Anybody seen Party Down, new Starz comedy series?

I caught a few episodes of this last night and it wasn't all that bad. It's blend of low-brow humor, clever writing and often throw-away delivery kind of appealed to me.

Rob Thomas ('Veronica Mars') and Paul Rudd are amongst the producers and it stars Adam Scott ('Tell Me You Love Me'), Jane Lynch and Lizzy Caplan ('True Blood').

this is really good & funny. episode where jane lynch and ed begley get high is so good

Yeah it's pretty good. The guy who plays Ron is consistently great.

really want to see this, hope there's a dvd soon enough

If you have Netflix you can want online.

watch, sorry early.

i think we all want, online.

idk how i was so reserved abt my love 4 this srsly its really p. great!

gradually noticing like EVERY vmars actor ie., logan playing a young republican in ep. 3 i think, was awesome

still are 4 eps or so ive not watched yet

Finally started watching this on netflix, I think it might even be funnier than current season 30 rock.

saw ep 1 and didn't really laugh. maybe i try again.

this program's rad, loved the porno episode + the eastern european mobsters

didn't realize there was a thread, had thought about starting one. really good show -- kinda wish they'd ease up on the Ken Marino character, him saying "soup or crackers" every 5 mins and having some embarrassing breakdown at the end of almost every episode is getting pretty tired. but aside from that, solid.

what are y'alls favorite episodes -- i've really liked the run from "Sin Say Shun Awards After Party" to "Celebrate Ricky Sargulesh," felt like the show was hitting its stride w/ those.

planning on watching these this weekend!

haha xpost to justsayin

Really like this -- what surprised me about it is that it subtly ramps up into feeling ... somewhat dramatic, actually? There's just some point, a few episodes in, where I started caring what was going on character-wise, almost in an old sitcommy way, and then the show's pretty much maintained and worked with that. It's weird -- whatever earnestness works to accomplish that flies under the radar for a while.

(Maybe I'm just surprised in comparison to the other show Starz developed, Head Case, which is just screwball funny with no attachment to reality necessary.)

Maybe it's just a matter of good writing -- e.g., all the various deployments of the "Are we having fun yet?" thing so far have been really deft

yeah...i was kinda groaning at first when they introduced the relationship plot, but it's paid off in some good ways -- esp. w/ reactions from Martin Starr's character.

i keep seeing Head Case on the schedule next to it but haven't given it a look - should i?

yeah i was gonna say -- the way they've teased out "are we having fun yet?" w/o overdoing it has been really great, which is why it annoys me how much they did "super r crackers" to death

season final's on tonight i think?

yeah -- kristen bell guesting on this one too

Sure, watch Head Case if you have the time for it -- it's sort of antic and ridiculous and heavily improvised (with celebrity-guest therapy patients, in a sort of Dr. Katz-ish way), and funny, and mostly it's just entertaining to see how far Alexandra Wentworth(-Stephanopolous) will go in terms of humiliating her character or pushing herself into total goony awfulness ... early in the season she was covered with herpes sores, and last week she decided she wanted a child and then learned that "I don't have a uterus," which is maybe a good indicator of where that show sits

This is weird but I had this alarming intense dream last week where I was just hanging out with Kristen Bell, having a conversation, and she was the most awesome smart funny charming fun person on the planet and I wanted to hang out with her forever, and then it was sort of depressing to wake up and have all my excitement over having met the most wonderful person in the universe deflate, and basically now I am scared to see her in anything, or really face the fact that nothing in the world will ever be as great as my weird dream wherein the world was perfect -- also I am disturbed that my subconscious would create this idealized character and then give it the form of Kristen Bell, who I think is cool but really does not occupy much of my brainspace at all

<3 your crazy ass brain dude

I think I liked Taylor Stiltskin's Sweet Sixteen Party best, I think. Jane Lynch's "it's like a fairy tale" or whatever cracked me up.

Every bit with Martin Starr is great. He totally steals the Brandix Corporate Retreat ep. "Dude I told you there was a line", "This guys not a closer, I've been here twenty minutes." Jennifer Coolidge was great last ep. "You're NOT a dolphin scientist!"

The thing that gets me about Starr's character is how handily they keep in this frame of being realistically hard to like -- they resist the urge to make him a lovable loser/misanthrope/geek, and actually just let him be kinda awful. And yet he's awful in a way so familiar and true-to-life that I wind up liking the character anyway.

I mean, there is no sympathy for Roman

i would watch pretty much anything with this cast

Yeah that's why I started watching it. I was like wow look at who is this. B-b-b-but it's on Starz! Okay it's only thirty minutes long.

I don't know if anyone saw Ron's high-school reunion last week, but man, I was feeling genuine deep dramatic awfulness for the poor dude at the end

also BTW this show has finally made me sit up and pay some respect for the directorial skills of one Fred Savage

yeah absolutely. my favorite was when they set it up like they were gonna throw his character a bone (so to speak) w/ the one porn star and instead he got all haughty about the differences between fantasy and 'hard sci fi'

xpost

nabisco have you seen It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia? he directed a bunch of that too and it's been consistently fun.

I was feeling genuine deep dramatic awfulness for the poor dude at the end

My gf pointed out that they've gone Fawlty Towers on this character.

i would watch pretty much anything with this cast

Anybody seen Jane Lynch in 'Glee'?

Btw, the show got renewed.

nabisco have you seen It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia?

I watched half an episode of this and was just too insanely turned off to even finish -- yeah, sorry, I know loads of people like it a lot, but I guess it's just Not For Me

why do you guys have starz? does it come with another channel?

For some reason I just randomly get six Starz channels and Starz On Demand with my cable package. I don't get any other pay channels and none of my other friends who have packages w/ HBO or whatever get it. It's weird, but it's not an accident.

wth is "starz" anyway

i'm just gonna watch it on netflix (pretty awesome than it's on there right away)

Starz is, I believe, the movie channel for Showtime. The equivalent to Encore for HBO.

Starz has exactly three shows, right. Head Case, Party Down and uh Crash: The TV Show.

yea my cable company (comcast) just gave me a free year of starz cuz they thought they might lose the nfl network. although i have netflix too so perhaps would have discovered this anyway.

ditto on the v. strong dislike of sunny in philadelphia and i tried 3 eps or so

This is weird but I had this alarming intense dream last week where I was just hanging out with Kristen Bell, having a conversation, and she was the most awesome smart funny charming fun person on the planet and I wanted to hang out with her forever

i think this is what kristen bell is really like, fyi, so maybe your subconscious actually knows her or whatever

i had no idea this show existed but now i will watch it all on netflix online.

season finale was not really funny :(

I just watched all of these this week. The best bit was when the movie exec. was going mental calling everyone a fuck he's going to shit on and the rapper just walks out all calm and shit. <--- not a good way of describing it but ya know.

"season finale was not really funny :("

Wasn't meant to be though (although he ending sequence where Kristin gives her card to Henry was funny.)

Wasn't funny? I thought it was hilarious. Brave, unsettling, almost existential.

I am worried, however, that we'll lose too many of the cast, given the finale.

lol @ almost existential

i made my friend on demand some of these yesterday. the scene in the adult awards ep w/ ron being goaded into showing his wang to everyone is bordering on existential w/ it being so long and unbroken

also CROWJAR

watched the whole season this weekend. it was really great.

what happened to steven weber's eye?

I am worried, however, that we'll lose too many of the cast, given the finale.

― Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Saturday, May 23, 2009 11:32 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think they kinda deliberately left it open-ended since some of them are pretty in demand and they can kinda decide when and how to pick up the story in a way that can keep or ditch whoever they need to next year. i read an interview where Jane Lynch seemed pretty confident that if PD and Glee both get picked up she'd be able to juggle them both, but then they threw her girlfriend from Best In Show in her place for the last couple episodes, so who knows with her.

i don't know if i'm disappointed that Paul Rudd has yet to pop onscreen or if i admire their restraint for not pulling out the famous-exec-producer-guest-starring big guns right away.

i have all of these ondemand, i guess i should run through them?

yah

this is great! nabisco totally otm about the dramatic stuff--only halfway through the series but i am, like, "into" are we having fun yets relationship with janis ian, its nice & sweet & funny and sort of creeps up on you.

also really like how casual the show is about drug use! nothing drags a good ecstasy subplot down like a boring "message"

Ha I watched all of these over the weekend too. It's nice.

btw if anybody told me when mean girls came out that 5 years later i would be crushing way harder on the gothy sidekick than lohan herself i would have been all "no way"

o shit that's where she's from

I like all the dudes on this show but Ken Marino is amazing. He's such a big dude and kind of scary so it seems like they'd be tempted to have him go into freak-out mode when things go wrong and start yelling and overacting. But instead he's like a little nebbishy guy in a big body. I love whenever there's a disaster and Ron just like whispers "oh... no..."

yes!! "No no no no no no no..."

my favourite moment is his confusion at the stripper nurse after the heart attack... "nurse! nurse! what's... what's going on?"

yeah...as i've said upthread, i'm kind of annoyed by the way his character is written at times, but his performance is A+. not really into The State but he's probably my favorite out of all those ppl.

also really good on Reaper and Veronica Mars.

did u see the movie "the ten"? he's really, really funny in that.

omg u can just watch the funniest scene here:

His acting in the last couple of episodes really got to me, it was a lot more affecting than most of the acting I see in dramas. His drunken meltdown in the last episode felt real, to the point where it came off as scary.

^agree. it's almost hard to laugh @ the end of that ep

Was trying to fall asleep last night when I realized Henry was a) the creepy teacher on Veronica Mars and b) Will Ferrell's asshole brother in Stepbrothers <- he was amazing in this btw.

yeah! stepbrothers! i knew he played some waspy asshole in something, but i assumed it was van wilder or some national lampoon movie

he was the dude showing interest in kenny powers' comeback in the last ep of eastbound & down, right?

yeah that too

i would be crushing way harder on the gothy sidekick

Lizzy Caplan is quite crushworthy, imso.

His drunken meltdown in the last episode felt real

That's what I meant about existential above. His whole entreaty to Henry to promise him that it all meant something, that it was a bad start to a Cinderella story, was played just right; pathos skirting bathos but who hasn't felt that way?

yeah thats what im saying, shes a babe, and funny

she was babe-like in cloverfield too

she was funny in cloverfield. exploding = barrel of laughs.

She and Zoey Deschanel should play sisters.

i got it bad for lizzy caplan but imo the way i'd rank her crushability index in diff't projects would be 1. the class 2. party down 3. cloverfield 4. true blood 5. mean girls

was the class good?

eh...basically her and maybe 2 other characters were any good out of a too-big ensemble, but it seemed like they kinda realized that and started to play to the show's strengths toward the end of the season, before the inevitable cancellation.

Eh. The cast was very likable but the plots/writing were a little too sitcommy. xp!

yeah "eh" really says it all

She was psycho but in a fuckable way in 'True Blood'.

yeah if it was smashability index the order would def. be different

http://weblogs.redeyechicago.com/showpatrol/2009/05/rob-thomas-party-down.html

Wow, glad to see a recommendation of Garth Meranghi's Dark Place.

haha the idea for a Guttenberg guest shot sounds awesome...i like the idea of them using celebs-as-themselves only sparingly and creatively, the whole geek-meets-a-Star-Trek-cast-member thing in the last episode is such a played out conceit.

ya i prefer the cameos to be playing characters like the steven weber thing

the guest spots so far have all been pretty great

What we thought would be funnier, and I don’t know for sure that this will happen, is that in Season 2 we would do the Edgar Allen Poe movie premiere party—which we’re tentatively naming the movie “Nevermore”—that was the product of today’s brainstorming.

lol @ this idea

haha the idea for a Guttenberg guest shot sounds awesome...i like the idea of them using celebs-as-themselves only sparingly and creatively, the whole geek-meets-a-Star-Trek-cast-member thing in the last episode is such a played out conceit.

― pimp ship flying high (some dude), Tuesday, 26 May 2009 18:21 (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

They totally made up for this by having Martin Starr say him suffering from food poisoning looked like herpes.

yeah it was worth it for the makeup

having done teen-show television; a lot of actors very much like Kyle Bradway came through my office in the three years I did “Veronica Mars.” So yeah, that particular character really was a pretty spot-on caricature of an actor I’ve worked with before who I would never in a million years tell anyone [who he is]. [Laughs.]

We considered whether that particular actor could actually play the role. We decided that the actor who we’re actually modeling that on wouldn’t get the joke, therefore he couldn’t really perform this.

I wonder if this is the dude that played Duncan, he just seemed like a himbo that couldn't act.

He was who I first thought of as well. He seems to be pretty much the only male lead character from Veronica Mars to not show up here as well. (Oh wait, Wallace hasn't either. Hopefully because he's having a terrific career, cos Wallace was awesome.)

Liking the idea of kickball batter/pitcher duel between Kristin Bell and Adam Scott.

I don't think Wallace or Weevil have been on this show, but neither one fit the spacey model/actor vibe as well as Duncan.

alright this show is hilarious

the rick fox episode... holy shit

yo this show is amazing

martin starr is a really funny do

i saw the first two eps and was ehhhhhhh but that was before this thread got popping. might get round to rest of it now cuz of the heavy-hitting endorsements, but jane lynch could do with a new character imho.

i watched episodes 6, 7 and 8

jane lynch is pretty much the same in everything she does but i love her so

adam scott in step brothers is pretty much the funniest asshole performance in history so i will perhaps jump back on. (also the caplan facotr obv.)

finished up the season last night--gotta say that tonally what this show reminds me of most is probably freaks and geeks... funny & pathetic & sad & ultimately incredibly recognizable in its characterizations & situations while rarely devolving into stereotype or parody.

I agree, though it's darker than F&G. In F&G, you always felt like the kids could turn their lives around and they'd probably generally turn out OK eventually, but most of the dudes in Party Down feel like they aren't really going anywhere.

i watched 8 episodes of this last night.

^^ Oh shit. If you like this HS then I'm sold! Too bad I don't get Starz. :-(

Erica, you can watch it instantly online on Netflix. hopefully you have a modicum of self-control and can also get some sleep.

The best bit was when the movie exec. was going mental calling everyone a fuck he's going to shit on and the rapper just walks out all calm and shit. <--- not a good way of describing it but ya know.

I think the rough paraphrase would be something like

PRODUCER: I'm going to shit on your whole family and then rip your head off and rub it in shit while I shit down your neck.
RAPPER: That sounds like a lot of shit -- why don't you just call my lawyer?

Totally enjoyed Bell on that last episode, btw, particularly the end, in which she momentarily turned into Reese Witherspoon

Thanks HS! <3 I know what I'll be doing later tonight. Self-control not actually one of my strong points so am probably doomed in regards to sleep now that I know I can watch this.

if you watched veronica mars, you're doomed, because as has been mentioned, there are an endless parade of omg it's that actor from v mars cameos. Cliff! the science teacher whose Asian-ness Veronica reads as homosexuality!

I've never watched a single episode of VM. Should I change that?

the first two seasons of vmars are great.

btw omg steven webber needs an award of some kind omg

I've gotta admit that the other reason this reminds me of F&G is how totally over-invested I am in the characters.

im really excited to watch the rest of these

haha i don't know how the first season turns out yet but i um really over-identify with henry where grad school=acting.

xpost

this show really reminds me of season 2 peak US office

^^ yeah that too for a lot of the same reasons, incl. near-fanfic levels of investment in these characters

it's gonna be okay, Max, Henry's gonna make it

don't stop believing

i get really worried that henry and casey wont last!!!!

this show really reminds me of season 2 peak US office

― s1ocki, Wednesday, May 27, 2009 4:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i just came her to post that this show reminds me of when the office was good

this is one of the best new shows in forever imo

i thought the season finale was hilarious - martin starr's bathroom sign gag was A+ and the shrooms lady brought constant lols

"i see lemons!"
"well that's cuz they are right here" *shows her a bowl of lemons*
"no, those are sun eggs"

also yeah the scene with kristen bell and henry was hilarious, great timing - "... i also have a kid. he's quiet though"

ken marino plays the michael scott role really well - flag burning bit was awesome

the fact that the characters are so likable: more in the writing or the acting? i think martin starr and henry are just intrinsically likable so maybe it's the casting

also i think anybody who's worked in this kind of situation can recognize that the cast pulls off the bonding aspect of doing that type of work really well

okay I just watched all 10 episodes in a row on netflix. it's great and yeah, there sure are a lot of office parallels....(espppp jim/pam/dwight = henry/casey/roman)

not sure how a tv channel I've never heard of has enough money to make shows like this?

oh and I guess constance = creed

not sure how a tv channel I've never heard of has enough money to make shows like this?

