Dork Reports

Party Down is a show I finally started watching earlier this year when Netflix started streaming on the Wii. It had been in my queue for a while, but when I saw that season 2 had begun and would be streaming immediately, I started watching season 1 with plans to segue right into season 2. A couple things got in the way (namely Oz), but I started watching it again and just a few nights ago I finished season 2 at 6:30 am.

Party Down is really funny – just the right mix of predictably obnoxious characters with some characters that really draw you in. The best way I’d compare it is, you watch 30 Rock because the interactions between Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy are consistently great while Jenna, Tracy and Kenneth are funny but not always laugh-out-loud funny. The same goes for Party Down’s Henry and Casey – they’re the only ones who really know how ridiculous their situations are while Roman, Ron, Kyle and Constance (or Lydia) round out the cast with their clueless style.

Well, just like any great show that achieves cult status amongst fans, ie Arrested Development, the network just has to go ahead and cancel it due to low ratings. So, now that I’ve finished season 2 I won’t have any more episodes to look forward to. It’s fairly disappointing. Even though I didn’t get into Party Down with the enthusiasm I did with Arrested Development (probably because it’s damn sad when a show gets canceled, and I didn’t want to think about it), I was already starting to recommend it.

For some reason I thought because it was on Starz that it had a chance – I hadn’t been following the news until, after the first half of season 2, I went on IMDB and discovered that Starz had axed Party Down on last week. This was a surprise to me because I hadn’t paid attention to any of the news regarding the show – I just found it on Netflix one day, saw that Ken Marino and Martin Starr were in it and that Paul Rudd had co-created it, and I was ready to give it a shot. So then to like it and then discover it’s over is just bad news bears. Great writing + good acting + good directing = a formula for disaster, apparently. Le sigh.