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Actor Zach Woods can’t stand solving puzzles, telling GamesRadar+ in an interview ahead of the current actors’ strike, "I don’t like mysteries and escape rooms make me want to bang my head against the wall – life is perplexing enough without having to pay someone to confuse you." Now, whilst this usually isn’t exactly strange, Woods is currently starring in the second season of Apple TV Plus’s hit murder mystery show The Afterparty, which is airing weekly on the streaming service. And so, the question is ‘why on Earth then did he sign on to this project?’
After loudly exclaiming "for the money", half-jokingly because at the end of the day Woods has bills to pay too, the actor then explains that The Afterparty is unlike any other television project he’s been a part of: "Often TV roles can be quite reiterative as you are assigned to your lane and stay in it for years. But my character here evolves so much, which I suppose is part of the beauty of it being a miniseries/anthology. You can just burn through these characters, changing them, transforming them, without losing track of the things we loved about them. You gotta smoke them whilst you got them, boys [laughs]!"
You gotta smoke them whilst you got them, boys!
As Woods mentions above, whilst this season does welcome back returning cast members Aniq (Sam Richardson), Zoë (Zoë Chao), and Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish), there is also a brand new ensemble of characters with a fresh mystery to solve. Picking up a year after the events of the first season, we attend the wedding of Zoë’s sister Grace (Poppy Liu) to her new husband Edgar (portrayed by Woods). Merriment doesn’t last long however, as the next morning Edgar is discovered lying lifeless in his bed – that’s right, there’s been another murder.
Don't judge a book by its cover
Whilst the initial prime suspect is the now-widowed Grace, if you have been watching the series so far you will have found where your suspicions lie continually shifting. Now, we won’t go into spoilers here as we don’t want to ruin the surprises if you haven’t seen any of it yet, but what we will say is that with every character there is much more to them than meets the eye.
As actor Vivian Wu, who portrays matriarchal figure Vivian, tells us, that’s because we all have our secrets, which is simply part of being human: "People are all driven by greed, either for money, love, or protection for our loved ones. So, that’s the case here – and it’s all about the secrets and lies we have which protects that. So, Vivian for instance, she’s being underestimated, she’s almost a background character but she has deep truths which were exciting to explore."
People are all driven by greed
When Vivian’s previously guarded secrets are uncovered it comes as a shock to daughters Zoë’ and Grace, who had both never previously thought about their mother’s mysterious past. As Liu, who stars as Grace, emphasised to us, this is because children rarely see their parents in another light: "It’s hard to see your own parents as complex, full people. Even once you are an adult yourself and recognise that they are flawed, it’s still weird to think about their pasts, their relationships prior to you, and the fact that they too have experienced heartbreak. You just forget they were your age once."
A family affair
Family is very much at the centre of this season of The Afterparty as we also get to meet Edgar’s relatives, a wealthy and strange dynasty who feel like they come from another world. In fact, this is exactly how actor Elizabeth Perkins, who plays Edgar’s ice-cold cocktail-sipping mother Isabel, sees it, telling GamesRadar+: "There’s almost this Great Expectations feeling about it, everyone at this big house, the three of us living in this alternative universe. Edgar has his crypto, [adopted daughter] Hannah lives in her yurt, and I’m just wandering about with a martini in a Chanel suit. I asked the showrunners one day whether I lived in the house as it belongs to Edgar, and they said Isabel sort of just ended up here. Following her husband’s death she really doesn’t know what she’s doing, it was such a big loss for her, very painful. I think he’s what grounded her."
In general, she has an inability to relate to any other woman
Isabel pushes her pain deep down inside, disguising it with plenty of bravado, strutting around the mansion in gorgeous gowns, always with a drink in hand. However, it does come out through her fracturing relationships, particularly with daughter Hannah who on first impressions appears to be the polar opposite of her adopted mother. As Perkins politely puts it, it’s a "unique relationship", one which certainly challenges Isabel as the actor explains: "I don’t think Isabel intrinsically would have any idea what to do with Hannah. In general, she has an inability to relate to any other woman. She was raised in a man’s world so particularly with a daughter figure, she’s just lost."
Reddit holds the clues...
In a way Hannah is equally lost, as the unravelling of her own secrets and potential motives for murder reveals. As arguably the most offbeat member of the ensemble cast, actor Anna Konkle was faced with the challenge of keeping her "odd duck" grounded in reality, as she told GamesRadar+: "Hannah is just so on the page strange, that does a lot of the heavy lifting and it was great to lean into that, into someone who is so unequivocally off and thinks differently. The challenge of keeping that grounded was really fun though and overall, tapping into my own weird self really helped. I’m such back in the day I made a casket for a hamster so I can relate."
I was way off and if any of the cast did say they guessed it, they are lying!
Here Anna is referring to the fact that her character makes a coffin for Roxana, Edgar’s adored pet lizard who is murdered alongside him. Now, the circumstances surrounding Roxana’s death also provides clues which will not only help the characters solve the whodunnit, but the audience too as we join in the guessing game. The cast don’t have much helpful advice to offer when we ask them what to really keep an eye on, with each member admitting that they couldn’t solve the mystery themselves. However, Konkle did say something intriguing: "I was way off and if any of the cast did say they guessed it, well, they are lying! There are clues everywhere but also red herrings – but if you want to solve it, you really need to get on the Reddit. That’s where it’s all at!"
A new episode of The Afterparty season 2 drops weekly on Wednesdays via Apple TV Plus. If you want to find out more about this season, also read our interview with fellow cast members Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao.
For more great new TV shows coming your way this year, check out our list of what to look out for.
