Party Down

Ever get the feeling while watching a show that you alone are its entire fanbase?

Probably not, because that's really an insane feeling to have.  However, its what I get whenever I watch my favorite Starz original series, "Party Down".  Let me guess?  You've never heard of it?  Well, that makes you a member of a class of the human race that I call "everybody on Earth but myself".  I get the strange feeling watching this show that the entirety of its viewers are myself, and possibly the actors themselves and their families - and I'm not even sure of that much.  Its one thing to watch TV alone, its quite another to feel that throughout this entire approximately 8000-mile wide planet, I'm the only one enjoying this program at this moment.  That's something I usually only get with B-movies like "Troll 2".  The show doesn't even have a TV Tropes page!

Here's the sad thing:  "Party Down" is a really good show.  Its so good, that despite having literally no viewers beside myself, it got renewed for a second season.  It got renewed for a third season.  Its that good of a show that it doesn't even need viewers.  Seriously.

Obviously my purpose here is to rectify that lack of viewership.  Just like I did with "The Boondocks", I'm here to spread the Gospel of another under-watched program, and perhaps make the world a brighter place in the process.  ...Or more likely I can prove that I have just that hip to television and watch far better programs that you peons watching your lives with "LOST" and "America's Next Top Model"*.

"Party Down" is the story of a group of Hollywood wanna-bes, just some of thousands who tried to make it big and failed miserably, who now have been forced to give up their dreams and work in a catering service called - you guessed it - "Party Down".  Steadily as they work themselves down from great dreams of fame and fortune towards the mediocrity of their future, these characters also have to work the grill for the various wacky events they're catering:  be it for the birthday party of a spoiled teenager, a get-together for a finance wizard/con-man, or an orgy.  Yes, an orgy.  Luckily since this is Starz, the show's cast can tackle any subject they want, use any language that want, and yes, show anything that they want.  Gotta love those movie channels!  Some characters handle this with a misplaced belief of their future success (including one has-been actress who is still trying after something like twenty years), while others have completely given up hope and instead have take on a "too-cool-for-all-this" attitude, and others have just failed from the start and get drunk a lot.

This show's premise allows for a lot of freedom, including a very large assortment of hilarious guest stars.  However, excluding Kristen Bell, the vast majority of them are the various "That Guy"s of Hollywood, those C-list actors who get regular work in secondary roles in movies and TV but never really manage to become household names, or even gather a significant fanbase.  Everybody pulls in respectable performances, and even better, though its the main cast that you truly have to admire.  Adam Scott, another "That Guy" plays Henry, the main character for all intents and purposes.  Henry, despite being a talented actor, has had his career destroyed by a series of beer commercials, and so must move down into the working class, spending the rest of his life as a sardonic bartender.  His love interest is Casey (Lizzy Caplan, pictured above), a failed comedian who is already in a relationship.  There are other various characters like a nerdy sci-fi author, a pretty boy blond idiot, and their boss, an incompetent aged fratboy who always manages to make an ass of himself.

The only real problem to the show is how its steadily turning into a some kind of weird actor experiment camp.  "Real shows" are stealing the main cast piece by piece.  First Jane Lynch, easily one of the show's best actors, was stolen away by "Glee" - an act of sabotage I have yet to forgive that program for.  Now in the upcoming Season 3 it seems that Adam Scott is being taken for some NBC show.  Ryan Hansan, the pretty boy has a pilot picked up, and Lizzy Caplan is making her own.  They're chopping the show's limbs off!

Well anyway, there's still half of Season 2 that's airing right now.  The next episode is entitled "Steve Guttenberg's Birthday", which will probably answer that long asked question:  whatever happened to 80s "Police Academy" star Steve Guttenberg?  Even if Season 3 sucks, there's still Season 1.  You can watch both seasons online at Netflix if you want.  See it Fridays at 10:30**.

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* Both of which I must sheepishly admit that I watch.  I know that today we're basically living in the golden age of television with the very best programming ever coming along, especially in drama, but even so I got to know how "LOST" ends!  What's the deal with the Smoke Monster?  My theory is that the entire island is just the dream of an Eternal Turtle God.

** That's Eastern Standard Time of course.  Other Time Zones are just stupid.  We of the EST have New York City, Disney World, and the best parts of the Caribbean.  Can't argue with that.