Television

(disclaimer: the writer of this article loves this show dearly and would like to point out that it is no longer on the streamer that produced multiple seasons of it, most likely due to David Zaslav personally pressing the delete key on the Warner Bros. server. While this review is full of passion for the work, it'll sound like a recommendation, to which I'll hint that you can find it if you're exceptionally wise at guiding through the World Wide Web. As a piece of work I love, I think its morally alright to 'find it' this way, seeing as its been removed from all avenues. I mean, they never even officially put this show on DVD.) [this is a spoiler heavy review, but if the show hasn't interested you before this moment, these spoilers are sorta your last chance] Search Party is a show created by (and partially written by Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, and Michael Showalter. Before we get ahead of ourselves, the conceit of the first season is about a millennial who unwittingly ruins her life by attempting to prove her own self-worth. The first domino fallen in this tragedy being when Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat) recognizes a missing person's poster of a woman she vaguely remembers passing by in college. She insists with her friends that she, Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty), was always nice to her, an extrapolation of one awkward moment passing each other in a dorm room and vaguely smiling. Drew Gardner (John Reynolds) already finds this concerning, but the audience will soon notice how clingy he is as a romantic partner. Dory naturally pushes him away and seeks the guidance of an ex in the first episode because despite breaking up with her, she still continues to respect his opinion.

Dory's ex, Julian Marcus (Brandon Michael Hall), has an honest heart to heart with Dory about how he is naturally concerned that Dory is going out of her way to find difficult problems to solve, as she basically has nothing else going on. Dory sees this as a personal attack, as this heartfelt caring concern is coming from an ex, and she strives to prove him wrong, starting her journey down this rabbit hole of her own design.

Despite their presence in the moment of Dory voicing her initial concern, the other members of the ensemble, Portia Davenport (Meredith Hagner) and Eilliot Goss (John Early) brush off Dory's brunch topic by casually dismissing any possible remorse for anyone that they went to school with but didn't hang out with, commentating specifically they thought she was "awful". Dory ends up seeing Chantal as she is sitting in a Chinese restaurant and attempting her best to flee the country, only her slightly concerned boyfriend and barely caring friends hardly believe her.

Throughout the course of the first season, Dory takes every possible avenue to find any clue she can about where this missing girl went. She ends up harassing her family by saying that she personally knows she's alive, but doesn't know exactly where she could be, during a vigil. This upsets the family greatly as its not exactly helpful information at all. As Dory gets closer to this self absorbed mystery, she pushes her overly attached boyfriend gradually as Drew voices his concerns over him putting them all in increasingly unsafe situations (joining a cult, planning a double date with Chantal's mentally unwell abusive ex boyfriend, and more). While Dory makes a stereotypical string covered pinboard wall, Drew is naturally immensely concerned. While following this story obsessively, Dory attracts the eyes of a private investigator.

Keith Powell (Mark Duplass) is actually not a professional detective hired by the family to investigate Chantal's disappearance at all, but he lies to Dory that this is exactly what he's doing, to lower her natural guard of an older adult male following her around New York. Keith is actually following the case in an effort to make the reward money that the Witherbottom's have offered to whoever finds her, which both Dory and audience learn is happening in the climax of the finale of the season. Keith uses Dory both for easy help in the case and by taking advantage of her in this emotional state. Once her friends hear from Chantal's family, they understand that Keith "the detective" isn't know by them at all. With Dory's conflicting affair, she realizes how unsafe this situation has become for her personally, if only by fixating on this mysterious man. The gang together decides that Keith must be tied to Dory's fictionalization of the mystery, assuming he's part of the cult and was a secret ex of Chantal's. Once the gang find Chantal's whereabouts, Dory proves to have poorly handled her mislead of Keith. Keith appears at Chantal's current hiding place (in Montreal) While frightened, she tases Keith who approaches her with, albeit aggressive, misguided and hopeful teamwork, as well as a share of the profits for finding Chantal. The tase leads Keith to crack his skull on a marble counter-top and fall on the floor. Shocked and bleeding from the head, Keith attacks Dory, voicing his frustration from being hurt violently from the woman of his current affections. Reacting with little information, Drew protects Dory by finding a large trophy and completing the act of murdering Keith, unknowingly. Elliot and Drew quickly help Dory hide the body in the house while Portia returns from exploring the town and coincidentally finding Chantal.

Chantal feels inclined to share her story. Only, its not how Dory imagines it at all. It turns out, she was having an affair of her own, with a married man. Upon getting pregnant with this man, she insists that he must leave his wife and kids and marry her, to raise the child. This man leaves Chantal as he doesn't want to personally destroy his family over this. Chantal decides to react to this by running away from her entire life to escape her own problems, similar to how Dory treated the mystery. Dory learns of her naivety at her most vulnerable, after she helped murder an innocent man. Her awful situation is made entirely of her own conspiracies.

Search Party is clearly a show written about the average self-absorbed spoiled rich millennial.

Its about worrying about others problems so much to the point you are self-destructive. But, as an overthinker, I've always worried about any relation I could have with Dory's main struggle. Ruminating on thoughts that could help others in an unsafe situation but worrying to the point that I can't be confident I haven't just talked myself into being a Dory Sief. Naturally, these are equations where I should be the one making the call of safety, as it could only be me, but is the idea behind me being the sole person who can help giving myself a complex? In my last job, when I worked with kids, I always wanted to do my best, but there was the struggle of the burden of proof of the unhealthy environment, and it truly took a toll on me. I'd like to think I would never accidentally ruin a situation through self obligation like the main characters in Search Party. But the good news is that means I just have to be confident whenever I'm making the right call. Confidence helps.

Anyways, Search Party gets really wild, as every season is very different. It honestly goes off the rails in its final season, as Dory influences a group of the most popular influencers in America to accidentally cause a zombie apocalypse. There's also a direct parody of the Stephen King novel, It, which honestly adds way more abstraction to the story I'm not a fan of, despite it being an admittedly funny bit. Overall a show I still think about too often, though, if you couldn't tell.

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