― iatee, Thursday, May 28, 2009 4:02 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

it seems like a really cheap shoot? every episode is on one location and there are like 5 main actors + 3 or 4 central to each episode and 10 to 20 extras? nothing really happens except dialogue and cocktails

grt to see dick casablancas getting work

<3 jane lynch too

i would watch pretty much anything with this cast

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, 22 May 2009 17:19 (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yup otm

ten mins into ep1 and you've got

jane lynch
martin starr
ken marino
ryan hansen
lizzy kaplan
enrico colantoni

I mean, c'mon!

watched the first two episodes. freaks & geeks + veronica mars casts = sold!

it can't be that cheap a shoot with a different setting every week + actual locations

plus breckin meyers got to cost what, like 20 maybe 30 bucks to land

hahaha

they call him cut the check breck

Breckin Meyer is the drummer for Tom Morello's alter ego The Nightwatchman's back up band The Freedom Fighter Orchestra. Meyer toured with Morello on The Nightwatchman's 2008 Justice Tour. He also recently completed the thriller Stag Night.[4]

i was definitely like wow when breckster popped up

yeah, it's always a party when the world class breckin crew shows up

he adds a brecktian element to everything he appears in

Suddenly I'm looking forward to a drunken Meyer meltdown tape: "I was the Spicoli of the 1990s! Where's my Oscar! These bastards should be giving me GARFIELD money! Why didn't anyone ever watch 'Married to the Kellys?' Just because I work with Seth Green doesn't mean I'm not BETTER and TALLER!"

I think he does fine, though

He and Steve Zahn should play brothers, the kind of brothers where the Meyer one seems likable individually but then seems kinda lame compared to the Zahn one

did you know hes married to the director of josie and the pussycats?

it's a fact!

watched first 4 eps. it's ok. so far lacks the comic density that a really good eps of 30 rock or peep show has.

the "omg what are you doing in my bathroom" and flag burning bits were lolsy tho.

i'm 8 episodes deep and this is my favorite show atm

loved the dude from wings playing a cheesy eastern european gangster

i mean the dude from stephen king's the shining

the dude from stephen wings

btw e3 it helps to not expect the kind of joke-a-minute style that 30 rock has in this, its really much more like freaks and geeks or even the original bbc office

also this show got me to watch veronica mars--enjoying it so far

but my time is way too valuable, unless there are 5 funny things going on at once I can't hey when did it start raining outside

setups + characters are a bit too sitcom-like to compare it favorably to freaks & geeks, tho maybe I will feel differently as season progresses? f&g characters seemed to have a purpose beyond just setting up one liners and haha misunderstandings, party down characters are not there yet for me.

One thing that bothers me about this show is how quickly the love story develops. The fact that she had a HUSBAND completely disappears after 3 episodes. Wth kinda marriage is that? It feels like they really weren't sure how long this was gonna be a show and needed to put the henry/casey relationship on steroids for 1st season plot purposes. It's the polar opposite of the US office in this sense - the jim and pam thing drags and drags, but also seems way more realistic imo.

marriage was clearly really troubled from episode 1!!

veronic mars is dope max

also the husband moved to vermont

max

yeah, i like that the "love story" is a rebound fling.

also really like how casual the show is about drug use! nothing drags a good ecstasy subplot down like a boring "message"

^^^

that actually seems like a thing in vmars too--drugs/drinking/sex all pretty casual & realistic, which threw me at first but i definitely dig on

but if it had been a 'troubled' marriage, she'd still be thinking/talking/caring about it!

it's more like something she just didn't seem to have that much invested in. which is weird cause ya know, it's a marriage.

she is thinking and caring about it. you can tell because she is doing drugs and fucking henry and having emotional breakdowns and stuff.

i don't think that's true; it seems like it's a huge part of why she's noncommital with Henry.

xpost Jordan otm

aw lizzy caplan playing casey on ecstasy=adorablest

all I'm asking for is that she mention it once!

she does mention it! she's like "sorry, i'm just neck deep in divorce papers" or whatever.

you guys take your sitcoms very seriously

duh

which makes it sound like a minor chore!

xpost

i did think that it was sort of an interesting choice to make it a husband rather than a boyfriend. but i just imagined that they had gotten married really young and that it had been winding down for years.

that guy seemed like a douche

with his 3 seconds of character development!

okay cap'n save-a-douche

you guys take your sitcoms very seriously

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 2 June 2009 20:51 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

I'd recommend these threads for max head exploding:
i know i'm one of the only people on ilx who watches *how i met your mother* on a regular basis, but did anyone else see the robin sparkles episode? where robin didn't want people to know that she had
Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number
A new 30 Rock thread because I can't find the old one
tv shows within tv shows: an ocd thread for jaymc and nabisco

but I don't want max's head to explode

i think her behaviour makes perfect sense or in other words jordan otm

i mean,unless you just don't understand how it's possible that someone could be in the middle of a divorce and be into somebody else.

I don't understand how someone could be in the middle of a divorce and not mention it after the third episode!

she does though

once!

surely at least one person out there agrees with me that this had a rushed feel

I still like this show a lot btw

i agree that it was probably an unrealistic portrayal but i also think it doesn't matter at all

Guys maybe there should have been an episode where she and Henry talked out her feelings and emotions about her failed marriage; this certainly would have made for great comedy.

Like all the hilarious Office episodes about Jim and Pam's relationship.

btw "I'm a little piggy, I'm goin' to maaahket"

it's one extreme vs. another imo

i wish they showed more of that exciting divorce paperwork

like honestly tho, do you think if you were seeing someone new as you were going through a divorce, there might be a chance you wouldn't be talking abotu it all the time when new dude was around?

especially not at work, probably

you guys take your failed marriages very seriously

no you would just be having goofball comedy moments

"but i went to college!"

"i didn't. but i still get the irony."

Finally watching this. J.K. Simmons was great in the Sweet Sixteen episode.

Fuck him fuck his face off and when he bends over to pick up his face then fuck him in the ass.

Snap. I've just d/l the whole series after watching the pilot. Excellent stuff. Britcom is really lagging behindnon-existent these days. They should just buy stuff like this.

yeah missed this the first time around. i have always loved ken marino and was very psyched to see him in role models. didn't know he was in veronica mars.

this show is great with the characters. and the LOLs.

Finally watched the porn convention episode. Martin Starr is great in this show.

"you fuckin' walk out on me now, i'm gonna kill your entire family, chop them up into little pieces, eat 'em, come over to your house the next day, and then shit them out on your face."

"don't do that. that's a lot of shit. just call my lawyer, man."

^^^ He was so amazing.

yeah absolutely. my favorite was when they set it up like they were gonna throw his character a bone (so to speak) w/ the one porn star and instead he got all haughty about the differences between fantasy and 'hard sci fi'

xpost

― dream hater, come rescue me (some dude), Friday, May 22, 2009 6:23 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm, first ep to please meh. may rewatch the first couple in more sympathetic frame of mind.

First ep was nothing special, but by episode 5 or so this show got great.

Megan Mullally, the Will & Grace alum, has joined the cast of Party Down. She'll play Lydia Dunfree, a middle-aged refugee from a lousy marriage who leaves small town life to move to Hollywood where her 13-year-old daughter Escapade hopes to make it as an actress. While the younger endures the audition process, her naïve and eternally optimistic mother Lydia feels honored just to be among the show business “pros”.

should bring some lols, no?

ya

Is this the woman with the annoying voice? I could see her being very funny in this. That character sounds LOL-licious on its own actually.

Yes, the crazed pill popping lush - the only thing remotely funny on that show.

I would have dreaded this on the basis of Will & Grace, but I've seen Mullally do some funny stuff outside of those confines since then.

yeah i think she could be pretty funny in this context -- really i wouldn't mind if Party Down kept losing and adding to its cast continually, it would be realistic given the turnover at shitty jobs like that

i think she was decent on 30 rock and how i met your mother

who was she on HIMYM?

