How to Watch "Search Party" Season 3 in Australia (No, Seriously, How?)

We’re sorry to say: you’re in for a wait.

Update: We take it back! It'll debut on Stan on 24 July. Read the original story below.

It’s been more than two and a half years since we last saw Dory and her gang of murder-hiding millennials on the small screen, but Search Party has finally returned for a third season.

Only one problem: it’s not yet available in Australia.

Though the first two seasons of the show were produced by TBS in the United States, they both aired on SBS Viceland and then went to SBS on Demand here in Australia. In fact, the second season was fast-tracked from the US, so it would have been reasonable to expect the same for S3.

However, Search Party has made the move from TBS to HBO’s new streaming service, HBO Max, in the States. HBO Max even gave it the green light for two further seasons. That’s good! But when we asked SBS if they would be airing Season 3 here, they confirmed they no longer held the local rights for the show. That’s bad!

(This is basically how they replied...)

For those who haven’t seen the show, it stars Alia Shawkat as Dory, a young New Yorker who takes it upon herself to locate a missing former college acquaintance, bringing her self-involved buddies (John Reynolds, John Early, Meredith Hagner, Brandon Michael Hall) along for the ride.

Slight spoilers ahead: Ironically, the only crime in the first season is the murder Dory and her ex-BF end up committing (in self-defence) and the subsequent cover-up, which sends the group of friends into a fit of loopy paranoia. (Did I mention this is a black comedy?) At the end of S2, the chickens come home to roost for Dory, and S3 concerns the trial for her life. Check out the trailer below.

So, with the entirety of S3 having now dropped all at once for American subscribers on HBO Max, and the internet swimming with spoilers, we have to wonder: how-to-watch-search-party-season-3-in-australia

Our best bet is Binge, which is Foxtel’s new streaming platform, and is the only place in Australia you can get most of HBO’s shows and movies. Unfortunately, past seasons of Search Party are not on the Binge platform, and S3 of the show is not listed among Binge’s July highlights. If they do indeed have the show, it’s not on the immediate horizon. We reached out to Binge to ask 'what’s up?' but they could not confirm whether or not they would deliver us Season 3 of Search Party.

Another contender could be Stan, which premiered the HBO Max original Love Life starring Anna Kendrick last month. However, they have told us there's no news on this front for now.

A final possibility is that HBO Max will keep it all for themselves, waiting until they launch in Australia, whenever that might be. All we know is: definitely not in 2020.

Unfortunately, you can’t even play catch-up with Search Party on SBS. You’ll instead have to buy the first two seasons on iTunes or the Google Play store.

Anyway, until someone gets back to us, we'll just be waiting here doing this:

Update (17/07): Stan has confirmed it'll premiere S3 on 24 July in Australia, and it'll host Seasons 1 and 2 on that date as well. Enjoy!

Header Image: HBO