Party Down Finale to Air Tonight: One Final Defense Before It's Too Late

Last month we implored you to watch Party Down, a Starz comedy based on a group of caterers with larger aspirations in Hollywood that has quickly become one of our favorite shows. Hopefully some of you did, but the grim reality is today’s season finale may be the last episode of the show, ever. In the last few months, several of the show’s cast members have been poached by other more definite projects, and a third season of Party Down has not yet been guaranteed.

But to echo the expression Kyle hilariously assumed his acting mentor had coined, the show must go on. It’s not over ‘til it’s over, all that jazz. We’ve lost many a quality television shows we barely knew (ahem… Arrested Development) to poor ratings or network decisions, but we’ve also seen shows like Chuck inspire passionate online viewer campaigns that have yielded positive results and legitimately affected the outcome of the show.

So why not start that right here. Maybe it’s not too late. Watch the finale with us Friday (either on Starz or on Netflix Instant Watch), and come back here and discuss the show at large and where it could go from here. For now, we’ll supplement our list of reasons to watch with a new defense of why the cancellation of this show—right as it’s coming into its own—would be a travesty for all among us who like to laugh:

It does what The Office does, only better.
Last go-around we noted that it was a slight pick-me-up from The Office because it employs the same ownership of career-related despair, but in a brighter Hollywood backdrop that felt less depressing than the Scranton, Pa. office. This is true, but there’s more to it than that. Both shows lack the freedom to exist outside of the company their premise is based around, be it Dunder Mifflin or Party Down Catering. So each week they’re faced with the challenge of creating relevant plot developments, conflicts and social interactions in the settings in which most of us do the least of our social interacting. But while The Office has gotten progressively worse and less based in any sort of reality (Michael was dating Pam’s mom—WHAT?), Party Down puts its dreamers at the same galas as the folks living those dreams, giving the weekly charade added depth. And yet, The Office remains a wildly popular television show and 95 percent of the people we talk to have still never heard of Party Down.

The show replaced Jane Lynch, and became better off.
Lynch left her stint as the past-her-prime starlet on Party Down for the hallways of McKinley high near the end of season one. The character had proved an outlet for lines just as bewildering and hilarious as Sue Sylvester’s, but trading the pom-poms and delusions of grandeur for, well, B-movie roles and delusions of grandeur. Therefore, when Megan Mullally ultimately replaced Lynch’s character for season two, we were pretty skeptical. But Mullally’s unique brand of humor has added a different element to the show. Moreover, her role as a stage mom to a wannabe Miley Cyrus (hilariously named Escapade) brings depth to the show as the only real outsider to the industry (outside of the always aloof Ron) who grounds the show in a slight reality.

Lizzy Caplan has the best arsenal of deadpan facial expressions in the game right now.
Who would have thought Janis Ian from Mean Girls would grow up to be a bonafide Hollywood starlet with acting chops Megan Fox would kill for and impeccable comic timing?

There are a lot more scenes in Los Angeles ripe for parody.
The Party Down crew has already taken a good many aspects of Hollywood and its social classes to task: suburban yuppies, community theatre thespians, the adult film industry, professional sports. They even catered a funeral (people do that?). But there are plenty of scenes and subcultures ripe for parody. The show briefly dabbled in hip-hop culture one episode, but left us wanting more. Kyle has yet to show off his hottie repertoire at any UCLA/USC functions. Politics have been catered to (sorry!), but religion largely has not. No Prop 8-related plotlines or groups to speak of. Lots more to milk here.

It’s the show Entourage could have been.
Vulture just wrote a pretty stirring defense of the show Entourage could have been (and the show it now couldn’t be further from), and where it went wrong. One point was that, early on, it seemed like it would show a man trying to navigate the struggle and the complexities that lie within Hollywood while trying to stay true to his childhood buddies from Queens. This is totally a show we would watch, but not a world Turtle would make any sense in. It is, however, much of what makes Party Down work. While the situational comedy and the guest stars are the catalyst of the show, the relatable failures and navigation of their places just outside of the parties they serve are what bring the characters together in a larger sense. Unlike, say, Entourage or How To Make It In America, this is rarely the focal point, but it’s treated with enough earnestness to create empathy for even Martin Starr’s Roman, the show’s most outspoken asshole.

Bubbles from The Wire guest-starred in Season 2.
No explanation necessary. Bubs!

Entourage without a dearth of unlikable characters, The Office without its forced awkwardness and recent comedic tailspin, a promise of a finale a hundred times less confusing or enraging than Lost, and Bubbles: are we having fun yet? Yes, we are. Come back next week before it’s too late. For now, enjoy the trailer to the season finale below. Hey Jane Lynch!

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