It came as no surprise when Party Down was cancelled. The year was 2010, and the scrappy, glowingly reviewed sitcom about an LA catering company had languished in obscurity for 20 episodes before finally calling it quits. Its paltry viewing figures – dipping as low as 68,000 US viewers for one episode – didn’t help. Nor did the fact that the Starz network was still in its unsteady early days of original programming. To cap this off, Party Down had already seen one cast member, Jane Lynch, leave at the end of season one; the end of season two would see lead Adam Scott poached by Parks and Recreation on NBC. So, all things considered, cancellation was somewhat inevitable. Its revival, though? That’s another story. The six new episodes of Party Down – released weekly on Starz in the US and Lionsgate+ in the UK, beginning this Friday – seemed, for a long time, a mere pipedream.
At the heart of the original series is Henry Pollard (Scott), an apathetic employee at the Party Down catering company. Henry is a failed actor – of considerable talent, we come to understand. His co-workers are also on the fringes of show business: plucky comedian Casey (Lizzy Caplan), dippy ex-actor Constance (Lynch), embittered sci-fi writer Roman (Martin Starr) and himbo-ish actor-musician Kyle (Ryan Hansen). Bar Henry, they all consider themselves true artists who just happen to make a living handing out hors d’oeuvres. Ken Marino, meanwhile, plays their uptight, buffoonish manager Ron Donald.
