It's a golden age for all-star whodunits with pleasing puzzlers such as the "Knives Out" movies and Kenneth Branagh's interpretations of Agatha Christie classics. "The Afterparty" isn't in their league, but film aficionados should check it out.
In the second season, now streaming on Apple Plus TV, Tiffany Haddish jumps at the chance to solve another murder, this time at an estate wedding whose guests include Aniq (Sam Richardson) and Zoe (Zoe Chao), suspects from Season 1.
The mystery is a distraction. Creator Christopher Miller ( "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse") is much more interested in showing off his movie knowledge, using each of the 10 episodes to honor a different auteur. Fellow film geeks will recognize the tributes to Steven Soderbergh, Wes Anderson and Alfred Hitchcock. The cast, which includes Elizabeth Perkins, Ken Jeong and Paul Walter Hauser, are ample co-conspirators.
The series would be juicier if Haddish had more to do than slip in accounts of her sexual exploits and the writers had cooked up a decent whodunit. Maybe they were too busy re-watching classic cinema to bother.
Also this week
'Full Circle'
Soderbergh seems to be paying homage to himself in his latest TV series, a complex thriller harkening back to the director's most ambitious features, "Traffic," "Ocean's Eleven" and "Contagion." It's full of seemingly unrelated characters enmeshed in a botched kidnapping. Claire Danes, Dennis Quaid and CCH Pounder are just a few of big stars who keep you entranced even when you're hopelessly lost. Thursday, Max
'Wham!'
