“Search Party” (2016-2022) is a genre-bending comedy-drama series, which aired its first two seasons on TBS before becoming an HBO Max original for its last three seasons.
The show is set in New York City. It follows a friend group that includes Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat), Drew Gardner (John Reynolds), Elliot Goss (John Early), and Portia Davenport (Meredith Hagner) as they investigate the disappearance of a friend from college named Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty).
After using this disappearance as an inciting incident, each season takes on a different story arc and genre, which completely upends the previous season’s narrative flow, while staying true to the show’s characters and satirical world.
An excellent summary of the series comes from Michelle Dean, a journalist, who writes, “Having nothing to do—and finding something to do about that—is the theme of the show” (Dean).
In this article, I talk about “Search Party” as a dark comedy satire, which, through its humorous presentation of phony characters, uses millennial vanity and self-image absorption to poke fun at a social media-dominated culture.
The comedy in the series comes from the relatable, but privileged, four main characters who get into cringe situations that lead them and the audience down unexpected dark paths.
What can begin as a cringey and funny innocent act of trying to help a missing girl, ultimately leads to crazy consequences.
The characters’ deeper motives are never truly altruistic and rather are born from an empty feeling of lostness in their own lives, which hold no greater meaning in the current digital age.
A representation of these main characters’ search for identity in “Search Party” can be seen in the series’ own seasonal genre-hopping format.
UNSITUATED COMEDY
“Search Party” exists in a post-network landscape. Like other comedy shows in this landscape, it can “unsituate and disturb the relative stabilities of setting, character, narrative, and style of humor that have proven central to the situated comedy” (Gray & Gershon, 55).
This can be seen in the very first few minutes of the entire series, which begins with people searching in the woods looking for a missing person. From there, we follow Dory, who discovers a missing person poster of Chantal and brings this up to her friends.
While at brunch, the group engages in vapid conversation about Chantal, alongside thoughts about their pointlessly privileged lives. In this same episode, which is season one, episode one and titled “The Mysterious Disappearance of the Girl No One Knew,” the audience is introduced to what Dean calls “A Millennial’s Quest for Meaning” in her article from The New Republic (Dean).
This idea is perfect to connect to an unsituated comedy because millennials, and younger, are aimlessly participating in a passive lifestyle, which lends itself to a more nonstandard narrative of cringe-filled comedy.
“Search Party” wallows in the abjection of its main characters and often makes their sense of lostness a source of comedy.
Importantly, this leaves the audience questioning whether they want to root for or against the protagonists (Gray & Gershon, 66).
A primary example of this in Search Party is the main character, Dory. The viewer can go from deeply relating to her in one moment to then furiously yelling at her in frustration in the next moment.
This complicated and tumultuous relationship with Dory comes from her struggling with life’s purpose in adulthood, while also doing some evil things, whether it is intentional or not.
In my observation, there are mainly two different readings of the series from viewers: either you hate all these characters because you see in them what you hate about yourself, or you idolize them because they act in privileged and careless ways you never could.
The other option outside of these two interpretations is seeing the nuance in these characters and neither hating nor idolizing them.
Unlike in the situated comedy, where it’s clear who is included and who is othered, an unsituated comedy is invested in blurring those lines (Gray & Gershon, 66).
Not only will the viewer find that the characters in “Search Party” are unsituated, but they will also see that its setting and narrative are quite unsituated.
“Search Party,” like other unsituated comedies, is “regularly filmed out on the streets, and indeed the experience of roaming the streets and/or of driving around is central” (Gray & Gershon, 63-64).
In the case of “Search Party,” this includes leaving New York City and traveling to Canada towards the end of season one’s plot.
Dory and Drew, as well as Portia and Elliot, each have their own apartment that they share, and we see scenes in them. However, nothing is tying the characters to this space like in a situated comedy.
The narrative of “Search Party” allows itself, “the luxury of being free to leave narrative threads hanging and to refuse closure on key problems” (Gray & Gershon, 67), which is crucial to an unsituated comedy’s identity.
After season one, the character of Chantal is often seen as having quests aside from Dory, Drew, Elliot, and Portia, with much of her narratives following the idea of vignettes that are tangentially related to the season’s main plot.
