Just when you think television has had enough crime dramas or shows about missing women, TBS gives us Search Party. It’s a mix of two trends that the current “golden age” of television - the single-crime drama and the super dark comedy.
Created by Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, with Wet Hot American Summer’s Michael Showalter as a co-executive producer, Search Party is about as dark as a comedy can get. It stars Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) as Dory, a 20-something Brooklynite who has no idea what to do with her life. One day, she sees a poster for a girl gone missing named Chantal and is convinced that she might have known her in high school. With that somewhat tenuous link in mind, she devotes herself to finding the missing girl.
The pilot episode, which will certainly have to be trimmed for basic cable thanks to more than a few f-words, also introduces us to the other people in Dory’s life. There’s her disinterested boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds), her friend Portia (Meredith Hagner, Men at Work), her other friend Elliot (John Early) and ex-boyfriend Jordan Carlos (Cop Out). Portia also gets an interesting subplot, as we learn that her overconfidence is just a facade because her mother cares more about her sister’s success than her’s.
SXSW only showed the first episode, but TBS has already ordered the show to series and new episodes are in production. Most of the members of the cast and main crew were there for a Q&A session after the screening to explain where they plan on taking the show and their influences.
“We sort of have an idea of what happens in the story,” Showalter said. “But also, we’re kind of like not sure what happens either. So, part of the fun of it has been making up where this all goes.”
Rogers, Bliss and Showalter clearly hope to create a series that audiences will want to watch more than once to pick up clues in early episodes to see if something was linked to a later event. The show’s influences range from Twin Peaks for the mystery to Fargo for the comedy.
Shawkat and Hagner said that they are both trying to figure out what’s going on as they read the scripts.
“My first thought was, maybe it’s all in Dory’s head… a lot of stories go that way,” Shawkat said. She later added, “It’s not! It’s not all in her head.”
TBS still hasn’t set a premiere date for the show, but it should air before the end of the year.