Party Down

Hilarious third season. ... "Party Down" was well worth the wait. Mixing the show's character-driven wittiness and naturally infused social commentary with a newfound sense of maturity all around, this revival marks a new golden standard for giving a classic comedy new life.

What it's really about is the stuff that dreams are made of. As this third season will remind true-blue fans, that stuff can be very funny indeed. ... Hilarious.

Season 3 is great. By which I mean that most of the five (out of six total) episodes I screened had me laughing so hard that I gasped for air and tears streamed down my face and I very nearly fell off the couch.

The new episodes represent the platonic ideal of a series returning after a long absence: The old magic remains intact, but there are fresh new ideas in the mix, a sense of growth and evolution.

The opening episodes of Party Down's third season successfully reunite nearly all of this brilliant workplace comedy's cast in a way that few other revivals have managed.

The revival does not disappoint, setting a new standard for series resurrections by being unafraid to tackle the low-grade dismay of financial precarity and middle-age failure. ... But the character beats are disrupted by the series’ now creaky commitment to broader gags.

Are we having fun yet? Most definitely.

The show proves that not much has changed about the industry or the people who serve it besides the power of the internet. ... The show could be required viewing for anyone hoping to move to Los Angeles and wanting to know what to expect.

The series deftly tackles timely issues with breezy reckonings, interrogating them—and laughing at them—but avoiding ham-fisted didacticism.

All these years later, it's a formula that still works. It's not easy to return to anything after years of separation — a beloved TV show, an old job — but Party Down Season 3 proves that it still knows how to have fun.

Party Down Season 3 is just as funny as ever, and part of that is finding the right tone for this series in 2023, while also still having something to say through these characters.

A revival of a 13-year-old series, it feels full of freshman possibilities, and one hopes it doesn’t end here.

Party Down is a slow-burn piece of workplace comedy in which a bunch of losers occasionally win. There are laughs but few side-splitters. It’s endearing rather than explosive. Yet as with The Office (UK and US) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, there is something about the ensemble here that just clicks.

Don’t get me wrong, “Party Down” is still shriekingly funny. It even does the impossible and pulls off a successful “the gang gets high on mushrooms” episode. But the pathos is closer to the surface now.

Disappointment turns out to be a timeless premise. And it still works. Lizzy Caplan’s absence smarts (she was busy with another project), but the show was always casual about swapping people out, and the new additions are solid.

Party Down returns on generally solid footing, generating some laughs, many smiles and a lot of nostalgic warmth.

What might like look like standard-issue fare from the outside is actually packed full of ultra-premium ingredients meant to evoke complex emotional responses of joy, sorrow, melancholy, Schadenfreude, yearning, delight. Except unlike some of Lucy’s creations, which occasionally go so far that they’re barely edible, the new season of Party Down also manages to be astoundingly satisfying.

In just about every other respect, the series’ resurrection on Starz (which premieres Feb. 24) delivers precisely what fans have been craving—namely, more of the same hilarious working-class Hollywood desperation and despondence punctuated by healthy servings of snarky absurdity.

The show at its best generates such a happy-go-lucky absurdity amid the ego-smashing reality of anyone struggling to find a foothold in showbiz. But it’s actually Ron’s story — of an everyman who doesn’t want to be famous, he just wants modest success in business — that feels most potent to me.

Starz’s Party Down revival isn’t quite as fun as the original run, but it still has a great cast and plenty of satirical bite.

You kinda look like your younger self. That's the best thing I can say about Party Down, an amazing show that returns just fine. It's attractive, familiar, a bit flatter, not quite as emotional.

“Party Down” still feels catered to a rather narrow palate, serving as a pleasant if belated revival for the people who really enjoyed it, likely to draw a disproportionate amount of media attention relative to its viewership receipts.

Fans of Party Down, whether you watched it in the pre-Instagram days or caught up on it just recently, will eventually enjoy the show’s third season, but they may have to wade through a few disappointing episodes first.

An even distribution of writing ensures that no single performance gets short shrift, calling attention to how well-oiled of a comedy machine this cast is. That also gives the script a by-the-numbers certainty that keeps these new episodes firmly in the realm of sweet if not unmissable.

Season 3 extends or recreates arcs from the past, hoping that familiarity will breed a rose-colored fondness.