Party Down - Page 3

I just finished watching my way through this on Netflix. As everyone else has been saying, it's absolutely great, and a shame that it won't be continuing.

I stuck this in my queue because I'd heard great things about it on these boards, but after watching the first episode, I wasn't really drawn in. I decided to just move on to watching Parks and Recreation (which turned out to be a worthwhile move, cause that show is aces as well). Once I finished that up, I gave Party Down another chance, and man did it come through.

It's all about the cast. Ken Marino's ability to deliver exasperated pleas in such a hilarious manner. Scott and Kaplan playing their dry wit off each other. The unbelievable use of guest stars (oh man, those guest stars...). Unexpectedly though, Martin Starr as Roman was the biggest hit for me. He was maybe my least favorite in the first few episodes, but just kept growing on me until I fully appreciated what a whirlwind of disdainful, depressed, hyper-intellectual snark he was. It's just a joy to see a cast of people who are this funny and who bounce off each other this well.

Favorite Moments:

- Ron stomping out a burning flag

- Kristen Bell, who somehow managed to be both extremely severe and kind of adorable in just 2 episodes

- Every moment with Jimmi Simpson as Jackal Onassis as the Bartender

- "My Struggle" (Maybe the hardest I've laughed in a long time)

- Any scene with J.K. Simmons

- "Well what term would you use to refer to a black person lusting after a white person?"

"Temperate deciduous fever? Fjord fever?"

and of course

- "ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?"

Fjord fever is an expression I've used a few times in real life. No one got it.

"Just call me Mrs. Butterworth bitch."

I know they've talked about how much they were inspired by the British version of  "The Office" and it really is much closer in spirit to that show than the American version of "The Office". I've recently gone through the entire series as well, and I think it deserves to be included with the other great sitcoms of the past 10 or so years.

Definitely... and to my way of thinking, it's every bit the perfect sitcom for this recession that Arrested Development was for the Bush administration.

I don't feel the UK Office comparison so much. For instance, to me Ron was a long way from the downbeat cringing verisimilitude of David Brent, and was actually even more over-the-top silliness than Michael Scott became in the second half of that show's existence.

I like Party Down a lot but I don't think it ever quite reached the level of sublime magnificence of the best episodes of the best of the post-2000 shows like 30 Rock or Community or The American Office, where I was thinking, "This wasn't written by men alone ... this was touched by comedy gods." I think it's second tier, but there are nine tiers and Party Down's at the very top of that second tier and I wish it had at least one more season to watch that great cast play those characters. Especially Roman, Lydia and Casey.

[Sigh] ... Casey ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucho 

 

I like Party Down a lot but I don't think it ever quite reached the level of sublime magnificence of the best episodes of the best of the post-2000 shows like 30 Rock or Community or The American Office, where I was thinking, "This wasn't written by men alone ... this was touched by comedy gods." I think it's second tier, but there are nine tiers and Party Down's at the very top of that second tier and I wish it had at least one more season to watch that great cast play those characters. Especially Roman, Lydia and Casey.

 

[Sigh] ... Casey ...

I would generally agree, though I think you could make an argument that "Celebrate Rick Sargulesh" is absolutely on that level of transcendent comedy.

The one thing I do think this show has done better than maybe any other show in the past decade is the use of guest stars. Simmons, Bell, Guttenberg, Steven Weber, Tom Lennon, Dave Allen, Rob Corddrey. I mean, they had some amazing, amazing guest star performances.