Things took a turn for the serious at the conclusion of black comedy Search Party’s first season. And when the series returns on November 20, the amateur detective hijinks of the first season make way for a darker, more sinister tone that’s being described as Hitchcockian.
“The tone of the show fundamentally changes between the first and second seasons,” executive producer Lilly Burns . “Now, it’s a world of real consequences and real repercussions, which maybe didn’t really exist in the first season.”
Co-creator Charles Rogers : “I think this season is funnier than last season. I think it’s actually OK to be darker if it’s funnier at the same time.”
In season one, aimless millennial Dory (Alia Shawkat) found purpose in her efforts to track down a former classmate who’d gone missing. Despite only being vaguely acquainted with the absent Chantal (Clare McNulty), Dory convinced her friends to join her on a quest to uncover the truth. Turns out the truth was far duller than any fiction the gang could’ve dreamt up – Chantal was hiding out to lick her wounds after being dumped by her married lover.
That could've been the end, but Dory’s own lover, private detective (or so he claimed) Keith (Ron Livingstone), was killed in a struggle involving Dory, a taser, a kitchen island, a candlestick and Dory’s sap of a boyfriend, Drew (John Reynolds). Season two focuses on the Scooby Gang’s frantic efforts to cover their tracks.
“They’re hiding any evidence as best they can, and each step of the way realising they f***ed up,” Shawkat . “They’re like, ‘Wait, what about fingerprints?’ ‘Wait, what about this, what about that?’”
Will their crime come back to haunt them? Will the gang – which includes Portia (Meredith Hagner) and Elliott (John Early) – be able to resume their lives of brunching and talking about themselves?
Find out when Search Party returns, fast-tracked from the US, to SBS On Demand on Monday 20 November at 5pm. Double episodes will air on SBS VICELAND at 10:30pm the same day.
In the meantime, season 1 is streaming now at SBS On Demand:
