What Freaks & Geeks was to Dawsons Creek, Party Down was to Entourage.
What that insinuates is that these shows are the anti-shows of their more popular counterparts. While series like Dawsons Creek & Entourage found mainstream recognition, their dirty cousins did not for one simple fact: They were better and more realistic, and America doesn’t like realism in their TV.
And what do these two things have in common? Well, Martin Starr was in both, and is in league with co-creator Paul Rudd, who is friends with Judd Appatow who wrote for Freaks & Geeks.
Party Down follows 5 (4 always constant, as one role was later taken over in Season 2) people in the hollywood business just trying to make it or become ok with the fact that they didn’t make it, who work as caterers for the catering company Party Down. The funny thing is, it’s a lot like Freaks & Geeks where everyone who was in both shows is now famous. Adam Scott is now on Parks & Rec, Ken Marino is doing Childrens Hospital and Lizzy Caplan is ALL OVER THE GOD DAMN PLACE, as she should’ve been since her great role from The Class back in 2006.
Party Down is not only hands down one of the top probably 5 funniest sitcoms I’ve ever seen in my life, but it did something a lot of shows didn’t do and that is that it spend a lot of time in development. In fact, this show was developed for 6 years before it ever even got to air, making the characters feel entirely fleshed out and instantly relatable because the writers weren’t figuring them out as the show went along. It really does make a difference. But maybe I’m biased; because while, yes, the show IS absolutely 10/10 stars would watch again, it also hits home for me as someone who has been trying to be in the entertainment business for years myself. I mean, this entire blog is dedicated to tearing down and praising (but mainly tearing down because I’m a bitch) stuff IN entertainment, for god sakes. I went to film school for 2 years, I worked with crews, I created a cult webseries that ran for 19 episodes before a brutal falling out with most of the cast and I know the pain felt from failure after failure and FAILURE.
Party Down is looked down on because of that by mainstream audiences. It’s not about winners. It’s about PEOPLE. Who wants to watch people become successes? There’s nothing there to see. Now we’ve changed a bit in the last few years since this show’s been off the air, as you can see with Breaking Bad being so popular. Half the fun of that series was knowing you’d eventually witness the downfall of Walter White. But when this show was on, we didn’t want to watch people fail. Entertainment is escapism. We want to watch people be successful because we often times are not successful ourselves, so we lose ourselves and root for people we wish we were. That’s not what Party Down is. Shit, it isn’t even an underdog story. These people are FUCK UPS. They definitely have the means to be successful-hell anyone does-but it’s about reality. “Making it” is HARD. It’s 50% talent and 50% luck, honestly, and if the luck doesn’t factor in, you can’t rely on talent alone. That’s what Party Down does so well is prove that this is a difficult life to follow and these people may never become what they want to.
Just. like. us.
How many hopes and dreams have gone unfulfilled simply because it just didn’t work out? Party Down is the anti-entourage. It was bold and brave and had the balls to say “Sure, something like Entourage COULD happen, but here’s what actually happens to 99% of hollywood.” And what did we do, as a viewing society? We shunned it, because we didn’t want to watch people fail. The thing is, Henry (Adam Scott) seems pretty ok with the fact that he failed, because at least he tried. It’s why I’m pretty ok with being where I am, because at least I’m trying. Not only is it perfectly cast, hilariously written and has a super simple but brilliant premise (a different catering event every episode with slight serialization through characters and dialogue), but it just was REAL, man. It was REAL. It was as honest about hollywood as I think we’re ever going to get, and the irony coming from that stems from the fact that the men behind it are the men who are pretty successful IN HOLLYWOOD. Rob Thomas is a co-creator of this, and he made Veronica Mars. Paul Rudd is a successful actor/filmmaker. I mean, it’s nice to finally have people-famous people-stop and really tell us why being famous kind of fucking sucks.
The series used to be on Netflix but thanks to Starz getting dicks up their butts they canceled their contract and now it’s only available on digital delivery or DVD but I sincerely 100% recommend picking it up. Trust me. It’s 20 episodes of pure brilliance.
Are we having fun yet, Henry?
