Party Down – “Party Down Company Picnic”

First things first, I’ve been seriously slacking on my Party Down coverage, and doing so in the string of the best episodes the show has ever done. I really enjoyed the first season of the show, and the first couple of episodes of this season were great too, but then, all of the sudden, with “Steve Guttenberg’s Birthday” and “Not On Your Wife Opening Night,” the show stepped up to another level. Like I said, the show was already humming along beautifully, but those two episodes were perfect half hours.

And so, that leads us to “Party Down Company Picnic,” which had me from the first line (“And this recession’s been great!”). Getting the Party Down crew away from work seems to have been a goal of the writers this season, and by first having them attend a party they were supposed to cater for Steve Guttenberg, and then getting everyone out of their white shirts and pink ties. It was a little disorienting at first to see the gang in normal clothes, but it was an effective way to focus on the characters in a different way. Yet, even without their white shirts and pink ties, the Party Down crew is still the same bunch of delusion fueled optimists, with the exception of course of Henry, who is just comfortable finding some way to tie.

The Party Down staff was looking for smaller wins at their company picnic. While Casey went hard after the all around points title, Roman and Kyle battled the Valhalla catering staff to prove they were equals, Lydia strived to become Escapade’s manager again, and poor Ron tried, in vain, to get a promotion to corporate out of the new head of the company, Bolus Lugozshe. The results were largely a mix of success and failure, or in Ron’s case both. Casey defeated Garlan Greenbush (“What are you, an unemployed wizard or something?”), the defending champ of the picnic, and Lydia took Roman’s advice on being an asshole and won back her daughter from Kyle and got her a job as a singing shoe. But Roman and Kyle were defeated by their rivals at Valhalla, who on aggregate, are better looking, and definitely more douchey. Ron had the weirdest day, being turned down for the job before he was hit in the back by a horseshoe thrown by Lugozshe’s daughter, who then helped him try to blackmail his way into the job. It almost seemed like a rare sweet episode for Ron, until the end when he discovered this perfect girl he’d just hooked up with was engaged.

Henry had issues of his own, specifically handling his newly rekindled relationship with Casey and his already in place relationship with Uda, who was catering the party. It was another great appearance by Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell, who was firing it all cylinders as the way too uptight rival caterer. Yet, Uda isn’t as cold as we’ve come to assume. She wants to make her and Henry work, and when she realizes that isn’t going to happen and the two break up, it almost seemed like Uda was slightly hurt by it, but more so, anxious about being alone again. It couldn’t have been pulled off without Bell, who was able to pull off great lines (“What is it about ‘more wieners’ that you do not understand?”) without overselling it. That seems to be a basic principle of comedic acting, yet there is no wink at the camera from Bell, as there was from Steve Guttenberg.

The centerpiece of episode was a kickball game between Valhalla and Party Down, that couldn’t have played out any better. Here are the Party Down crew, fueled by their deep hatred of Valhalla and ready to show them who they are, but instead, Lydia doesn’t understand the rules, Roman gets pegged in the face, Ron gets a devastating crotch shot, and his replacement, Greenbush, collapses in his own vomit after the hot dog eating contest. It’s a Party Down ending, one in which the good guys don’t win, and are left in their mediocrity. Even on this one day, when they all momentarily set aside their professional ambitions, every one got shut down by their superior rivals. There’s a reason they all work at Party Down, and at their own company picnic, they got a painful reminder as to why.

This episode did so many things well. My favorite part had to be the ultra competitive Casey, who was constantly delivering laughs. For much of the show, Casey hasn’t had much to do other than hook up with Henry and bitch about the pitfalls of trying to make it big, but Lizzie Caplan shined in this episode, adding depth to her character and showing off some really strong comedic chops. I almost wondered if her lack of emotion when Henry told her he was going to “roll the dice” with her and break up with Uda meant that she was really just showing off her competitive side, trying to win Henry.

The other two things that worked pretty well were Henry’s transition of power to Ron (minus the pay raise and benefits), and Lydia’s funny storyline. It seemed that Henry was destined to turn Team Leader back over to Ron at some point, and I think having him go back to his old, responsibility free position this close to the end of the season is going to make things really interesting. Getting Lydia finally involved in an interesting story of her own was great too. Megan Mullally is a hell of a lot funnier than I ever gave her credit for, and she finally got a chance to come out of the background, and didn’t disappoint. I think from now on, I’m going to start calling people “shit morsels.”

As Party Down hits its home stretch, it’s really proven that it belongs in the same conversation as the other great comedies on television right now. If this show was on an HBO or Showtime, or even on a cable network like FX, it would be insanely popular. At the same time though, Starz has done as good of a job as it can at promoting the show, and I think it’s slowly but surely gaining a bigger following. It seems fitting that a possible third season doesn’t seem likely, and that just like its characters, Party Down is just fighting to be noticed and respected, but with minimal returns. In the meantime though, I’m excited to see if the show can top its last three episodes with the final three of the season.

Michael’s Score: 96
TUiW Grade: A