'Search Party' Will Probably Feel Like A Different Show — Again — In Season 3

If the first season of Search Party could be summarized as "millennial Nancy Drew," than Season 2 of the half-hour series could be summed up as "millennial murder mystery." It's a twist that's given the second season a much darker air as the self-obsessed characters constantly look over their shoulders in fear. The Dec. 17 Season 2 finale may shake as much loose in the show's premise as the first season finale did. So if Search Party returns for Season 3, there would have to be more changes in store.

UPDATE: TBS announced on April 23 that Search Party will return for Season 3. The premiere date has not been determined.

EARLIER: As for whether or not that additional season will happen, TBS has yet to renew Search Party. That does make sense, as audiences have barely gotten the chance to dive into the show's second season, which began airing back-to-back episodes on Nov. 19, dropping the full 10-episode season on TBS' website halfway through the run. Since the show straddles the release structure of a normal cable show and a streaming series, just a few weeks hasn't given audiences much time to find and fall in love with the show's second season.

If there is anything to worry about, it's that TBS already did a big round of renewals in mid-September, per Variety, and Search Party was conspicuously absent. Granted, the show's second season had yet to premiere, but it might be more of a longshot now that the network just announced a whole slate of 2018 comedies. However, according to the publication, TBS programming EVP Brett Weitz did boast the network has "renewed 100% of our scripted originals." He continued, "We're going to keep making these genuinely funny comedies with the best creators in this business." So perhaps Search Party will get its own separate announcement after the Season 2 finale — it certainly seems that the network is championing unique content and comedies.

If the show does return, the show's co-creators Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers are already prepared to continue the story, even though the last image of Season 2 seems pretty final and pretty definitive. "I think we've always had just enough of an idea of what's ahead to feel comfortable making big decisions, but we always want to keep it a little bit loose," Rogers said to Den of Geek. Executive producer Michael Showalter told The New York Times, "We’ve always had a “1-2-3” idea of what’s gonna happen" as the show continues. "In Season 1, they murder somebody, and in Season 2 they’re trying to cover that murder up. Then there’s a thing that we’ve always talked about doing in Season 3, which I can’t tell you." And it sounds like the creators haven't fully committed to a single idea. "We have a feeling of the overall arc of the show more than anything," Rogers said to Den of Geek in the same interview.

Jumpt to the next paragraph to avoid Season 2 finale spoilers! But these comments seem to suggest that Dory's arrest in the season finale could still go in multiple directions, possibly a time jump or maybe into a full-on courtroom drama.

But let's head back into spoiler-free territory. In mid-November, just before the Season 2 premiere, Showalter told Slashfilm that while the creative team would like to continue, they don't know if TBS will renew the series. "Certainly with Search Party, we would really like to continue telling this story so we’ll see. We don’t know yet but we’ll see." Sounds like the future of Search Party depends on the decisions of TBS rather than the developments of the series' plot — because no matter how far Dory, Drew, Elliott, and Portia go, Bliss, Rogers, and Showalter are ready to show the consequences of their actions.