Back Doing Parties Once Again

Going in and watching the third season of Party Down (which just recently released on NetflixOriginally started as a disc-by-mail service, Netflix has grown to be one of the largest media companies in the world (and one of the most valued internet companies as well). With a constant slate of new internet streaming-based programming that updates all the time, Netflix has redefined what it means to watch TV and films (as well as how to do it). after being stuck over on Starz for the longest time) I realized how much I loved and missed this show. There are shows that you can get nostalgic about, that you remember fondly and think, “yeah, they really should have made more of those,” but you tend to move on over time. I loved Community, but after six seasons (and with the promise of a movie always just on the horizon), I do have to admit that I feel like I got enough of the show. I don’t go back and rewatch it like I used to, and in fact I’ve only sat through the whole of the later three seasons once. They were very funny, but I don’t feel like I need to live in that world all the time.

But Party Down is different, somehow. I think that’s partly because the show was originally cancelled after just two seasons, and also because those seasons were so short. For its original run, the series received only twenty episodes total, and there really isn’t a bad episode in the whole bunch. A mixture of sarcastic humor and cringe-worthy moments, the show was able to find that right spot where you wanted to hang out in this low-rent world and see these characters week to week. There was something really special about made, made even better by the fact that it couldn’t overstay its welcome.

And for years fans craved more. There were demands to somehow bring the show back so we could hang out with all these characters again. This wasn’t just when the show was first cancelled but for a long time after, with fans continuing to ask if the show could somehow come back. That wasn’t a pipe dream, either, as series creator Rob Thomas repeatedly said he was trying to find a way to resurrect the series. Outside of a short little cameo of the characters in Childrens Hospital, though, there was no movement. Not until 2023 when, 13 years after the show went off the air, somehow it returned.

And it did so in functionally the exact same form as it existed before. We had Henry Pollard (Adam Scott), the former actor who quit the business and was just coasting by, now working as an English teacher at a high school while, somehow, he’s back at the catering company to make a little extra dough so he could pay alimony. There was Kyle Bradway (Ryan Hansen), the up-and-coming, himbo actor looking for his big break who almost gets it with a role in a superhero film, until a song he released with his former band made everyone question if he was a Nazi (he wasn’t, he’s just stupid). And there's Martin Starr as Roman DeBeers, the nihilistic writer who only makes hard sci-fi, still working on his magnum opus that will never get finished. All of them are still working this shit gig, for various reasons, while their high-strung boss, Ronald Wayne "Ron" Donald (Ken Marino), who now owns the company, tries to keep everything together in this post-COVID world.

Coming into this new season after watching the previous series, you might notice one key name missing: Lizzy Caplan. Sadly her character, Henry’s love interest Casey Klein, couldn’t be in this season as Caplan had scheduling conflicts with the filming schedule. She’s replaced in the series by Jennifer Garner playing Evie Adler, a new love interest for Henry who is also a movie exec… and she might just have a project for Henry if he doesn’t feel truly retired from the biz after all.

What is amazing about the show is that despite it being thirteen years since the last season, it doesn’t feel like anything has really changed about the series. The aesthetic is still the same, with the episode all taking place at parties, making little bottle episodes for each story. There’s no special effects, no major set pieces. Just a bunch of day-players coming out, spending a day at a real location (like a house, or a convention hall, or the like) so they can hang around and let the comedy happen. It’s one of the best qualities of the show as it lets the series feel lived in and real, all without much of a budget needed.

But it’s the humor that shines, and here, too, the series hasn’t lost a step. Although this third season is only six episodes (which feels like a real travesty), it still has the smart, sparkly, sarcastic humor that was the trademark of the series. Most of this is due to the spot-on perfect delivery on Adam Scott, who ably steps back into the shows of Henry Pollard to play a guy still done with all this shit, even if he has to do this gig to pay his bills. He hates the job, but it’s so low stress that he can do it in his sleep… and he kind of sleepwalks through it anyway.

What impressed me the most is that the show finds a way to try and let the characters grow a little while still yanking them back. Ryan almost makes it big, but then has that snatched away from him. Roman has this massive sci-fi opus but even when it finishes it and sells the rights, the company he sells it to goes belly up. Henry can’t even escape the game as, time and again, someone tries to drag him back in. But when he looks outside of Hollywood, he finds real fulfillment teaching and helping his kids.

And yet you still have to appreciate the absurdity of it all. Henry and Evie get stoned on mushrooms and enjoy a party high off their balls. Ron gets too smelly at an event and has to shower, secretly, in the host’s shower… and then does it again when the host smells his ultra exclusive conditioner in Ron’s hair. A returning Lydia Dunfree (Megan Mullally) throws a party to keep her one client, her daughter Escapade (Liv Hewson taking over the role) happy, only to then fire her when she realizes it might make them both happy. The show knows how to work with absurd situations and mine great humor.

Even the new characters are fantastic. Tyrel Jackson Williams plays Sackson, a content creator making it big online with short-form videos. None of the other people understand what he does, which is part of the fun, and Williams plays the strange and silly character so well you feel like he was always meant to be part of Party Down. And then Zoë Chao comes in as Lucy Dang, the new chef for the catering company, and she is hilarious. Angry, bitter, and full of rage at having to just make food when she wants to make art. Honestly, if this show gets a fourth season some time in the future, I really hope both Williams and Chao are able to return.

That’s the blessing and the curse of this series. Its third season was dubbed a “limited series revival”, which meant there was no guarantee of a fourth season. Even now, there have been no real rumblings about bringing the show back, even though most of the cast have said they would love to return. Starz hasn’t cancelled the show, but it also hasn’t renewed it, leaving it in a weird limbo for these last three years. It’s all just a tease for fans right now with, so far, no hope of daylight at the end.

And yet this six episode run is so good you really think they could just bring it back whenever they want and the show would still work. That actually is the one thing that really bothers me about the season: it’s so great that you wish they could have done more episodes this season, let alone come back for more. Party Down’s third season is a perfect way to bring back and continue the series, and as a fan I love it. But I want more, as I did when the show was canned the first time, and now I’m even more eager for it to return, with even less hope that it will. And so I’ll go back and binge the show again because it’s too good to truly leave it behind.