El Día Después

This is a funny, clever whodunnit with smart writing and an A-List ensemble of comic actors - but I had never heard of it - I am bombarded by trailers and promos for shows 24/7.

I don't know what the folks at Apple TV+ were thinking by slipping this ingenious gem under the promotional carpet.

It's a playful, smartly constructed mystery from The Lego Movie guys, with each episode being told from the point of view of a different suspect - each in a different movie genre style: romcom, action, thriller, musical, animation, and so on.

Everyone in the cast is at the top of their comic game, and they all seem to be having a great time. Now stop reading this and go watch it.

Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Ben Schwartz and Sam Richardson. I may be a little biased but anything these guys do has me on board. Its not for everyone, but Ben and Sam are seemingly allowed free reign with their ad libbed, improv style comedy. If this type of thing is at all your cup of tea you might enjoy it. Also Ike barenholtz is always a treat.

It's a very specific kind of humour, and I totally get why people would find the cast annoying - and for me that's a positive point for the series. The exaggeration and campiness of it is part of the whole format, and I think it's a fresh breath of air. It's not easy to sustain a 45 minutes comedy, and I think this show does it well so far.

Season 1 (8/10)

In The Afterparty, a murder is committed after a high school reunion and a cop tries to solve the case by listening to each suspects story, episode by episode.

The cop, Tiffany Haddish, is hilarious as usual, as is the rest of the cast. The episodes are each done in a particularly genre - action, musical, cartoon - based on the personality of the suspect. Through it all, main suspect and mystery-room designer Aniq tries to find the real killer and woo the girl he should have dated in high school.

This is all really funny, and the series does a nice job of character development, as the initial cartoonish characters are proven to have more depth than is at first apparent (at least in some cases).

The weakest aspect of this is the genre thing, which feels very half-assed. While a couple of episodes fully commit - the musical and the cartoon - for the most part all episodes are filmed in the same style with minor adjustments for the genre (a guy kinda slides along his car hood in the action episode, the high school episode has people a little extra angsty.

Tiffany also gets a flashback of her own and it's the worst episode in the series. It's not funny or necessary and feels like they just ran out of ideas for all the episodes. But all the rest is really good.

It would have been great if they had really done it up, with distinct film styles for each episode, but it's still very funny, the characters are generally likable (except the ones who aren't supposed to be), and the mystery keeps you guess and has a persuasive finale.

I loved this and binge-watched it. It's no "Only Murders in the Building" but it's still a great comedy mystery for fans of that genre.

Season 2 (7/10)

The second season followed, and in places even improved on its formula. Unfortunately, it was much more hit and miss.

Once again each episode is mainly told as a take-off of a particular genre. While the first season half-assed this concept, this time they really commit to creating something that has the look and feel of whatever they're going for. At its best, this results in a hilarious, dead-on Wes Anderson take-off and a turgid melodrama.

But for the most part the comedy is weaker. The worst episode, as was true of the first season, is the one built around Danner, but this time it's really horrendous. A lot of the other episodes are just so-so, like one featuring Ulysses, which was a big disappointment because John Cho did such a great job with the character.

The cast is solid, especially Cho and Elizabeth Perkins, and the mystery is intriguing, even if I didn't love the denoument.

Not a must-see like season 1, but still very fun.

I almost watched season 2 first because it had all the actors I had been seeing in the advertisements, and I didn't even know there was a first season. I kind of wish that I had watched in reverse, because season 1 was so good and season 2 fell flat. While season 2 appears to have a bigger budget, and it is more cinematic, it just doesn't have what season 1 had... humor.

Actually if I had watched season 2 first, I probably would have just turned it off. Season one feels like a real murder mystery, but it's also funny, the characters are likable, the music is great (Xavier's closing credits track is a legit banger), and it pulled me in so well that I binged the whole first season in a day.

Season 2 has been difficult to get interested in. After finishing an episode I have no desire to watch another, so I turn it off for a few days. You do not feel as attached to the characters as S1, so you don't really care who is the killer. In S1 I found myself guessing, but also hoping that it wasn't a character I liked. Also, in S1 I felt that any one of the characters could potentially be the killer, same way I felt watching Scream as a kid. But in S2, no one's motive seems strong enough to kill for really, and again, I don't really care enough because you do not feel as attached to the characters as S1.

Maybe it is because S1 takes place after a high school reunion, so the bonds feel more real. The story of these people having history and long term grudges is more believable and better explained. S2 takes place at a wedding where virtually everyone is a stranger, even the bride and groom. The relationships are flimsy, the grudges are silly to none existent, and the sense of urgency is gone.

As of writing this, only 7 episodes of S2 have been released, and I've watched them all. By the 7th episode (not counting the whole S1 I just watched) I should care about the characters and the story, but I don't. This is not to say they're bad, because they aren't. The actors are great, and they've done some cool episodes which are each a nod to a style of film, but the magic isn't there.

I highly recommend season 1 and the song from it "Imma live Forever" by Xavier. Season 2 is neat but meh.