The series, which has been dubbed a mystery comedy, will follow a group of “self-obsessed” youngsters as they look into the disappearance of a college acquaintance (Chantal, it seems, according to the teaser above.) TBS has confirmed that the half-hour show will be made available through both its linear and digital delivery platforms sometime in 2016. There’s no word yet on how many episodes have been confirmed.
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Search Party will star Alia Shawkat — perhaps best known for her role as Maeby Funke in Arrested Development — as Dory, a frustrated New Yorker who is disappointed with the current path of her life, including her job and boyfriend. “Everyone can tell me what I can’t do,” she notes in a clip from the trailer, “but no one can tell me what I can do.”
Perhaps perfectly capturing the essence of the show is a scene where Dory is seen screaming at her boyfriend in the middle of the street. Zoom out as she storms off and a young man appears in the frame, capturing the whole embarrassing incident on his cell phone, most certainly preparing to post it to social media.
Also starring will be other comic actors, including John Reynolds, who plays Dory’s clueless boyfriend; and John Early and Meredith Hagner as her equally troubled (albeit in different ways) friends.
The creators, Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, former New York University students themselves and winners at SXSW for their student thesis film Fort Tilden, wrote and directed the pilot. They worked under the watch of Michael Showalter, who is also credited as a writer, director, and producer for the program. Tony Hernandez and Lilly Burns will executive produce along with Showalter, Rogers, and Bliss.
Brett Weitz, Executive Vice President of Original Programming at TBS, says the comedic cast and writers have “hit on the glory and utter misery of early adulthood.” He calls Search Party a “carefully observed, blunt comedy for people who are testing out who they are and who they strive to be.”
In addition to Search Party and their grand jury prize win at SXSW, Bliss and Rogers also worked with Showalter on the Netflix revival of Wet Hot American Summer.
Search Party is one of the latest series announced in TBS’s effort to rebrand its image.
