she is from what we see in reality. So far, she’s seemed somewhat complacent and goofy, and even apart from Germain getting sent in to manage a high-profile case, it seems like her boss has lost patience with her. Is she actually the smart and capable cop of her flashback? Or is she the person who couldn’t find her way out of an escape room, as we learned all the way back in the pilot? Since she says she’s solved the mystery, it looks like we’re about to find out…unless Germain shows up and derails the whole thing before she can interrogate Zoe and Brett’s daughter.
The episode is also a little sparse on Aniq, relegating him to some light air pod-related shenanigans with Zoe, who’s surprisingly chill about the fact that he illegally eavesdropped on her conversation with Danner. Really, the episode is light on the reunion characters overall, opting instead to keep the focus squarely on Danner and her reasons for hating Germain. It’s a bit of a shame, since we’re about to say farewell to all of these folks. Or hello, in the case of Jennifer 2, who’s now been missing for most of the season.
Stray observations
- I’m open to the show convincing me that any of these folks could be the killer in the finale, although in my opinion, Walt is the only one so far whose behavior is odd enough that it could include murder. The fact that Aniq says Zoe and Chelsea should have seen someone go up the stairs, but also does not notice Walt sitting next to him while he’s talking to Zoe could have been foreshadowing. Or his entire character is a season-long red herring.
- Nice callback to how Brett is a turd in a leather jacket.
- Not much on this earth is more awkward than Yasper’s excruciatingly long impression of Xavier’s orgasm song.
- Poor Reid Scott. I mean, not really, because he’s a successful actor, but he always gets stuck playing these absolute monsters.
- Did anyone else check to see how long this episode was after Danner complained about how TV depicts policing in a “corny-ass 44 minute package”? They’re safe—it’s under 40 minutes long.
- Wait, is the show also going to solve the older murder? Or was that a Fred Savage cameo just for the fun of it?
22 Comments
I’m pretty sure she’s a very component detective. We see that in the pilot and I’m pretty sure her Escape Room story is just that “a story” and she lied about failing it to 1) Make Aniq underestimate her intelligence, and make him he’s smarter then her 2) Put Aniq at ease(which fits in number one). I never thought she actually failed his escape room(we saw in the pilot her pick on some very tiny details, so I figured that was the show telling us ‘Nope, she’s playing him’)
Yeah, she’s a competent detective hamstrung by corruption, but she’s also likely giving herself more credit than she’s due. (I mean, is it me, or did it seem weird how nobody looked at the mistress as a suspect or accomplice? She had motive, she had the means, and she could’ve accounted for the whole gloves thing. The actor even gave off “nervous/anxiety” vibes every time she was on screen.)
Anyway, this wasn’t my favorite episode. It stalled the momentum. We all knew everything we needed to know about Danner already, and all this did was introduce a new antagonist…which we don’t need, IMO. Yasper’s still my main suspect. I’ll be shocked if it isn’t him, especially with how closely he’s been hanging around Aniq, and how desperate he was to listen into the conversations.
I kept expecting it to come out that the mistress was the killer as well, especially with the husband’s freak out.A friend of mine gave a very convincing argument for Yasper, and I figure from this episode that Xavier probably stole his songs from Yasper, which Yasper discovered when he was installing the AV equipment, and what Yasper’s really been doing all night is gathering evidence.
The mistress had an alibi though.Im guessing the killer is Yasper or Zoe.
I still think her partner is hella suspicious, even though they’d really have to work to make that fit.
He did “accidentally” erase the video evidence.
I’ve always thought it was Zoe. Who else would Aniq be blind to/not suspect?
Zoe is a very good suspect and I did suspect her for awhile (fits her theme about nobody really seeing the real her) but there’s a background gag in each episode that obliquely rules out one suspect (the first episode there’s a blinking light that spells “not the fireman” in morse code, ruling out Brett) and this episode says “not the bear” in the blank space on a hanging board in the police station
oooooh. How did anyone thinking to figure that out 🙂 What other hidden clues. Also, my real guess is we’re gonna find out he fell, or someone had something on him that would ruin his reputation and take him back to geeky Eugene and he couldn’t handle it.
There’s a Reddit thread that summarizes it all. Apparently it started with “that light is flickering weirld” and expanded from there. I don’t understand all of the codes used.The ruled out people in order are: the Fireman, the puddle, Mad Dog, the lefty, the skier, the cake eater, and the bear. As for who these refer to, that’s also a bit of an open question, looks to be (again, in order): Brett, ?, Danner, Indigo, ?, Chelsea, and Zoe
“Poor Reid Scott. I mean, not really, because he’s a successful actor, but he always gets stuck playing these absolute monsters.”Maybe because he’s good at it?
It turns out he plays a genuinely nice guy in the Venom movies. We’re supposed to suspect he’s kind of a dick, but instead he’s a good person.
I do like whenever they flip the script on that, throwing off expectations. Doesn’t happen often.
Whoa. Didn’t see that coming.
The first things I remember him in were the TBS sitcom My Boys (which I didn’t ever actively seek out but just seemed to be on when I wanted a lazy watch) and then as Laura Linney’s sweet doctor on The Big C. So while I know he’s played jerks since then, I never really thought it was something he was typecast in… The last time I saw him was in Why Women Kill, where he played a drug addicted mess but still a mostly likeable character.
The worst thing plot-driven comedies do these days is have entire episodes of backstory for characters that you are only interested in because they drive the plot.I’d disagree that this episode was “disturbing” or “dark”, rather I would describe it as boring. I like the show but this was a big misstep for me.
Walt is too obvious. Like if this was real life, where the obvious suspect usually did it, it would totally be him, but on TV, it’s never the guy who makes that much sense. They even spelled out his motive – he did it so they’ll finally notice him. But it’s not real life so I think it’s Yasper. There have been a couple clues (the text he supposedly received from Xavier stands out as particularly weird – “You inspired it” – that sounds like a text he sent to himself from X’s phone as cover), but his general demeanor isn’t murdery at all. That’s what TV murderers look like.
I fairness, when is Ben Schwartz’s demeanor not a little murdery?
So… it’s Yasper, right? Yasper did it, right? I’m saying it’s Yasper.It’s either that, or it was an accident and literally everyone was involved in some way.
I said in a diff discussion thread back in episode 1 that if they use the “it’s an accident” cop out I’m gonna be so disappointed.
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