--- title: "Party Down" year: 2009 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/party-down" fi1m_id: "party-down" imdb_id: "tt1073507" tmdb_id: 17287 wikidata_id: "Q3111060" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-18" updated: "2026-09-18T10:26:46.876714+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Party Down (2009) Created by Paul Rudd, Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Dan Etheridge · MPA TV-MA · Comedy ## Identity Party Down - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/party-down - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** party-down - **IMDb ID:** tt1073507 - **TMDB ID:** 17287 - **Wikidata ID:** Q3111060 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073507/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/17287, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3111060 **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 71 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Pink bow ties, cheap white wine, and the terrible moment a guest asks Henry to do the catchphrase > A comedy about Hollywood’s unsuccessful working the parties of the successful, drier and sadder than the premise suggests. Adam Scott and Ken Marino anchor a superb ensemble, and the 2023 return is a real third season, if a slightly tidier one. ## Synopsis Los Angeles. Henry Pollard (Adam Scott), an actor whose one success was a beer advert and its catchphrase, has given up and gone back to catering. His team leader at Party Down is Ron Donald (Ken Marino), a recovering drinker with a plan: run enough flawless events and earn a Soup ‘R Crackers franchise. The crew in white shirts and pink bow ties includes Casey Klein (Lizzy Caplan), a stand-up comedian; Constance Carmell (Jane Lynch), a veteran of low-budget films; Kyle Bradway (Ryan Hansen), an actor and singer; and Roman DeBeers (Martin Starr), who writes hard science fiction and will tell you so. Each episode is one party. The first is a homeowners’ association gathering in Willow Canyon, where the estate agent Pepper McMasters (Marilu Henner) holds court and Henry is recognised from the advert. ## Review John Enbom, Dan Etheridge, Paul Rudd and Rob Thomas had an idea that hardly looks like one: a comedy about Los Angeles actors and writers who have not made it and are paying the rent by handing round canapés. Every episode is one party. The crew from Party Down Catering arrives in white shirts and pink bow ties, sets up, serves, and by the end something has gone wrong, usually because of them. It ran for two seasons of ten episodes from 20 March 2009, came back for six more on 24 February 2023, and it is one of the best American comedies of its period, and one of the saddest. Adam Scott plays Henry Pollard, who was in a beer advert once, said “Are we having fun yet?” on television, and has decided that is the end of it. Scott gives him the face of a man doing sums he already knows the answer to. Ken Marino’s Ron Donald is the team leader, a recovering drinker whose five-year plan ends in a Soup ‘R Crackers franchise, and Marino is the show’s engine. Ron sweats, pleads, does the voice of a manager he once heard, and the panic on his face when a client frowns is so complete it stops being funny for a second and then becomes funnier. Around them: Lizzy Caplan’s Casey Klein, a stand-up whose sets we never see go well; Jane Lynch’s Constance Carmell, who has been in more films than the rest of the crew put together and will tell you about each one; Ryan Hansen’s Kyle Bradway, an actor and singer who has never had a thought that did not flatter him; and Martin Starr’s Roman DeBeers, who writes what he insists is hard science fiction and despises Kyle above all. Starr can lose an argument with a shrug. The Kyle and Roman bickering is the show’s steadiest source of laughs and its most repetitive one. Michael J. Pepin shoots the parties in the light they would actually have: a rented hall under fluorescent strips, a back garden at dusk, a hotel suite with the lamps on. Nobody is flattered. The kitchen where the crew hides looks like a kitchen, and the guests look like people who paid for the event. Leland Sexton and Kent Kincannon cut each episode so the party goes from setup to ruin without a wasted scene, and the directors, Fred Savage, Bryan Gordon, David Wain and Marino himself among them, stay out of the way and let the actors find the awkward pause. Here is where the show got us. Sooner or later at nearly every party, a guest recognises Henry and asks him to say the line. He says it. We laughed the first time, and the second, and around the fourth we realised