The Afterparty Trailer: Yet Another Reason To Never Go To Your High School Reunion

Now that social media is around to let us know which members of our graduating class made something of themselves and which ones wound up marrying their prom dates and getting sucked into multi-level-marketing schemes while calling it a "small business," it's a wonder that high school reunions are even a thing anymore. "The Afterparty," the newest series from Apple TV+, tackles that subject through the lens of a comedic murder mystery from Christopher Miller ("21 Jump Street," "The Lego Movie," "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse") with a ridiculously stacked ensemble cast.

If this show doesn't convince more people to join Apple TV+, I don't know what will, because "The Afterparty" looks like a total blast.

Tiffany Haddish, Dave Franco, Sam Richardson, Ilana Glazer, John Early, Ben Schwartz, Ike Barinholtz, Jamie Demetriou, Zoë Chao, and plenty more all attend a high school reunion afterparty hosted by the insufferable Xavier (Franco) who graduated and became one of the biggest celebrities in the world. "We started at the upper-middle, and now we here," he says while giving a toast. "We gonna live forever!" he shouts to his peers, but then the camera cuts to a flurry of scenes at the party before showing Xavier falling to his death.

Following Xavier's death, Detective Danner (Haddish) shows up with her bumbling partner Detective Cusp (Early) to investigate, and she declares Xavier's death a murder. All of Xavier's less-than-successful high school classmates must recount the events of the evening to help solve the case, but since everyone in his graduating class hated his guts, everyone in attendance has a motive.

Christopher Miller is serving as the creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the show with his frequent collaborator Phil Lord also serving as executive producer. Here's the official description of "The Afterparty":

A genre-defying series centered on a murder mystery at a high school reunion, with each episode exploring a different character's account of the fateful evening in question, all through the lens of popular film genres and unique visuals to match the storyteller's perspective.

There's a moment in the trailer that shows Ben Schwartz' character Yasper giving a dramatic retelling to Detective Danner, and considering Schwartz' stellar improv skills, I'm secretly hoping that we get a one-man re-enactment of events from his perspective. I also peeped a chorus number in there, so now I'm officially praying for a musical episode.

"The Afterparty" will debut its first three episodes on January 28, 2022. After that, one new episode will be released weekly on Fridays.