The Afterparty: Apple TV's Underrated Genre-Bending Murder Mystery

With so much content across so many streamers, quietly excellent series can slip through the cracks, and The Afterparty was Apple TV’s largely undiscovered, brilliant take on the crowded murder mystery genre. Tiffany Haddish led the cast of The Afterparty as Detective Danner, who is investigating a death at a high school reunion afterparty in season 1.

The Afterparty is an anthology series, with both seasons centered on different deaths. However, the magic was its inventive use of the mystery genre — as each character recounts their version of the night to Danner, the episode is not just told from their POV, but the story is experienced as a completely different genre in each episode of The Afterparty.

The Afterparty Is Much More Than A Comedy Murder Mystery Show

The murder mystery genre is a saturated space, even on the spoof side. Murder mysteries, even comedic ones like Murderville or Based on a True Story, typically rely on jokes about tropes while still adhering to the same story structure underneath.

The Afterparty does something far more ambitious; it uses the act of solving a murder as a creative framework for Rashomon Effect-style storytelling, where perspective doesn’t just change details but transforms the entire genre.

Each episode isn’t simply a retelling with new clues. It’s a love letter to how movies and TV shape the way people see themselves. One character experiences the night as a propulsive action thriller because he views himself as a hero on a mission.

Another recounts the story as a sleek psychological thriller because secrecy and paranoia define her emotional state, covering up an affair. For someone chasing a long-lost crush, the same events unfold like a glossy romantic comedy. The show understands that genre is an emotional shorthand for how we frame our lives when we tell our own stories.

In most murder mysteries, the crime itself is rarely the point, but instead, it's the hook that allows characters to collide. The Afterparty pushes its mystery further by twisting not just the plot, but the form. Animation styles, musical conventions, noir lighting, and rom-com beats all coexist in a single case without feeling gimmicky.

The Afterparty Is A Delight For Fans Of Genre Plays

There truly isn’t another show doing what The Afterparty does. Most anthology series either reset each season completely or maintain a consistent tone while telling self-contained stories. Shows like Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone explore new narratives episode to episode, but their voice and aesthetic remain largely the same.

The Afterparty flips that model entirely. It tells one coherent mystery while filtering the same night through radically different genre lenses, allowing style to become character. Each episode reframes the central story based on who is recounting events, turning perspective into form. The mystery doesn’t just unfold differently; it looks and feels different every time.

The Afterparty season 2 leans even harder into this idea, with episodes that play like a Regency-era romance, a meticulously symmetrical Wes Anderson–style coming-of-age drama, and a found-footage documentary. The Afterparty commits fully to each genre’s rules, rhythms, and visual language while still serving the larger narrative.

That balance is what makes The Afterparty such an easy and rewarding watch. Viewers get a genuine taste of multiple genres without the commitment of an entire series or season devoted to just one. It’s a perfect group binge: accessible, playful, and endlessly discussable.

The mystery itself isn’t meant to be solved early, so the real pleasure comes from anticipating which genre is up next and how it will reinterpret the same events. Catching the references makes you feel clever, but missing a few never detracts from the fun. That rare combination is exactly what makes The Afterparty unlike anything else on television.

The Afterparty Could Have Been Apple TV’s Answer To Only Murders In The Building

Only Murders in the Building has become one of Hulu’s few long-running, truly original series, carving out a distinctive space as a cozy, comedic murder mystery. The Afterparty had the potential to fill that same role for Apple TV. Both shows take a playful approach to murder, using character dynamics as the real draw rather than the crime itself.

One concern with extending The Afterparty is the idea that it would eventually run out of genres to explore. In reality, the opposite is true. The series already proved that genres can be revisited and reinvented.

Season 1’s musical episode, styled as a modern, Hamilton-inspired rap, could easily be contrasted with a Golden Age Hollywood musical in a future season. Romance alone offers endless variations. The Afterparty has already tackled rom-com energy, Regency-style period romance, and sweeping tragic love stories without feeling repetitive.

Another common worry is plausibility. At a certain point, it strains credibility for Aniq and Zoë to keep attending events where someone ends up dead — but this is a comedy that thrives on heightened reality.

Only Murders in the Building features multiple killings in a single residential building. It’s a problem the show increasingly lampshades, with the latest murder victim making sure her hand was just over the Arconia’s threshold in the Only Murders season 5 finale.

With a majority of new characters each Afterparty season and a limitless pool of subgenres to draw from, the show had plenty of runway before its premise would ever feel stale.

Why Apple TV Canceled The Afterparty After Two Seasons

The Afterparty ran for two seasons from 2022 to 2023 before Apple TV canceled it, despite strong reviews and consistent praise for its originality. The decision had far less to do with creative quality than with timing and strategy.

The series arrived just as the streaming industry was entering a correction period. After years of rapid expansion to create catalogs, streamers began pulling back, prioritizing fewer shows with clearer audience upside.

Apple TV in particular shifted its focus toward prestige sci-fi shows like Severance, Silo, and For All Mankind, along with broad, four-quadrant hits such as Ted Lasso. In that environment, clever but niche comedies became harder to justify, especially those with higher production costs.

The Afterparty was also an expensive half-hour comedy. Each episode required a different genre pastiche, from musical theater to noir to action, often with new visual language, production design, and new genre-appropriate scoring for each Afterparty episode. Around the same time, Apple canceled Schmigadoon!, another inventive musical comedy that struggled to translate critical love into mass appeal.

There are also practical considerations. Tiffany Haddish, who anchored the series as Detective Danner, was increasingly in demand following films like Girls Trip, Night School, and Like a Boss. While never confirmed, scheduling and rising opportunity costs likely didn’t help.

Ultimately, The Afterparty's uniqueness made the show difficult to market. Its premise is easy to love once explained, but harder to sell in a single sentence. Without a breakout audience, Apple chose to move on, even as there is truly nothing else like The Afterparty on television.