Even in this main plot, the narrative can often drop side characters or plots in favor of moving the four main characters’ stories forward.
The narrative is held together by whatever Dory, Drew, Elliot, or Portia is attempting to accomplish, or however they are changing in the season.
CRINGE COMEDY IN AN INDIE AESTHETIC
These cringe comedy elements are part of a larger indie aesthetic (Newman) that “Search Party,” similarly to Girls (2012-2017) (cringe sex scenes and all), has in its DNA.
To successfully reflect and satirize current society, while exploring creative narrative formats, the series utilizes both elements of indie filmmaking and the traditional sitcom.
A more “prestige” comedy like “Search Party” can depart from the typical sitcom formula, and it pushes creative boundaries to get its point about the dangers and impacts of current digital culture across to the viewer.
This alternative style fosters more understated comedic moments in “Search Party,” as well as much more deadpan delivery of jokes. To contrast the show’s deadpan and understatedness, some characters reflect the more ridiculousness and campiness of this series’ satirical world.
It’s often the blending of these two comedic elements that leads to much of the series’ cringe comedy.
In season two, episode one, titled “Murder!” Dory, Drew, and Elliot attempt to hide and bury a dead body when their friend Portia, who doesn’t know about the body, comes downstairs. Portia believes her friends are excluding her from something when they tell her not to go into the room with the body.
Hagner acts very exaggeratedly as Portia in this scene to contrast with the other friends’ very serious tone. The comedy in this scene comes from the fact that the viewer cringes at the idea that Portia will incriminate herself in this crime. All just because she doesn’t want to experience FOMO, which is a technological age phenomenon made popular by millennials.
The cringe comedy in “Search Party” is not done with the goal of “being funny all the time,” but instead, the series isn’t always interested in having hard topics end in comic relief.
An example of this in “Search Party” is with the ends of both season one and season two, where an antagonistic character must be confronted.
The characters are ultimately killed, but this isn’t done for humorous effect. In this and other instances, the comic intent of a sitcom is no longer consistently present in unsituated comedies.
Instead, with shows like “Search Party,” the comedy has dramatic intent, and it is assisting the narrative. This can be blurred, and the intent behind the narrative can bounce between comedy and drama (Gray & Gershon, 69-70). This is true for the comedy in “Search Party.”
These serious and often absurd situations that the characters find themselves in lead the audience to experience feelings of discomfort from the whiplash in tonal shifts.
The humor in “Search Party” often presents itself as strange or awkward, even culturally inappropriate humor, which can cause a viewer to laugh in pure discomfort as they cringe at the scene.
PARODY & SATIRE
Another important aspect of “Search Party” is that it will hop from season to season between different genres or styles, while remaining faithful to its foundation as a dark comedy satire.
The characters in the show will find themselves fulfilling certain types or roles in the specific genre, while remaining true to their core characterizations. This is the exact style of a parody, where one text must borrow or reference from another to create something blended and new.
Jonathan Gray, a television scholar, says, “parody must quote or borrow wholesale, and thus we have a case of ‘ghost’ textuality, with one text or genre (the parody) invisibly, yet hopefully still sensed by its audience, on top of and coexisting with the other (the parodied)” (Gray, 45).
In the case of “Search Party,” it is “the parody,” and each season’s genre is “the parodied.” For example, season one is taking beats from the mystery genre/Nancy Drew, while season two is inspired by psychological thrillers/Alfred Hitchcock, and the third season takes elements from crime/courtroom dramas.
In season three, episode one, titled “The Accused Woman,” we see Dory’s criminal actions catch up with her as she is taken into custody and arrested by the police.
This first episode of the season sets up the genre shift by immediately setting things in a police station where Dory is cuffed, fingerprinted, and interrogated.
“Search Party” uses certain language of genres to inform the viewer with the direction of the season, and it’s from that point on that we see Dory with her friends navigate a high-profile and public criminal court case.
Each of these genre shifts is just a vehicle used to reflect the current existential state of the show’s characters, specifically in the main protagonist, Dory.
In a later season four episode, we see that these shifting genres reflect the character’s identity as Dory literally sees, physically manifested in front of her, each different version of herself from the four seasons.
