TV's 'Search Party' Finds Meaning In Millennial Stereotypes

The TBS comedy “Search Party” puts a big satirical spotlight on millennial culture. The show’s creators join us.

Four millennials sit over brunch, chatting about needing ketchup and who they’ve slept with. And one says an old college classmate is missing – as in disappeared.  It’s the beginning of the TBS series “Search Party,” and of a dark comedy and detective story that ends up exploring millennials themselves. Chantal is missing, but it’s millennial fears and foibles on the table. A generation’s challenges. This hour On Point, we talk with the creators of “Search Party.” — Tom Ashbrook

Sarah-Violet Bliss, film director and producer. Co-creator, with Charles Rogers, of the TBS comedy "Search Party." Co-writer and co-director of the film "Fort Tilden." (@svbliss)

Charles Rogers, film director and producer. Co-creator, with Sarah-Violet Bliss, of the TBS comedy "Search Party." Co-writer and co-director of the film "Fort Tilden." (@gcharlesrogers)

New Yorker: A Millennial Private Eye On 'Search Party' -- "'Search Party,' on TBS, is a shrewd dark comedy starring the wonderful and soft-faced Alia Shawkat as Dory, a recent college graduate turned Nancy Drew. Blending screwball fizz and sticky melancholy, it basically invents a new genre: the noir sitcom. It is also, at ten episodes, exactly the right length."

Esquire: The 2016 Canon: Search Party Shows How Our Obsession With the Truth Helps Us Find Ourselves — "I'm not quite sure how to classify Bliss and Rogers' work. It's in the same milieu as Lena Dunham's work so far (young people who are probably neighbors in North Brooklyn with artistic goals and emotional pratfalls), and it's won the same awards (Grand Jury!). But Bliss and Rogers have this sophisticated and surprising handle on tone that makes their work stand out from the leading Millennial artiste's."
The Guardian: Search Party: high-stakes mystery meets laugh-out-loud satire — "Search Party is two shows in one. The first is a tightly wound thriller about Chantal, a young woman who goes missing in mysterious circumstances. The second, the padding around this thrusting narrative, is a self-mocking portrait of millennials in crisis."