‘The Afterparty’ on Apple TV Plus is a millennial Bay Area whodunnit

Nothing says “Napa wedding altar” like a coffin-shaped box enveloping the bride and groom’s heads. At least, that’s true in the world of “The Afterparty.”

Dubbed a “millennial whodunnit” by Literary Hub, the Apple TV Plus show was created by Christopher Miller, one half of the Miller-Phil Lord duo behind hits like the “Spider-Verse” films. The first season of the comedy-first murder mystery starred Tiffany Haddish as the unconventional-yet-astute Detective Danner called to a high school reunion celebration to investigate the death of pop music icon Xavier (Dave Franco). Aided by escape room designer — and suspect — Aniq (Sam Richardson), Danner interviews the party’s attendees. Each episode is one of Danner’s so-called “mind movies”; as a given character recounts their evening, the story plays out in the film genre that best captures their personality. Aniq’s episode, for example, unfolds in rom-com fashion, as his incentive for attending the Marin County gathering was to pursue his high-school crush Zoë (Zoë Chao).

In the anthology show’s sophomore season, which wraps on September 6, Aniq and Zoë are back to solve another murder. Now a couple, the pair find themselves back in the Bay Area at the Napa estate of Silicon Valley billionaire Edgar Minnows (Zach Woods) for his ill-fated wedding to Zoë’s sister Grace (Poppy Liu). The eccentric Edgar and his shoulder-riding pet lizard, Roxana, are found dead the morning after the wedding, and Aniq suspects foul play. In an attempt to win over Zoë’s parents, he calls up Danner, now an ex-cop, to unravel the murder. The ensemble cast is rounded out by comedy heavy-hitters, including John Cho (“Difficult People”), Ken Jeong (“Crazy Rich Asians”), Anna Konkle (“PEN15”) and Elizabeth Perkins (“Barry”).

One the show’s greatest and most unsung virtues is its depiction of the Bay Area. Despite being filmed in Los Angeles, Santa Clarita and other SoCal locations, “The Afterparty” is set in Napa’s wine country. As series like “Devs” and “Big Little Lies” prove, there’s simply no physically convincing stand-in for San Francisco and its surrounding locales. However, “The Afterparty” still manages to draw a compelling version of the greater Bay Area, thanks to production designer Bruce Hill (“It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”), who is a Berkeley native. 

In addition to finding a Southern California location that emulated Napa, Hill wanted a spot that reflected the wealth and status of tech titan Edgar. The 60-acre private estate of Brookfield Farms, which is about 30 miles northwest of L.A. proper, served that function.

“We found the endlessly beautiful, dappled grounds that is Brookfield Farms, which had this two-story colonial farmhouse as its centerpiece,” Hill shared in Apple’s production notes, adding that the “big house, rolling fields, cottages, pond, oak glens and trails” provided the team with everything they needed to create the Minnows’ Napa estate. 

Well, almost everything. Brookfield Farms lacked a suitable barn, pushing Hill and location scouts to find one at the Thousand Oaks equestrian center, which the team later replicated on a soundstage. 

Another part of what bolsters the series’ efforts to create a more convincing Bay Area is its refreshing take on Silicon Valley types. Both series creator Miller and executive producer Lord have lived experiences in the Bay Area; the Hollywood superstars even shared a pivotal moment in San Francisco. After meeting at Dartmouth College, the young filmmakers found themselves committing to their craft while atop Coit Tower. Back in 1996, Miller was interning at Industrial Light & Magic, and Lord flew out to visit him in San Francisco. “We both had this super-lame moment at the top of the Coit Tower, looking out [at the Bay] and saying, ‘You know, I think we can make a go of making stuff,'” Miller told Buzzfeed News. “‘I think we can do this.'” Lord, whose undergrad short film later earned him a spot in ASIFA San Francisco, added that the Telegraph Hill moment was like a “Nicholas Sparks novel.” 

Edgar is an archetypical bitcoin-obsessed tech guy, complete with a crypto vault that requires a retinal scan of his pet lizard, a private chopper and a semantic hatred of white chocolate, which he considers an imposter dessert due to its lack of cocoa solids. Fearful of public speaking, Edgar requests that a “vow box” be placed over him and Grace, allowing them to remain on the altar while privately exchanging oaths. “Apparently, it’s a thing at weddings in Silicon Valley,” Aniq says in a matter-of-fact tone.

While the vow box may not be a trend, it is rooted in reality. 

“I will say that the vow box, which is a crazy thing that happens in the wedding, was based on one of the writers’ real experiences going to a wedding that had a vow box and was like, ‘This is crazy!’” Miller recalled in an interview with Slash Film. “[She] showed us pictures from the wedding, [and we were] like, ‘Oh, this is definitely going in.'”

Of course, Edgar is not the only Bay Area character who the series pokes fun at. Jeong, who plays Zoë and Grace’s father Feng, owns an up-and-coming food truck. He hires Kyler (Zack Calderon), a Gen Z teen, to be his social media expert slash wedding videographer. Konkle’s Hannah Minnows, Edgar’s adopted sister, lives in an on-property yurt with Wes Anderson-style trappings. And Isabel (Perkins), Edgar’s martini-guzzling mother, can’t recall the many bizarre items she’s ordered on Amazon, which include a trampoline that Isabel bounces on with a sullen face. 

But regardless of the setting, the sophomore season of “The Afterparty” is still well worth the watch. Each episode’s unique style makes the show perfectly suited to bingeing, and an effective way to frame the many viewpoints of a whodunnit. Not to mention, the second season finale sticks a tricky landing, all while boldly eye-rolling the very Agatha Christie way things could’ve gone. In foregoing uninspired jokes about the Bay Area, “The Afterparty” unlocks a much more interesting coffer of comedy — no reptilian retinal scan required.