She was the voice of Barney's mom on several episodes, but when they actually had an episode with Barney's mom they used some random older lady.

oh i looked her up on imdb and thought "huh, apparently she was barney's mom in that one episode, which was great."

fail!

ok so i just started watching this today and its destroyed my productivity

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2010/03/parks_and_recreation_lands_par.html

this sucks

i guess it'll make p&r better (yay schneider is leaving)

that is a bummer. i like parks and recreation but

I agree that it's a hypothetical bummer, but people are acting like a third season of Party Down was a given. I figure either the writing was on the wall, or something happens in season two of PD that made Adam Scott willing and able to move on. Or not, I dunno.

something happens in season two of PD that made Adam Scott willing and able to move on.

Well, yeah, he got an acting job.

i'd be way more OK with him leaving PD for a new show that i know nothing about than to join the cast of a show i don't like nearly as much

yeah i mean hes better than schneider but not by so much that its going to change p&r in a big way

but it will hurt party down a lot

If it continues. It sounds like Starz isn't all that eager to renew it, which sucks.

It would be pretty easy to write him out and replace him given that it's a show about wannabe actors waiting to get their break. I find it hard to believe that anyone would say "this show doesn't work without Adam Scott", even though he is good in it. In fact, if the network believes that it's underperforming, it might actually be a way to keep it on the air.

i kinda agree, as i said upthread when Lynch left, cast turnover would kind of lineup nicely with the actual turnover at shitty food service jobs, but Scott's character is kind of the whole center/POV of the show. i think they could make it work if they just shifted the perspective over to Lizzy Caplan a little more, though.

Also, there's no reason why he couldn't show up a few episodes a season.

If the show gets renewed he's under contract for three episodes next year, I read.

and that's not bad at all considering they only do like 10 episodes a season

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/04/who_should_steal_party_downs_t.html

bummer about adam scott -- in a way it makes me kind of hope that they kill it after season 2

the existence of the show in general is kind of phenomenal anyway, who even watches starz?

w/o caplan and scott can't really see this continuing

leave em wanting moar i guess

if every leaving cast member is still under contract for 3 episodes next year like Scott, they should just keep doing 3 episodes of the show every year, i'd be fine with that really.

first ep is around for downloading

megan mullally is great. only has a handful of lines but her conversation w/ casey is hilar

o god i cant wait 2 see this

only behind eb&d sn2 on my imaginary ~anticipation list~

i think i prefer this atm

feel like i can see danny mcbride do his thing in whatever, awesome though it is

ep 2 is out too

snow crash convo is hilar

jimmi simpson looks so much like james spader

response to s02e01/02 seems muted around the internet

dunno bout tht, I laughed like a drain but then I'm a high functioning mongo

i think i prefer this atm

feel like i can see danny mcbride do his thing in whatever, awesome though it is

truth bomb

i like this show but sometimes i feel like it has gotten in sweet with the same powerful conspiracy that wants people to think that parks and recreation is A MAZING. having the opportunity to react to popular media on the internet has ruined me as a human being

i'm unnaturally invested in lizzy caplan getting famous w/o further display of her premium grade titties. and eastbound & down s2 can't come soon enough

wait... without!?

deal with it

like i would be sad if she got cast as "boob popping hooker #2" as a supporting figure to the white-hot comic talent of bradley cooper in the hangover sequel

i don't disagree with that, but if i had to choose between seeing her in more stuff like True Blood or more stuff like The Class, i'm definitely picking the former

wait, when did lizzy caplin get her boobies out?

true blood

This season seems even better than the first, I think. Henry trying to be the boss is just gut-wrenching. It's power-emo.

marilyn manson guy w/make up on i was like o whoo the fuck is that this is really going to bother me - then it came off and i was all OMG MCPOYLE BRO ITS U LOL guys hilarious (its always sunny in philadelphia related lolz)

this school girl is in for two surprises

is this on starz yet? i actually get starz

this school girl is in for some surprise

Starz this Friday the 23rd, Jordan.

running a bunch of s1 repeats tonight :)

love the one w/ the real estate scam, especially for the way they give Kyle that tiny little bit of redemption

thank u ship for pointing out that they're playing out the whole season 2nite ^_^

man... there are no commercials -- i might not get up for the next 2 hours

they actually made kevin hart hilarious in this episode

nancy reagan old soup eating ass

the dude plays basketball! that's a game for children!
rick fox? the actor?

i'm gonna do a S1 episode poll tomorrow, i hope everyone isn't tired of posting about 'party down'

the shit where you eat opening of 'celebrate ricky sargulesh' is prob my fav scene in the whole show

it appears as if in the last episode of the season they cater constance's wedding

fwiw the name of the episode is actually celebrate rick sargulesh, i made a mistake when i created my tumblr

you're a fucking infant

ron is so amazing. his transition into s2 is totally believable

tbh i thought megan mullaly's character was pretty weak -- i'm pretty :-( that they didn't keep bobbie st. brown

S2's first 2 eps are awesome. It's too bad they can't keep their cast members, but as long as Marino and Rob Thomas are involved it'll always be at least a solid watch.

Where are you all watching series 2?

dvd rips of the first couple eps are floating around on torrents.

I forgot how downright depressing this show is and e1 bummed me out enough that i'm delaying e2.

I loved that they had Ken as a jailbait-chasing recidivist fuck-up.

Comcast OnDemand has two episodes, but it's the 1st and the 5th. the premiere is great but i'm now hemming and hawing about watching the latter, because i love the sense of continuity on the show and don't want to 'skip ahead' even if it probably doesn't matter. but then, it's titled "Steve Guttenberg's Birthday" so i'm probably going to watch it soon anyway.

it's on Netflix streaming too which is totally awesome...only episode 1 so far so no sneak peeks, which is okay with me

i really, really hated the plot of this episode

lizzy caplan was amazing, but god the whole rock star/bartender angle was so painful

yeah it felt really hack sitcom-y

the premise wasn't great but the actual stuff w/ him and mullaly getting all nosy and overly familiar ("classic henry") was hilarious imo, as was roman striking out as a rock star.

yes, totally.

aw yeah i didnt mind the sitcom trading places thing cause it was handled so well--a lot of the plot structures are kinda weak/'obvious' on this show but the writing & acting is so deft it doesnt bug

love the ryan hansen/martin starr relationship

btw Guttenberg episode is awesome

i loved the jackal onassis dude. funny shit.

ep one is great, and yeah the jackal guy was hilar.

not fully understanding ppl criticizing it for being a sitcom, since it is, in a very real sense, a sitcom.

btw ilx is going to collectively turn its back on lizzy caplan when her character is revealed to be an ayn rand fan in ep5

dude lizzy caplin is a hot gurl who plays a character who is revealed to be a fan of someone i don't know, i'm sure w still s

haha if i turned my back on every insecure resentful nerd cutie who was a secret rand fan i wouldnt date much

thought the jackal onassis stuff was pretty lol, but then we went back and watched the last few eps of season 1 and that shit is gold

even tho the trading places idea is kinda corny mcboyle really sold it his anthropological joy in working with the other characters was really charming & "classic henry" was the biggest lol of the episode i thought

really this show can p much just coast on how much i like the characters and its anarchic college film class quality 4 at least half a season imo

xposts That Ayn Rand line in ep 5 seemed pretty sarcastic.

orgy episode was the best one of the season imo -- the only thing i didn't really dig was the dressing down of kyle, because the woman's rant seemed too transparently written by a writer, if that makes sense -- kind of betrayed the style of the show & seemed kinda out of place -- everything else was pretty amazing tho, esp lizzy caplan who's been the total star of the season

The bit where Henry is on the phone with Uda and he and Ron start cracking up when he says "I understand" is so well done.

yeah i thought all of them played 'drunk' or at least emotional/bothered (kyle after he gets told off) v. nicely

orgy episode was the best one of the season imo

has the whole season leaked?! i've only seen the first three, all aces.

orgy episode was the best one of the season imo -- the only thing i didn't really dig was the dressing down of kyle, because the woman's rant seemed too transparently written by a writer, if that makes sense -- kind of betrayed the style of the show & seemed kinda out of place -- everything else was pretty amazing tho, esp lizzy caplan who's been the total star of the season

― J0rdan S., Friday, May 7, 2010 11:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't get that -- imo caplan hasn't really done a whole lot comedy-wise on there lately, feels more like an ensemble than ever. also trust me the Guttenberg episode really transcends any of the ones that have aired so far.

i watched the guttenberg ep last weekend but i was kind of drunk so i'm gonna watch it again

orgy episode was the best one of the season imo

has the whole season leaked?! i've only seen the first three, all aces.

