Apple TV+ Releases First Episode of The Afterparty for Free on YouTube

Shows like Ted Lasso and Mythic Quest have helped establish Apple TV+ as a home of great original comedy television. Now, the streamer seems to have its next comedic hit on its hands. The Afterparty, a murder mystery comedy series from the minds behind 21 Jump Street, debuted its first three episodes on Apple TV+ this past Friday. There are a few more episodes on the way in the coming weeks, but Apple is hoping to rope more viewers in by making the series premiere available for free, even to those who don’t have an Apple TV+ subscription.

This weekend, alongside the series premiere, Apple released the first episode of The Afterparty on its YouTube channel. The debut episode, titled “Aniq,” is available here on YouTube in its entirety. 

While Apple hasn’t released any streaming data for The Afterparty just yet, the episode on YouTube seems to be at least drawing some serious attention to the series. As of Sunday night, two days after the premiere, the version of the premiere on YouTube has over 1.1 million views. Apple is hoping that buzz will translate into some more subscriptions to its service.

The Afterparty‘s star-studded cast includes Sam Richardson, Ben Schwartz, Tiffany Haddish, Zoe Chao, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer, Dave Franco, Genevieve Angelson, Tiya Sircar, Jamie Demetriou, and Kelvin Yu. The series was created by Christopher Miller, one half of the Lord & Miller duo that directed The LEGO Movie and produced Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

“I got to sing songs as Dewey Duck [in DuckTales], which was very fun, but this is like the first time where it’s not like, ‘All the way up here singing,’ it’s like, try your best to do well,” Schwartz told ComicBook.com in a recent interview, speaking on the challenge of his character’s musical number on the show. “Fiora Cutler, who was my vocal coach, was incredible and we had Kat Burns, who was my choreographer, and they were so loving and wonderful and made me feel confident enough to pull it off. And now that it’s done, I think I would 100% welcome some more [musical opportunies], but I just know how much more work is involved. Because to learn choreography, to learn to sing, and to sing along with it in real time, it’s just so draining. So I’ve gained so much respect for that whole world of dancers and singers and people who do it at the same time.”

Have you checked out The Afterparty on Apple TV+? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!