It’s a Wrap for Party Down
Party Down(Starz)
Party Down recently finished its second season on cable channel Starz. Despite being the best little known show on the airwaves, it will not be returning for a third.
Like so many other top quality televised comedy series of the past decade (Arrested Development; Undeclared; Freaks and Geeks, et al), Party Down didn’t get enough viewers/wasn’t well promoted or given enough time to find its way, and will simply fade away to a life on DVD. There was some indication the show wouldn’t be coming back as some of the leads began taking jobs on other shows (i.e. Adam Scott on Parks and Recreation), but one hoped that the channel might’ve recognized what they had and found creative promotional ideas to push what was one of the best shows out there.
The last episode of Season Two (entitled Constance Carmel’s Wedding) wasn’t a conclusive one as obviously there wasn’t enough cancellation warning. The show brought back ex-Party Down staffer Jane Lynch (Glee) as Constance, the bride celebrating her new age wedding to Howard Greengold (Alex Rocco), a loud, obnoxious oldster with an air tank and multiple marriages under his belt, whose daughter Mona (Jennifer Irwin) wants to stop the wedding to prevent, as she puts it, that ”cunt (from) spending our fortune on scented candles”
Like all of the events catered by the pink bow-tied ones the wedding winds up being something of a disaster. Casey (Lizzy Caplan) finds out that her scene in the Apatow movie has been cut. When Henry (Scott) tries to console her, she accuses him of not being able to understand because he doesn’t care about anything. Later, the vacuous Ryan (Kyle Bradway) is having trouble understanding a script he is reading for an audition, and (perhaps in part to prove something to Casey) Henry gets inspired by the project. Roman (Martin Starr) samples some wedding treats that turn out to be marijuana infused and gets hilariously super high. Supervisor Ron (Ken Marino) is looking at a promotion from owner Bolus Lugozshe (Michael Hitchcock), but finds his love for the boss’s daughter, the engaged Danielle (June Diane Raphael), too overwhelming to contain. Lydia (Megan Mulally) meanwhile, sees an opening with the divorced Bolus, and attempts to apply her charms.
The hijinks and basic formula were pretty much the same episode to episode, and yet writers/producers/ creators, ex-Veronica Marspartners, John Enbom and Dan Etheridge (Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd also co-created) managed to infuse the well-paced show with so much intelligent, cutting edge, pop-culture infused humor that it seemed to matter little. Recurring roles, guest stars, and cameos from the likes of Kristen Bell; JK Simmons; Ed Begley Jr., Rick Fox, Andres Royo; Joey Lauren Adams; George Takei; Ken Jeong; Thomas Lennon; Christopher Mintz-Plasse; and Steve Guttenberg added to the talents of a wonderfully strong cast. Unfortunately (though at this point, not surprisingly) another good one bites the dust, leaving the television landscape that much more barren in its wake.