‘Party Down’ cater-waiters don bow ties again after 13-year gap
A comedy about the indignities of working as a cater-waiter, “Party Down” is back with a new season just a mere 13 years since new episodes last aired on Starz. The series ran for two seasons originally, but it was Adam Scott’s breakout role as a guy who flamed out as an actor and is instead stuck wearing that pink bow tie and serving drinks to rich partygoers. But he found solace with a cute co-worker named Casey (Lizzy Caplan), a fellow struggling actor who shared his bored, sarcastic, gimleteyed view of their circumstances.
Rewatching “Party Down’s” original episodes recently, I was surprised to realize how much the show mirrors “The Office.” The basics are all there: A bumbling, overeager boss (Ken Marino as Ron Donald) and a workforce of barely competent eccentrics who couldn’t give a toss about the job. All of it is anchored by Scott’s very Jim Halpert-like performance as Henry. He’s too cool to be here. Except, no, actually he’s not.
Add in Roman, the resident malcontent incel and aspiring screenwriter (Martin Starr); Kyle, the easygoing model/actor (Ryan Hansen); plus a rotating cast of wild cards played first by Jane Lynch, then Jennifer Coolidge, then Megan Mullally.
So here we are, more than a decade later, and the old gang is back with one exception: Caplan’s scheduling conflicts mean Casey is nowhere to be seen. The character found success on “Saturday Night Live” we’re told and is now living her best life elsewhere, leaving all her catering pals in the dust. It’s not a bad
twist. Henry has moved on, too — he’s a high school English teacher — but a recent divorce has him in financial straits, so he’s back in that pink bow tie moonlighting at his old job.
Jennifer Garner as a successful movie producer takes a liking to Henry and is laid back enough to be charmed by his deadpan rapport and general life messiness. Do I buy that a Hollywood producer would overlook their status gap to forge a real connection between mature adults? Not really, but Garner is fun company, and that’s enough.
Her presence also means the show’s writers have invited someone rich into this hermetic, disgruntled world and that feels like a betrayal of something essential about the “Party Down” ethos: The clients exist to be mocked behind their backs and have their medicine cabinets raided, but never to be taken seriously.
Replacing the Caseysized hole in the show are two new Party Down employees. Tyrel Jackson Williams is the sole Gen-Z employee, and he carries a ring light around with him everywhere, just in case there’s an opportunity to make content.
Zoe Chao also joins the cast as the Party Down
chef — a new position that didn’t exist in the show’s previous incarnation — who takes a very intense and experimental approach to her job.
New characters can, and should, breathe life into any revival. What’s missing here is a sense of camaraderie — everyone united by the crappiness of the job — that once worked as a binding agent.
Just generally, there’s not enough of a kindred spirit for Henry to bounce off of (what Casey once brought to the table) or an overall wisecracking esprit de corps.
Coolidge doesn’t make a reappearance. But Lynch and Mullally do. Lynch’s character is now a wealthy widow, and Mullally is a stage mom who is only belatedly realizing that being a child star isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. There are also famous guest stars aplenty: Quinta Brunson! Nick Offerman! James Marsden!
Created by Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Dan Etheridge and the actor Paul Rudd, the show at its best generates such a happygo-lucky absurdity amid the ego-smashing reality of anyone struggling to find a foothold in showbiz.