Revivals. Love ‘em, hate ‘em. It can be hard to recapture what once was, but I think Party Down is a revival I can root for. The Starz show debuted in 2009 and was canceled after two seasons. It wasn’t wildly successful by any stretch of the imagination but as it happens in our streaming age, developed a cult following after it was gone.
The lead, Adam Scott, went on to do the far more popular Parks and Recreation as the lovable nerd and Leslie Knope’s love interest, Ben Wyatt. Channelling Jim Halpert from The Office, with quizzical looks to the camera as the straight man of the group. Party Down is approaching mockumentary style, but there are no direct-to-camera interviews here.
"Oh, I love this stuff — reunions, get-togethers, catch-ups, do-agains. I love seeing people from the past, and seeing people from the past see other people from the past." - Lydia Dunfree
Party Down was originally conceived by the team of John Enbom, Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars), Dan Etheridge, and Paul Rudd. Yes, that Paul Rudd, Ant-Man himself. Rudd originally intended on playing the lead but as he was shooting a film they ended up with Rudd’s best friend, Adam Scott.
The Office comparisons aren’t accidental. Party Down was conceived after Rudd and company had seen the Ricky-Gervais-led, original British series. They wanted to come up with their own project in a similar vein, to capture the cringe humour and melancholy of working a mundane job alongside disaffected colleagues. It took some time for the project to come to fruition.
What workplace did they land on? A cater-waiter company in Hollywood named Party Down. Each episode has Party Down cater an event for a different party. In the new season that could mean a fake prom/prom-otional event, or a symposium for white supremacists.
This also meant each of our characters were of course only there because they were waiting for their big shot in the movie industry, with Adam Scott’s character, Henry Pollard, being a washed-up actor most well known for a beer ad with the catchphrase “Are we having fun yet?” Now he’s an English teacher and recently divorced, needing to work at Party Down on the side to pay alimony.
The manager of the company is the incompetent Ron Donald, played by Ken Marino. Part of the joy of watching a single episode of Party Down is seeing Ron get flustered and ultimately end up in slapstick comedy territory, Marino committing fully to pratfalls and lowbrow embarrassments.
“I’m living in a cartoon.” - Ron Donald
Then we have Casey Klein, played by Lizzy Caplan, who due to a scheduling conflict, filming the incredible Fleishman is in Trouble for Hulu/Disney+ (highly recommended), unfortunately, couldn’t return for the third season. Casey and Henry have playful banter and quickly wind up together. A huge part of the series was watching their chemistry which Starz attempts to recapture here in Season 3 by introducing Jennifer Garner to the scene to varying degrees of success.
Martin Starr is Roman DeBeers. You may know Starr as a bespectacled teen from the 1999 Freaks and Geeks, or his snarky role as a coder on Silicon Valley (playing a similar resentful character to Roman). Roman is an aspiring screenwriter, but only “hard” sci-fi, and he can’t stress the hard part enough.
Ryan Hansen plays Kyle Bradway, a naive actor who also wants to make it big in Hollywood. Another relationship in Party Down worth watching is Roman and Kyle, seeing them bicker, trying to one-up and degrade each other, and committing to pranks, preying on the other’s vanity.
In the first season of the show, we had Jane Lynch as Constance Carmell, playing an oblivious and laidback former actress. She couldn’t return to Season 2 save for the finale as she had been cast on the infamous high school karaoke show, Glee. She was temporarily replaced by Jennifer Coolidge’s Bobbie St. Brown for two episodes but ultimately succeeded by Megan Mullaley as Lydia Dunfree, manager for her demanding daughter/actor.
The nature of a new party for each episode also provided an avenue for guest stars. Party Down had a number of them including J.K. Simmons, Ken Jeong, Kristen Bell, George Takei, and in Season 3, Quinta Brunson, James Marsden, and Nick Offerman.
Party Down’s third season continues these characters’ lives over 10 years later.
Season 3: A mini-review
There’s a great joke payoff in the closing moments of the premiere, where we learn the episode actually took place just before Covid and Ron has now just bought the Party Down business. In the mid-credits scene, we flash forward to 14 months later and learn Ron lived in the company van, catering underground parties during the lockdown. As a result, he got Covid four times and has lost his sense of smell, but now parties are back on the rise and the catering business is all steam ahead.
Ultimately, the cast of the first two seasons was not diverse and reflective of the world we live in. In this revival, the producers cast a wider net when finding new additions to the Party Down crew. In that search, they found Zoë Chao and Tyre Jackson Williams who don the pink bow ties and bring along new personality quirks.
Zoë Chao plays Lucy Dang, a creative chef who would rather serve food that will blow your mind and make you cry, over the run-of-the-mill hors d'oeuvres that simply taste good. Unfortunately for her, she works for Ron and Party Down.
Tyre Jackson Williams as Sackson, is the youngest cast member. A lot in the entertainment industry has changed in the last 10 years, and now Tik Tok is the pathway to fame. Sackson is hoping to make a go of being a content creator while also cater-waiting to pay the bills.
Jennifer Garner plays Evie Adler. She works as a film producer and attends parties in the first two episodes, leading Henry to come into her orbit. Over the course of the season, she tries to find a role for Henry who has now given up on the film industry altogether (not that he was really trying in the first place).
Whenever Jane Lynch appears video calling in on an iPad, it’s obvious she couldn’t make it on set. Bit of a disappointment really, but we do have two episodes with her in the flesh. It’s funny how since the beginning the series has had to deal with shuffling characters in and out because of actors’ schedules. Party Down is more of a passion project, but somehow through it all, the show still comes together.
As for the Lizzy Caplan of it all, I did miss her presence on the show. Jennifer Garner does add something but the dynamic just isn’t the same. Her character also doesn’t work for Party Down and feels shoehorned into scenes.
The six episodes go by all too quickly, meaning a lot of the character development is rather surface-level. We don’t ever get to meet Henry’s ex-wife or his supposed children.
While silly most of the time, the show does wear its heart on its sleeve, especially in the finale where it all comes to a head. Henry is faced with the decision to give up teaching for acting in a Marvel facsimile, the career he had always wanted. And both Lucy and Roman have to come to terms with failure and the never-ending quest for recognition and success.
This isn’t an Arrested Development situation, Party Down continues to do what it did so well and it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Heck, I think I could even go for another season should the Starz align (see what I did there). And if Adam Scott can find time for both Severance, Party Down and the occasional podcast.
All three seasons of Party Down are available on TVNZ+ in New Zealand or Starz in the US.