After 13 years of rumors, speculation, and passionate fan campaigns, the cult classicParty Downis finally back for a third season. The season 3 premiere, “Kyle Bradway is Nitromancer,” is helmed by returning director Bryan Gordon and written by series co-creator John Enbom. Kyle hiresParty Downto cater a party celebrating his casting as a superhero in a popular cinematic universe so he can lord his success over his old co-workers. He bumps up against the modern climate of cancel culture and apology videos when a recording of his unwittingly insensitive song “My Struggle” from the season 2 finale resurfaces and social media users misconstrue it as Nazi propaganda.
It’s great to see most of the actors back together.Adam Scott’s Henry Pollard is still a terrific “straight man” opposite his colleagues’ absurd antics. Ken Marino’s Ron Donald is still the exasperated team leader who demands a lot more than his staff is willing to give. Jane Lynch’s Constance Carmell has become even more airheaded and indulgent since inheriting her husband’s fortune. Megan Mullally’s Lydia Dunfree is still naively optimistic and hysterically oblivious, Martin Starr’s Roman DeBeers is still dryly hilarious and infinitely miserable, and Ryan Hansen’s Kyle Bradway is still Roman’s lovable polar opposite.
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Lizzy Caplan’s Casey Klein is dearly missed. Her in-universe absence is explained away by Casey’s success as aSaturday Night Livecast member, while her real-life absence is due to scheduling issues. But the deadpan reactions and no-nonsense straight-talking that Casey brought to the dynamic make it feel like a major piece of the puzzle is missing. Still, there are some promising new additions to the ensemble who make up for Caplan’s absence, including Jennifer Garner as a Hollywood producer who takes a liking to Henry. The standout of the new cast members is Tyrel Jackson Williams as Sackson, a charismatic TikToker who brings a Generation Z voice to the dynamic.
More than a decade after he last wrote for them, Enbom is still perfectly in tune with who these characters are. From Roman condescending to his co-workers for not understanding Latin to Ron finding himself in yet another dire financial situation he doesn’t know how to handle,Party Down’s season 3premiere is a spot-on reintroduction to this ensemble. Gordon’s direction is as sharp as ever. Each scene cuts to the next on a big laugh, like Constance learning that a “grand” is a thousand dollars, not a million, or Kyle trying to wrap his head around what the word “content” refers to.
Likemost sitcom revivals, the new episode ofParty Downis full of callbacks for long-time fans. Some of the running gags have gotten even funnier with age. All these years later, Henry still can’t escape the one beer commercial that killed his acting career. Everyone still recognizes him as the “Are we having fun yet?” guy.Party Down’s season 3 premiere also has some meta nods to the show itself. When Henry tells a Hollywood doorman he’s from Party Down, the doorman says, “Never heard of it. Is it on cable?” When the gang first gets back together, Lydia says, “I love reunions and do-agains. I love seeing people from the past seeing other people from the past.” The episode doesn’t lay on its self-awareness too thick, but it has plenty of fun with it.
Initially, it seems as thoughParty Downis avoiding anyreference to the pandemic. On one hand, the pandemic isn’t something anybody wants to relive. But, on the other hand, there’s a lot of comedic potential in exploring its impact on the party industry. Party Down never had the best luck as a catering company and a year-long stretch in which throwing parties is illegal would be the biggest hurdle to their business to date. In its final moments, the season 3 premiere finally addresses the viral elephant in the room. The episode ends with the outbreak of coronavirus. Ron ironically celebrates 2020 as the beginning of a great year as the first COVID cases from Wuhan are ominously reported on TV. 14 months later, Ron is living in the Party Down van, ecstatic to receive his first post-lockdown booking.
All in all,Party Down’s season 3 premiere is a welcome return to some beloved characters. It doesn’t rank among the show’s funniest episodes, but it’s an exciting start to thelong-awaited reboot. Since it has to spend most of its runtime catching up with the characters and creating reasons for them to reunite, the season 3 premiere doesn’t have any of the riotous situations that made the first two seasons such underrated gems. But now that the groundwork has been laid to tell the story of an already-struggling catering service getting back on its feet after COVID, the rest of season 3 is primed to be a hoot.
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