The fifth and final season of “Search Party” will air on Jan. 7, 2022, HBO Max announced Tuesday.
The genre-bending series – which has been described as a satire, thriller, mystery, dark comedy and just about everything in between – debuted on TBS in 2016.
The show follows Dory Sief (Alia Shawkat), an aimless New Yorker whose life changes forever when college classmate Chantal Witherbottom (Clare McNulty) disappears. Dory enlists her boyfriend Drew (John Reynolds) and college friends Portia (Meredith Hagner) and Elliott (John Early) on her obsessive mission to crack the case and hopefully discover her life’s purpose in the process.
The friendship of these four selfish, entitled and laughably amateur sleuths is put to the test again and again as they dive deeper in the mystery of Chantal’s whereabouts, and deal with the fallout of solving it.
All ten episodes of Season 5 will drop at once, picking up a year after Season 4 left off with Dory surviving a near-death experience. In the new season, she strikes up a business partnership with a charismatic billionaire named Tunnel Quinn (Jeff Goldblum). As usual, Drew, Portia and Elliott find themselves dragged into her mess as the group embarks on an altruistic but terrifying journey.
Other recurring cast members include McNulty as Chantal and Jeffery Self as Marc, Elliott’s long-suffering, on-again off-again boyfriend.
Season 5 will also see the addition of several new guest stars. Comedian Kathy Griffin will play Liquorice Montague, a conspiracy theorist who adopts Chantal as her co-dependent apprentice.
Actor and writer-director John Waters will appear as Sheffield.
Angela Trimbur, Grace Kuhlenschmidt, Greta Titelman, Joe Castle Baker, Larry Owens, Michelle Badillo will come onboard as Dory’s “disciples,” while Aparna Nancherla plays Quinn’s head scientist.
“Search Party” is executive produced by showrunners Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers with Michael Showalter and Jax Media’s Lilly Burns and Tony Hernandez.