Party Down
With The Office still going pretty strong, Parks & Recreation being decent, and Flight of the Conchords being over for the time being, there hasn’t been much comedy TV in our house lately. Except for the occasional re-watching of Arrested Development episodes, everything has been stone-serious TV (Breaking Bad, Lost, Damages, we’re hardcore).
Discovering Party Down a few weeks ago was an amazing thing, and “discovering” is really the only way to find this show. As an original series on Starz, there’s essentially zero promotion or advertising for this show, but thanks to The Internet, I found it!
Party Down follows a crew of caterers from the company of the same name as they try (and usually fail) to entertain and serve some event in the Los Angeles area. And being set in the LA area, naturally its characters are strugging entertainers of different sorts. The Players are:
- Ken Marino as Ron Donald — The hapless, naive team leader of the catering crew, constantly digging himself into holes he can’t get out of. Marino puts on great mannerisms for the character. He’s sort of the “Michael Scott” of the group, but not near as slapsticky and cartoony as Steve Carell’s character. And the flat-top has me laughing pretty much every time he’s on screen.
- Adam Scott as Henry Pollard — An old friend of Ron’s and one-hit-wonder commercial actor who’s decided to give up on his dream. His sarcasm and self-deprecation draw a lot of the laughs and Scott’s serious “straight man” tone and attitude make all his interactions with his co-workers hilarious.
- Lizzy Caplan as Casey Klein — A smart-ass comedian who becomes the primary love interest to Henry. She and Henry make up your basic “Jim and Pam” duo.
- Jane Lynch as Constance Carmell — The inept “mother figure” to the team. Her long history of failure in Hollywood gives her a hilarious perspective on things. Plus she always mentions “how crazy the coke was back then.”
- Martin Starr as Roman DeBeers — A pretentious “hard sci-fi” writer who constantly points out others’ shortcomings and is a general a-hole to everyone, including guests. He also thinks he’s great with women.
- Ryan Hansen as Kyle Bradway — The seemingly most successful one of the bunch, at least as far as having acting jobs is concerned. A hammy pretty-boy actor who knows next-to-nothing about his art. He and Roman are foils to one anothers’ douchebaggery.
The format is single-camera and documentary-ish, with filthy, sarcastic comedy. Each episode the crew caters a different event, like a Sweet Sixteen party, a high school reunion, and an investors dinner. This of course gives the writers the opportunity to switch up the setting, the characters’ roles, and to have fun guest stars each week. They’ve written a set of characters that play wonderfully together, and have created a setting in which they can interact organically (and with the guests) without just shoehorning them into a small office (or a hospital).
Drama isn’t out of the question on Party Down, either. In recent episodes, the relationship between Henry and Casey is going somewhere, and usually once or twice per episode were made to feel sympathy for Ron, which he generally squanders within the succeeding few minutes. But that drama is effective while it lasts and, like Scrubs, the drama tempers the comedy with a realistic edge, giving subtle “regular person” qualities to the show’s absurd characters.
It was just renewed for a second season (Thank God), so you should go give it the viewership it deserves.
If you’re a Netflix customer, you can stream all of season one, if you’re into that.