― Greatest contributor: (history mayne), Saturday, May 8, 2010 6:27 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark

orgy episode was #3! also, if you get startz on your tv in the us, you can watch the guttenberg ep cuz starz put it ondemand as like a free preview thing or something (it's also on netflix iirc)

I'm loving the new season, even if I miss Jane Lynch.

i am 8 eps into this and loving it so much

I geek out every time I see the beginning of that preschool auction episode and they're talking about Snow Crash.

don't open the bottom half I have an erection for some reason

^_^

best ep of the season so far

yup really good ep, I thought

loved the jungle fever section

"Remember that script you showed me? About the intelligent fungus?"
"Which one?"

E4 fantastic. Especially enjoyed Kyle desparately claiming "to have learned an important lesson" in an episode directed by Fred Savage.

Between this and Always Sunny, Fred Savage is doing some quality cable sitcom work.

Savage has directly roughly half of all PD episodes so i don't think there was any kind of knowing nod to the Wonder Years there

Def. the best one of the season so far.

omg ep4 was so great i'm gonna watch it again right now!!

netflix watchers might be tempted to click on a recommended movie called "crashing" starring ms. caplan. as a film it is slightly more accomplished than ilx favorite "the room," but sadly without any of the gratuitous nudity. this despite the premise: genius novelist gets kicked out by his wife, shacks up with two sexy coeds after giving a talk to their writing class. the script consists mostly of lol-deep expositions of writing and writers, and running who/whom jokes. there are worse ways to spend your inebriated sunday afternoons though, and you'll definitely get some quotables out of it to enjoy with your friends. "run out of ideas, but still running..."

haha i watched a little of that on cable recently, really was dire.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/cbs-bubble-pilots-update/

do the right thing lizzy

Steve Guttenberg EP was awesome.

loved how laid back Guttenberg was, and loved Roman realizing the wonder of rewrites

best episode yet

^

I don't understand why they haven't had Steve Guttenberg on every episode.

this show is so great right now

I dunno, this felt like a filler episode to me, though, Roman's writing partner was fun. And Lizzy C in the hottub...

this series is all golden but that was my fave ep

Lizzy C in the hottub...

otm

yeah she is a traet

thinking man's zooey deschanel

Mean Girls was on TBS this weekend and I was shocked to find out that Lizzy C was creepy chick!

s2e3-5 have all been brilliant and it just keeps getting better. the writing and acting are so great! or maybe it's all down to director savage...

and yes, this last one is the best. guttenberg was perfect, as was roman's writing pal. i'm a sucker for actors playing actors acting kind of meta shit to begin with, but they killed it! the ron and henry/casey story arcs are moving along at a good pace.

mullally still hits a sour note now and then, but i think she's grown into a worthwhile member of the cast over the last few eps. hope we see uda again.

the other "uncool" dude from Mean Girls is going to be on the show sometime, don't remember which ep though

btw ilx is going to collectively turn its back on lizzy caplan when her character is revealed to be an ayn rand fan in ep5

― surmudgeon (some dude), Monday, April 26, 2010 12:51 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark

not even

she just knows who ayn rand was

doesn't seem fannish

"she wrote about how awesome awesome people are"

yeah. being sarcastic/mocking imo.

yeah absolutely. a glorious one-line rand dismissal at that.

yeah maybe i'm interpreting the character differently? came off sincere to me.

in 'mean girls' she uses the word awesome in this mocking way multiple times in one sentence. probably not a deliberate callback (though maybe) but tha's where i'm getting it from.

"yeah maybe i'm interpreting the character differently? came off sincere to me."

I didn't read that at all. Seemed like she was making fun of Kyle.

yeah absolutely. a glorious one-line rand dismissal at that.

Yes, it seemed pretty sarcastic.

rand line was awesome and almost certainly sarcastic. she continued to fuck with kyle later in the ep also.

"do you know any smart shit i can say?"

major LOLs @ Lizzy's death scene during the acting exercise. this show kills me!

"new new Ron" cracked me up every time he said it.

man this show is so grim. it's one of the darkest comedies. esp. in regards to ron.

also on most shows the pathetic sci-fi nerd would be one of the most sympathetic characters, but they work hard to make Roman pretty unlikeable, esp. his "postracial" attitudes in the funeral episode

The Adam Scott movie they showed

man this show is so grim. it's one of the darkest comedies. esp. in regards to ron.

seriously! absolutely no mercy

also on most shows the pathetic sci-fi nerd would be one of the most sympathetic characters, but they work hard to make Roman pretty unlikeable, esp. his "postracial" attitudes in the funeral episode

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, May 25, 2010 1:35 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah, really love this aspect of it, feel like in the porn awards episode last season they kinda threw down the gauntlet and said nah this is not going to be your lovable geek that you root for, he's a social outcast/can't get laid because he's a pompous dick

man this show is so grim. it's one of the darkest comedies. esp. in regards to ron.

also on most shows the pathetic sci-fi nerd would be one of the most sympathetic characters, but they work hard to make Roman pretty unlikeable, esp. his "postracial" attitudes in the funeral episode

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, May 25, 2010 1:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i agree

tho i think the henry stuff is even darker in a way

i mean ron just keeps trying... he's at least optimistic... regardless of his failure... henry is just so resigned to his misery, and every time he tries to make an effort, he gets crushed again and reminded why it's not worth trying in the first place. really interesting way to go with the presumed lead.

yeah, i thought the ep w/ j.k. simmons was even sadder than the hs reunion where ron barfed

the hot tub scene was just brutal. really well played by both.

i'm almost done catching up with this show and now i'm mad that there isn't more of it. i wouldn't have guessed at the beginning that ron would turn out to be the most complex character.

I guess it depends on what you think is sadder: someone who is blindly optimistic and tries hard and consistently fails anyway, or someone who has talent and ability but has just given up.

Henry is going out with Kristen Bell and has Lizzy C throwing herself at him. Things could be worse for him imho.

henry is a fictional character, kristen bell and lizzy caplan are real people

did no one mention lizzy taking her clothes off? omg

been there, seen that

yeah i'm guessing you havent seen true blood cutty?

ya what the hell cutty

i just googled, and...

yeah so people have been saying good things about 'true blood', rly good drama, hbo, kinda classy, 'six feet under' type thing. is that right? should i watch?

oops i haven't. *downloads true blood furiously* xp

it's entertaining but I wouldn't call it "classy" or compare it to 6FU. It's pretty campy but it's well-made.

haha it's the opposite of "classy." total (high budget) trash. good fun tho.

yeah nah blud, i was kidding

dont even joke

fuck true blood. i did see that episode though. just forgot how slammin her bod was.

never forget

the hot tub scene was just brutal. really well played by both.

omg the way she retreated and rolled up into a ball was just... and then hey here comes steve guttenberg's naked wang

Just watched the first ep. good show.

gets lots better

wife and i just started watching this (it's on netflix demand!) ... not amazing yet, but seems like a lot of potential for greatness.

gets lots better

"it's on netflix demand!"

Yes this is very nice. I like not having to actually have Starz to watch this.

bye ted!

such a great show.

not sure it's fair to say this is a mercilessly grim show or whatever though.

i guess the trick of it is how it always returns you to the edge of henry's stasis each time - in this last ep especially the lack of resolution between his realism/nuanced lyfe versus guttenberg's ridiculous but fun and even (even!) roman-redemptive optimism was beautifully judged

btw history mayne do u like true blood 4reals though? just curious

haven't seen it!

the joke was 'history mayne google image searches "lizzy caplan true blood" then says mm, i hear this true blood is all kinds of classy, should i dl?"

ie the ulterior motive is boobs

yeah thanx bro i got the joke, i just couldnt work out what ur actual critical stance on tb might be is all

<3 true blood

me 2

loooooved this episode

yeah, great ep. Roman was hilarious, + <3 Trudy

david wain! and his wife as the director's wife!

That was amazing. Poor Ron.