Sarah Lahm, a scholar of media and communication, in her critical examination of Dory’s character says, “While Dory’s character is sketched in numerous different ways over the course of “Search Party,” her status as a (stereo-)typical millennial ‘girl’ remains a constant throughout” (Lahm, 416).
Lahm goes on to say that to begin the series, Dory is apathetic and directionless, and in my opinion, this allows her to slip into genre-specific roles throughout the series.
However, Lahm also mentions she does this without ever addressing her angst or trauma, which leads to her subsequent behaviors (Lahm, 420).
“Search Party” is concerned with using genre and parody to impact its characters, subsequently the storyline, and push forward the satirical commentary the show is making in its comedy.
It’s the show’s satire that has the most societal commentary on vanity and self-image absorption in a digital or social media-dominated culture.
Parody and satire so often find themselves paired together because of how both are referential forms of comedy.
Satire is a difficult area of comedy because its entire goal is to criticize or make fun of a certain person/group of people or a societal issue. Therefore, satire will always upset someone, and there will be someone who doesn’t find it funny.
Academics Bronwen Low and David Smith, in a journal article on parody and satire, argue that “The more subtle the joke, the greater its social acceptability. The hostile joke, like satire, is often directed at those in power or positions of authority or at institutions which embody dominant values and mores” (Low & Smith, 34).
“Search Party” is especially subtle in its comedy and, in turn, the show’s satire. The viewer will often find satire in the subtext of “Search Party.” It’s hidden behind the exaggerated characters, who act as caricatures of real people, and the exaggerated situations they find themselves in, which act as heightened variations of real situations.
These forms of jokes in satire and parody require three parties, which include the joke teller, the listener who laughs, and an object of aggression (Low & Smith, 34).
In “Search Party,” the joke teller is the writers through the series’ characters and plot lines, and the listener is, of course, the viewer watching and laughing at the series. The object of aggression in “Search Party” is then society. This is where the show is subtextual through its fictionalized and heightened characters and scenarios, attempting to parallel the very real issues in our digitally dominated culture.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, “Search Party” utilizes its genre shifts and satirical wit to highlight the vapidness of a socially isolated and digitally dominated world of young people struggling to find their own identity and purpose. It handles this heavy topic through understated cringe comedy that is often delivered by characters in a deadpan manner.
The show itself is an unsituated sitcom with influence from independent filmmaking. This unsituation can be seen in the genre shifts it takes from season to season.
In this article, I used the first episode from each of the first three seasons, and across that stretch of episodes, the viewer can see subtle differences in the genre being parodied for each season.
What remains constant is that the show’s understated style of comedy and slightly exaggerated form of satire doesn’t waver in these first three seasons. “Search Party” is a character-driven and character-first series, with the scenarios that the characters get placed in reflecting their motivations and personalities.
The comedy in the series comes from the actions and words of these ridiculous and ironic, yet still relatable, caricatures of millennials.
While treating its characters with empathy, “Search Party” is also interested in heavily critiquing this generation, but by extension, society as well, which is the influence on millennials’ actions, behaviors, and struggles.
Works Cited
- Dean, Michelle. “Search Party: A Millennial’s Quest for Meaning.” The New Republic, May 11, 2021. https://newrepublic.com/article/139006/search-party-millennials-quest-meaning.
- Girls (2012-2017) HBO. Apatow Productions.
- Gray, Jonathan. “Domesticom Parody, Genre, and Critical Intertextuality.” Watching with The Simpsons, October 12, 2012, 55–80. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203961360-9.
- Gray, Jonathan and Daphne Gershon. “The Unsituated Comedy.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 63 (2024): 53 – 74.
- Lahm, Sarah. “‘I Miss When My Problems Were about Nothing’: Millennial Angst, Neoliberal Feminism, and Paratexts in Search Party (2016–2022).” Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies 19, no. 4 (November 1, 2023): 412–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020231209862.
- Low, B., & Smith, D. (2017). “Borat and the Problem of Parody.” Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education 11, (1). https://doi.org/10.31390/taboo.11.1.06.
- Newman, Michael Z. “Prestige TV, Comedy, and the Indie Aesthetic.” Indie TV, February 28, 2023, 191–207. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003134619-15.
- Search Party (2016-2022) TBS, 2016-2017/HBO Max, 2020-2025. Warner Media Direct.