I certainly fucking hope not.
What that insinuates is that these shows are the anti-shows of their more popular counterparts. While series like Dawsons Creek & Entourage found mainstream recognition, their dirty cousins did not for one simple fact: They were better and more realistic, and America doesn’t like realism in their TV.
And what do these two things have in common? Well, Martin Starr was in both, and is in league with co-creator Paul Rudd, who is friends with Judd Appatow who wrote for Freaks & Geeks.
Party Down follows 5 (4 always constant, as one role was later taken over in Season 2) people in the hollywood business just trying to make it or become ok with the fact that they didn’t make it, who work as caterers for the catering company Party Down. The funny thing is, it’s a lot like Freaks & Geeks where everyone who was in both shows is now famous. Adam Scott is now on Parks & Rec, Ken Marino is doing Childrens Hospital and Lizzy Caplan is ALL OVER THE GOD DAMN PLACE, as she should’ve been since her great role from The Class back in 2006.
Party Down is not only hands down one of the top probably 5 funniest sitcoms I’ve ever seen in my life, but it did something a lot of shows didn’t do and that is that it spend a lot of time in development. In fact, this show was developed for 6 years before it ever even got to air, making the characters feel entirely fleshed out and instantly relatable because the writers weren’t figuring them out as the show went along. It really does make a difference. But maybe I’m biased; because while, yes, the show IS absolutely 10/10 stars would watch again, it also hits home for me as someone who has been trying to be in the entertainment business for years myself. I mean, this entire blog is dedicated to tearing down and praising (but mainly tearing down because I’m a bitch) stuff IN entertainment, for god sakes. I went to film school for 2 years, I worked with crews, I created a cult webseries that ran for 19 episodes before a brutal falling out with most of the cast and I know the pain felt from failure after failure and FAILURE.
Party Down is looked down on because of that by mainstream audiences. It’s not about winners. It’s about PEOPLE. Who wants to watch people become successes? There’s nothing there to see. Now we’ve changed a bit in the last few years since this show’s been off the air, as you can see with Breaking Bad being so popular. Half the fun of that series was knowing you’d eventually witness the downfall of Walter White. But when this show was on, we didn’t want to watch people fail. Entertainment is escapism. We want to watch people be successful because we often times are not successful ourselves, so we lose ourselves and root for people we wish we were. That’s not what Party Down is. Shit, it isn’t even an underdog story. These people are FUCK UPS. They definitely have the means to be successful-hell anyone does-but it’s about reality. “Making it” is HARD. It’s 50% talent and 50% luck, honestly, and if the luck doesn’t factor in, you can’t rely on talent alone. That’s what Party Down does so well is prove that this is a difficult life to follow and these people may never become what they want to.
Just. like. us.
How many hopes and dreams have gone unfulfilled simply because it just didn’t work out? Party Down is the anti-entourage. It was bold and brave and had the balls to say “Sure, something like Entourage COULD happen, but here’s what actually happens to 99% of hollywood.” And what did we do, as a viewing society? We shunned it, because we didn’t want to watch people fail. The thing is, Henry (Adam Scott) seems pretty ok with the fact that he failed, because at least he tried. It’s why I’m pretty ok with being where I am, because at least I’m trying. Not only is it perfectly cast, hilariously written and has a super simple but brilliant premise (a different catering event every episode with slight serialization through characters and dialogue), but it just was REAL, man. It was REAL. It was as honest about hollywood as I think we’re ever going to get, and the irony coming from that stems from the fact that the men behind it are the men who are pretty successful IN HOLLYWOOD. Rob Thomas is a co-creator of this, and he made Veronica Mars. Paul Rudd is a successful actor/filmmaker. I mean, it’s nice to finally have people-famous people-stop and really tell us why being famous kind of fucking sucks.
The series used to be on Netflix but thanks to Starz getting dicks up their butts they canceled their contract and now it’s only available on digital delivery or DVD but I sincerely 100% recommend picking it up. Trust me. It’s 20 episodes of pure brilliance.
Are we having fun yet, Henry?
I certainly fucking hope not.
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