Magnicifent!

http://www.movieline.com/2010/06/cbs-looks-to-give-mad-love-a-mid-season-shot.php

this is awesome if true

kind of feel adam scott should quit 'the office' now

you mean parks and recreation?

Lizzy Caplan's already been screwed by CBS once (The Class), so I totally understand her reluctance to set herself up for it again.

feel like judy greer deserves better than a cbs midseason replacement but still good news

PANSEXUAL FRENZY

Great episode.

i guess they had to do this week's episode... and they nailed it!

what did you think of everyone's non-uniform outfits?

it hasn't aired yet.

netflix aired it to me

ooh, this should be good. i've become obsessed with this show now that my other favorites are mostly on break.

there's a big party down billboard on lankershim around universal city. i smile every time i see it. a quintessentially l.a. show deserves a quintessentially l.a. billboard.

nice... my head would explode if they ever ran into larry david

gb there's also a billboard right outside of the midtown tunnel!

fantastic!

I don't think I will ever see an episode of this show where I don't end up feeling sorry for Ron.

Is 02/07 up as a torrent anywhere yet? Can't find it.

Got it. I love it when shows reveal a really competitive streak in a character you didn't know was there. Casey's was great!

Also, if there's ever a spin-off, it should be of Kyle and Lydia's daughter.

:D
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs533.snc3/30279_403991640842_56165655842_4874981_2568437_n.jpg

<3

gruber!

is that Philo from UHF?

Rival troubador!

casey trash-talking that dude was hilar

<3 this show. her expression when henry says he's going to "throw the dice" (man, choosing between lizzy caplan and kristen bell, hard knock life bro) is why it's on the freaks & geeks level.

ok i finally caught up on all this on netflix after watching ep 1 like a year ago, and i freaking love it. really bummed about the Adam Scott news though wth?

I bet Parks & Rec prob pays pretty good $$$ though : /

Psyched for the appearance of Mr Rosso. Would also watch The Adventures of Kyle and Escapade.

Have never seen Parks & Rec - is it worth a d/l?

Definitely! The second season is much better than the first, so I'd start there.

http://www.goldlabel.com/party-down/

Party down merchandise! I kind of want the "Hard Sci Fi" shirt.

parks and rec sucks

but yeah hard sci fi is the one to get

these'll look good coupled w/my 'shit happens when you party naked' tee
http://images1.cafepress.com/product/444354051v2_240x240_Front_Color-AsphaltWhite.jpg

parks and rec is rad.

but it's just like the US office in that s1 totes sucks. as nicole said, just start with s2.

but it's just like the US office in that s1 totes sucks. as nicole said, just start with s2.

aight aight, 'sucks' is harsh, but if you haven't seen 'community', see that first

n e ways series one of the US office didn't suck, it was just kinda deriv of the UK version

episodes are only 22 minutes, i'm sure peeps can do both

As Mrs Stevie T has just pointed out to me, there should be a PYL~DRYVERZ tee.

I saw the first episode of Community but it featured the intensely annoying Brummie from the Daily Show and didn't seem all that, so I didn't watch further. Tho I hear recent episodes have raised their game?

yeah. he's not a series reg and americans seem to h8 him less than brits. it took a few eps to become good, and a few more to become amazing.

yeah it got increasingly good throughout the season till it went stellar w/the modern warfare ep

i think he's pretty funny

do british people hate all famous british people?

p much. when a british person gets famous in the US (ie ricky gervais), they start saying british people h8 their success, which makes british people resent them even more.

i actually don't hate john oliver, though we do have a lot where he came from, kind of thing. funnier than off-script chris addison amirite british guys.

is idris elba famous?

john oliver disapears for literally at least 20 episodes.

is idris elba famous?

not sure. maybe post-luther? obv there are exceptions to the rule n e way, and his narrative was that british tv wasn't delivering good roles for black actors. but it's a tendency you see all the time.

The idea that the entire England starts getting jealous whenever someone makes it big in the US is lol'tastic. Like, all the English bankers, writers, clergy, street-sweepers, members of parliament begrudge John Oliver his minor United States success is hilarious.

it's a hilarious country

well his success was rather enormous

who is john oliver

british guy on 'the daily show' and a guest star on 'community'

hes super famous

jamie oliver more famous tbh

aight aight, 'sucks' is harsh

dont back down sucks is correct

also i kinda h8 it 4 being super unfunny and stealing actors from party down, which is good & funny

maybe should we make an extreme reality show where they hunt each other to the death on a deserted island, oliver vs oliver, sounds like it'd be a big hit in the uk

dont back down sucks is correct

― Lamp, Wednesday, June 9, 2010 5:46 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, but im feeling guilt because i bothered to l it for almost the whole of series 2 and convinced myself it was getting somewhere... and andy is funnie

loving this season of party down btw

The season finale is up at the Starz screening room site. I couldn't help myself. Good, though. Satisfying if it ends there (though obviously I hope not).

loving the phrase "the entire England"

Strange episode

The Fred Savage-directed eps are always either hilarious or strange. Rarely both.

No word on Season Three yet, eh? This show has gotten a raw fucking deal so far, which I guess is weirdly appropriate.

"Revenge is a dish best served! Waiters, right?" Ryan Hansen deserves some credit.

$28.99 for a soup r' crackers shirt??

no wonder they went out of business

thought this episode was absolutely hilar, a bit strange in parts too I guess - some scenes were a little stilted but w/e

THE CODE

".. and the Keep is a cold and lonely place."

ttly loved this ep

megan mullaly's character shd be on drugs every party

It's far too easy to hate Paul Scheer, no matter what character he's playing. He should probably get with his agent about playing nicer dudes.

wasn't the funniest ep, but it was nice to finally see roman in a sympathetic situation. i actually think some of the weakest parts of the show are when they fall back on tired sexism tropes like "the code." but even when party down isn't brilliant it's way better than parks + rec, and i'll be very sad if the show doesn't carry on after this season :( still seems doable without adam scott.

that said i also gave in and watched the finale on the starz site and it would be a fine ending at least...

I'd consider watching the finale after the next episode, but not NOW. What's wrong with you people?

People have been talking about the finale for weeks it feels like, such that every week I keep thinking this episode is the last one, and every week I'm pleasantly surprised to find out there's still more show to go.

i'm a fucking infant

haha me too mordy

love the detail of the writer being from british columbia

nice to see bubbles back working too, even if he is drinking piss

ep.9 is called Cole Landry's Draft Day Party :D

i keep thinking every episode is the last... what a treat

Are there ten total?

yeah but for some reason starz aired the finale (ep 10) on saturday night and i thought that was it. so ep 9 is a surprise.

yeah ep 10 is also available on demand on my cable system, it's like they want everyone to see 10 before 9 for some reason.

ep was lol. as ever! 'the code' is just a reference to the bro code, surely.

They were all pronouncing Calvados wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D6ILPwIrXs

<3

If you guys haven't watched it yet, Rob + Lydia are both doing this Children's Hospital gig and it's hilarious: Ken Marino Reprises His Role from WHAS? Children's Hospital is LULz

draft day episode was amazing!!! maybe best of season

love the detail of the writer being from british columbia

― delanie griffith (s1ocki), Sunday, June 13, 2010 7:12 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

He's William Gibson!

this was a good episode

lizzy caplan is hot imo

pretty much works for every ep

wait what that writer guy was the neuromancer guy irl?

no

he was the guidance counselor from freaks and geeks

also the smart jock was the gay guy from mean girls. do they just let one cast member per episode invite an actor from an old project or what

he was the guidance counselor from freaks and geeks

damn, egg on face over here for not seeing that. i liked that ep a lot. was fun to have henry/casey take a back seat.

also the smart jock was the gay guy from mean girls. do they just let one cast member per episode invite an actor from an old project or what

― max, Tuesday, June 22, 2010 8:40 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh man it was driving me nuts tryna figure out who that was, thx

and lizzy was gay guy's best friend in mean girls!

yeah and roman was on freaks and geeks--hence my wondering about cast members just like inviting actors they used to work w/

well it's always seemed like the whole show was just created by some folks who grabbed a bunch of their friends anyway -- there's probably an element of "hey this show doesn't pay much and it's on a network nobody watches but come out for a couple days and shoot a few scenes, it'll be funny"

on f&g and undeclared, when the ratings were going south they were like "bring in ben stiller/adam sandler/will ferrell"

on this its "oh shit, it's rachel mcadams/tina fey/lindsay lohan the gay dude from mean girls"

lizzy caplan is hot imo

With Caplan and Krysten Ritter, Starz have the hottest brunettes on TV.

well, i don't think cable shows really thrive/depend on guest stars like network shows do to goose ratings, it's not like they have ad breaks to run constant "THIS WEEK ON PARTY DOWN" commercials. i mean Paul Rudd was one of the show's CREATORS and has never made a guest appearance, which is kinda disappointing not so much 'cause the show needs it but because he'd probably be hilarious. i think he's not even credited as a producer on s2 like he was on s1, although obviously he's got a lot of stuff going on so it's understandable.

ya tht is a bit weird huh

the thought of paul rudd guest starring is making me all giddy

draft day ep was fantastic

i recognized the smart jock as the awkward older brother in bully, but ive seen that movie like 25 times

The slate article on this is both out-of-date and spoilers the finale. nicely done.

I watched the finale when it first got put on the web, which means in reality I've completed watching the whole season. I'm going to feign ignorance when I watch it on television this week, though.

great season

I really hope it does come back, but I have a feeling it won't.

Just want to parrot everyone who has said the finale was totally satisfying, and tho I'd love to see the show come back, this was an okay place to end.

"What part is flanks on a human? Vagina?"

"Don't guess."

just rewatched the last two eps. "why would i tell anyone about your wad?"

if they get a season 3 will henry be off the team because he made it?? part of me hopes not, but part of me also routes for henry!

rfi: other comedies about shattered dreams

supposedly even if they get a third season adam scott will be gone as a regular but has negotiated w his new employer nbc to be able to appear on three episodes in hypothetical season 3. still seems pretty unlikely the show will continue.

very satisfying ending, the happy endings feel very very earned

great ending

if it was the end, period, it would be bittersweet

i think it continuing is wholly dependent on how low expectations are at Starz are...I mean, the channel that gave the greenlight to Gravity (my nominee for worst shit on TV this year), Spartacus: Blood And Sand and that series version of Crash might be more eager to hold onto their one show critics like than you think .

..strike one "are" there.

i could be wrong, though. I didn't think CW thought enough of itself to cancel Veronica Mars, but it did.

Veronica Mars wasn't super critically acclaimed, was it? It always seemed to me to have a pretty intense cult following, little critical attention, and then after it was cancelled a lot more critical attention. Am I misremembering?

it was pretty well reviewed (although by the time it picked up much critical momentum it had the downside of always being measured against its first season). but i wasn't really drawing a parallel to Party Down in those terms, just y'know, same creator, also constantly on the bubble despite being the only good show on an otherwise shitty network, etc.

Would I like this?

The girl looks cute

u might

she is

take "the plunge"

alright then

it's just...

a horrible name for a show

i dismissed veronica mars without ever seeing an episode, cuz i thought the titular character's name was a bit on the forced-kooky side (ooooh "mars," how very). but people loved the show. should i give it a chance?

i think the name party down is *supposed* to be horrible, because the writers would prob acknowledge that it's a horrible name for a catering company.

what have u got 2 lose xp

ok (xp)

time

c'mon admrl

cut the BS

haha

ok

ADAM!!!

http://fbfc.co.uk/assets/images/Green_Get_Real_Logo02.jpg

guyz, would i like television show you have been discussing how much you love for 500 posts?

no

uhh I didn't say "guyz"

i dismissed veronica mars without ever seeing an episode, cuz i thought the titular character's name was a bit on the forced-kooky side (ooooh "mars," how very). but people loved the show. should i give it a chance?

― Pies and Whispers (get bent), Sunday, June 27, 2010 9:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the town that Veronica Mars lives in is called Neptune, which should sufficiently scare you off, but honestly it's not really a forced-kooky kind of show at all.

i've only just started getting in2 veronica mars. like it lots, no problem with her name being mars or anything. not kooky. hell of dark if anything.

neptune, new jersey?

http://pics2.city-data.com/city/maps/fr5856.png

I really liked Veronica Mars, especially the first season. Ken Marino is awesome in this but in a completely different way from Party Down.

great great show

does veronica mars have lols?

ya-ha

kristen bell is a great comic actress and hollywood's failure to find her a decent frikin film to star in is indicative of a wider cultural malaise

forgetting sarah marshall is decent frikin

ok i'm gonna watch it

Bell's long string of incredibly shit films is one of the most depressing things ever. (Fanboys, Couples Retreat, When in Rome, that crap-looking new one with Jamie Lee Curtis...)

I take it she's friendly and human in Veronica Mars? I've really only seen her in FSM and Party Down and she's bitchy and controlling in the former, and rigid and controlling in the latter.

she's a complex, multi-faceted character

adam yes you should watch this, it is very funny.

I'm about half way through the second season, btw (just watched the Steve Guttenberg episode). and the first season is much funnier. also I think I missed something; who is "paul", Casey's boyfriend? Was there any more explanation about this person that I skipped?

so Fanboys is crap? i had that on my Netflix queue, was hoping for the best.

but yeah Bell is not shrewy in VMars like she is in Party Down or FSM.

part of what i like about her on those things is seeing her act so diff from her veronica mars character

so Fanboys is crap? i had that on my Netflix queue, was hoping for the best.

It is awful, mawkish, sentimental claptrap. Bell does a good job with what she has to work with in the movie, but it is just soooo bad.

sounds like you're not a "FAN"!!!

hay guyz now that party down is over you should all be watching louie on fx

Oh man I just watched the first two eps of that and it is FANTASTIC

yes

is it better than that lucky louis show

i never saw that (don't have hbo and never netflixed/torrented it)

Def. better than Lucky Louie, esp. the second episode. It's very funny, but also quite dark and affecting in unexpected ways - basically short films loosely strung together w/ bits of standup, but much better than that description makes it sound.

Cancelled :(

Shitty, but not at all surprising.

Boooooooooooooo

Well shit. Turn in your bowties and pack up the van.

It seems like the sort of show that could easily pop back up later, fwiw.

Party Down crew moving onto Parks&Rec, Children's Hospital and - uh - Fun Buddies threads?

:(

woah, 74,000 viewers?!

virtually guaranteed that more people will have d/ld it

That must be true. I watched all the episodes on Netflix, which posted new ones the same day they aired.

I wonder what it means for a network to have shows that are watched online more than an on the actual channel. On the one hand you could say that it makes sense for the network to cancel like they did here, but I think the better solution is for them to look into making online viewing work more in their favor. I guess that's a tough one to solve in terms of making real money, but it's obvious that online consumption is where the audience is heading, so it has to be worked out eventually.

jody i think you would dig v mars!

booooo

I don't really understand Starz at all. All of their content is viewable for free on Netflix, but they charge for their channel?

surely they get dough through Netflix subscriptions?

Then why are they the only channel that does that?

idk. and i could be totally wrong about that.

They do get money from Netflix, but Starz is kind of a low-end movie channel compared to Showtime/HBO. Most of their Netflix streaming stuff (or maybe all of it) is SD and not HD, and it's usually second-run or second-tier movies and cheaper original shows. I'm under the impression that they're able to license to Netflix because they need fewer licensing fees to begin with.

noooo

eh, show was never gonna last forever, and this frees up a lot of talented people whose careers are mostly in a better place now than when the show started.

I watched all the episodes on Netflix, which posted new ones the same day they aired.

So did I. I guess I didn't contribute to the ratings, but my cable system doesn't have Starz so ¯\(°_°)/¯

My parents just got cable (as opposed to satellite) hooked up at their new place and one of the first things I did was confirm that they could get Starz on demand. Now when they finish moving, I can hopefully go over and watch Party Down with my mom.

;_;

eh, show was never gonna last forever, and this frees up a lot of talented people whose careers are mostly in a better place now than when the show started.

― ripe dink (some dude), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:49 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark

weird way to look at it - it frees them up from being in an awesome show?

do u know how rare awesome shows are?

ha, slocks otm

i don't understand starz either -- who has that channel? i do, but i know tons of people who have starz and have no idea that they have starz, let alone that starz has original programming, let alone that starz has original programming that is totally amazing

RIP, doomed from the start

at least we still have 30 rock

btw, not only can you watch all of part down on netflix, but you can watch all of party down ondemand, so if you don't want to, you know, watch a tv show at 10 pm on a friday night, you have other options

so 74k sounds about right for a viewership imo

I don't even really understand how ratings come into play in a situation like this where the channel has a low viewership anyway plus they make the show available right away through other means. Do they really have a way to get significantly higher ratings with a different program? I guess it kind of throws the whole original content on Starz idea into question.

eh, show was never gonna last forever, and this frees up a lot of talented people whose careers are mostly in a better place now than when the show started.

― ripe dink (some dude), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:49 PM (50 minutes ago) Bookmark

weird way to look at it - it frees them up from being in an awesome show?

do u know how rare awesome shows are?

― pass le corbusier (s1ocki), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 5:40 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well, Veronica Mars was an awesome show, the silver lining of it being cancelled was that Rob Thomas got to go and create another great show with some of the same actors. now they have a chance to do it again, maybe on a network people actually watch, if I may dare to dream.

i mean i love Party Down and all but i don't feel like it's some kind of precious lightening in a bottle that everyone involved in it is doomed to fail to ever capture again

You only get so many chances to create awesome shows with low ratings.

i mean i love Party Down and all but i don't feel like it's some kind of precious lightening in a bottle that everyone involved in it is doomed to fail to ever capture again

― ripe dink (some dude), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:53 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, this. part of the appeal for me was that you got the sense that the show was kinda the catering gig of tv shows. better to do a well-written, breezy show on a low-viewer network and springboard to higher profile stuff than hack it out on something shitty. seemed like it had an expiration date from the get go

party down was like the first season of californication or something. I would be happy watching it but on the whole the eps were pretty empty.

empty how??

and compared to what?

well, Veronica Mars was an awesome show, the silver lining of it being cancelled was that Rob Thomas got to go and create another great show with some of the same actors. now they have a chance to do it again, maybe on a network people actually watch, if I may dare to dream.

― ripe dink (some dude), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 5:52 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

i hope your dream comes true, but having your show fail twice doesn't necc mean that hollywood is going to open its pocketbook to you. if anything, the opposite

uhhh let us not forget 'cupid'

iirc Rob Thomas had a lot of offers to be showrunner for bigger shows when Veronica Mars was on, probably will happen now too. i get the impression that people working in TV like him or Bryan Fuller who prove they can make and run pretty high quality shows whether or not anybody watches them tend to keep getting good career opportunities, probably because they're clearly good at what they do but also still affordable.

well good for him BUT I WANT MY FAVE SHOW BACK

empty compared to the wire obv.

yes, 'the wire' is the obvious comparison to make

Switch the casts, no difference.

I am sad to see it go, but the ending was good enough that I can live with it.

I really liked Albrecht at HBO, and thought it was a shame he had to get on the sauce and abuse his wife in a parking lot. I don't think Starz will ever be up to the level of mid-00s HBO, of course, but I hope he finds some good stuff and trusts to see through what he can. Don't want too much more of the Spartacus style shlock, but that did turn out pretty good.

by empty I mean it builds up archetypes for yuks (really good archetypes tho) and generally the yuks are all you have from ep to ep. The plot stringing the eps together is super thin (to me). It's an enjoyable show though!

where's the message man

yeah that's kind of what I'm saying I guess

you shd probably avoid comedy shows

I love comedy shows!

as a comedy show this was only decent, nothing super special.

what party down character are you Im the washed out elf

i think they handled the crushing hopes and dreams of these people pretty well. they were subtly developed enough so it was there but never shoved your face into it.

ya to me this show handled plot development perfectly - just a nice slow progression from episode to episode

would have really ruined it if they made the "plot stringing along the eps" more on-the-nose and foregrounded

Have we talked about Adam Scott's twitter profile picture?

http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/769570547/n1223084119_30356208_7263189.jpg

would have really ruined it if they made the "plot stringing along the eps" more on-the-nose and foregrounded

― pass le corbusier (s1ocki), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I agree with this but everything was pretty crushing from ep 1, they had a bunch of eps to, I dunno, introduce alf or something

From Martin Starr's twitter: "It makes me feel good that our work was appreciated but I am not hopeful yet. Apparently they won't let us move to another network."

:-(

adam scott IS brandon flowers

ugh this is such awful news. the world needs more martin starr imo

Finally got around to viewing the final two episodes. I really do like the way it wrapped up just enough to be either a season finale or a series finale. Also, Roman high out of his mind was major lolz!

it's really too bad that there isn't gonna be more season of this cuz i would love for "one cast member gets ridiculously high during the season finale" to become a tradition

Just saw Ryan Hansen playing a fireman on That's So Raven.

it's really too bad that there isn't gonna be more season of this cuz i would love for "one cast member gets ridiculously high during the season finale" to become a tradition

ha I was wondering if that was intentional

I feel like "people getting high by accident" is kind of a hack plot line honestly but it was redeemed by Starr's performance in the series finale.

yeah starr's performance was seriously impressive i thought

Just saw Ryan Hansen playing a fireman on That's So Raven.

― no turkey unless it's a club sandwich (polyphonic), Saturday, July 3, 2010 2:23 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that's the kind of sitch where i think it's way more fun to imagine that Kyle booked that gig

seriously dudes is there anything else to watch these days cos all i got is true blood right now

mad men back soon right?

Mad Men's back soon. Otherwise I'm catching up on Friday Night Lights and that's about it.

haha yeah that is also my other saving grace - i'm only on season 1 though so i try not to o.d

ive been watching peep show on hulu, seasons 2 & 3 are hilarious even if u are not a britisher imo

top chef

most of the scripted shows i'm watching this summer aren't terribly good (Hung, Persons Unknown, Sons of Tuscon, The Good Guys, Scoundrels) but i'm enjoying some other stuff (Tosh.0, Last Comic Standing, The Green Room with Paul Provenza). people seem to like Louis C.K.'s new show but i'm wary after the last one.

i discovered and ran through two seasons of party down in one week. i wish I could find something else like that.

some dude, i'm loving new Louis CK show. way better than last one imo.

i took a cameraphone shot of the still-extant party down billboard on vine/hollywood yesterday, only to get home and find out martin starr had posted his own cameraphone shot on twitter of same billboard. he posted his right around the time i had taken mine, it turned out.

check the shot closely to see if you're in it
or if HE is in YOURS!

10 mins in to the first ep & I am smitten

Watched both seasons over the past 3 days, and very upset to just find out its been cancelled.

Watched first ep last night and it made me cringe a little, but I'm gonna give it a few more tries. It seemed rather plagued with the same lack of subtlety that stops me enjoying the US office. The girl was sorta cute though

Don't hate, I always give these things a few tries. I quite liked the woman who sued to be in The L Word, she was pretty good

the show takes off after about 3 episodes.

OK

I think funny TV shows should have more boring, ugly people in them.

I'm enjoying Breaking Bad, though! Thanks for that, ILE.

According to Adam Scott's twitter, this is an outtake from a fake Vanity Fair cover shoot:

http://i46.tinypic.com/2v9zxcm.jpg

haha ya right

oic u said fake

in italics, even

i can't see italics

racist

lizzy caplan on the cancelaish

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/interview-lizzy-caplan-on-the-party-down-cancellation

cancelaish

::shakes fist::

::shakes hands::

he wants to have sex with a porcupine, but it's poking him!

how long do I have to watch this before it becomes amazing? The pilot was boring for the 15 minutes I watched it.

Start with ep4 and if you like it, go back to the beginning. You must be a hard sell.

give it four eps

xp

if you hate the first 15 minutes than just give up forever

on life

I felt this show was doomed after Jane Lynch left. Good for her and all, but still...

well in fairness to the show I DO feel like I bailed (not by choice) early, and want to give it a chance.

The pilot was boring for the 15 minutes I watched it.

― Astronaut Mike Dexter (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, July 7, 2010 8:07 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Best 15 minutes of the entire run IMO

i like jane lynch well enough but she was always the least interesting person in it to me, probably coz it felt like jane lynch doing her thing, whereas the others were less well known quantities.

yeah, me too, actually. i adore jane lynch but the way party down was using her seemed sort of played out to me. glee is a far inferior show but she is a genius in it, i have to say. her relationship with ryan hansen was sweet, though.

Yeah, but she made them look better, I thought.