we were laughing at a man being asked to perform his own failure for people who had not noticed it was one, and we felt small. Ron has an equivalent, a bright, panicked speech about the future that he gives to anyone who will stand still, and it moved us more than a sitcom about waiters had any right to. Not all of it holds. Lynch left after the first season and Megan Mullally arrived as Lydia Dunfree, a stage mother from the suburbs. Mullally is good, but the show had to work harder to be cruel to her, and a few second-season episodes go soft. Some parties are only as good as the guest star, and a couple are not very good. The 2023 return brings in Jennifer Garner as Evie, Tyrel Jackson Williams as Sackson and Zoë Chao as Lucy, and it is a proper continuation rather than a reunion, with J.K. Simmons back as the producer Leonard Stiltskin and terrifying. Caplan did not return, and Henry without Casey is a colder character than the show quite admits. The new jokes about the modern industry are also tidier than the old ones, as if written by people who had done some reading. Against the workplace comedies of its time, the American *The Office* and *Parks and Recreation* among them, *Party Down* is smaller, meaner and better about what work does to people who wanted another kind. There are no mockumentary cameras and nobody winks. Start with the first season and give it three episodes. It carries a 15, mostly for language, and it is funnier with a drink in hand and someone beside you who has ever had a job they were embarrassed by. *Fi1m score 82, published 18 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like it, and the praise clusters on the ensemble. The cast of failed Hollywood creatives working as caterers, Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Jane Lynch, Martin Starr and Ken Marino among them, is named again and again, with Starr’s deadpan and Marino’s Ron singled out more than once. The humour is called dry, sardonic and specific rather than loud, and several reviews find a melancholy about unfulfilled ambition underneath the jokes. Critics returning to it years later rate it more highly than those who reviewed it on arrival, and “overlooked” and “cancelled too soon” recur. The reservations are mostly mild. The Telegraph notes few outright side-splitters, the Guardian finds some elements dated, and the AV Club thinks the first season takes a while to find its footing. The one real dissent is Variety, which at the time saw only tired clichés about L.A. actors waiting tables and a tone that is neither bittersweet nor funny. Six to one is a lopsided count, but the gap between that verdict and the warmest is wide. ## Straight answers **Is Party Down worth watching?** *Party Down* is worth watching for anyone who likes their comedy dry and a little sad, and we scored it 82. Adam Scott and Ken Marino lead a superb ensemble of failed actors handing round canapés, and every episode is one party going wrong. Start with the first season and give it three episodes; the 2023 return is a real third season, if a slightly tidier one. **How long is Party Down, and what is it rated?** *Party Down* is rated TV-MA by the MPA in the US. It is a comedy series. **Where can I watch Party Down in the US?** *Party Down* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Starz, Hulu, The Roku Channel and Apple TV in the US, and it is also available to buy from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Party Down, and is it suitable for children?** *Party Down* carries a UK 15 and a US TV-MA, mostly for language, and it is not violent or frightening. It is an adult comedy about humiliation, drink and a career that never happened, and its jokes are aimed at people who have had a job they were embarrassed by. Older teenagers may enjoy it; younger children would find little in it for them. **How does Party Down compare to Extras?** *Party Down* and [*Extras*](https://film.one/tv/extras) share a subject, the film industry's bottom rung, and a wounded pride, but *Party Down* is the meaner and more consistent of the two. Its guest stars serve the party of the week rather than a celebrity sketch, which is where *Extras* can feel slight. Choose *Extras* for Gervais and Merchant and Ashley Jensen's weight of disappointment; choose *Party Down* for an ensemble and a sadness that creeps up on you. **What should I watch after Party Down?** After *Party Down*, try [*Extras*](https://film.one/tv/extras) (2005, Fi1m 81): Gervais and Merchant on the film set’s bottom rung; the same wounded pride, British accents. Then [*Barry*](https://film.one/film/barry-lyndon) (2018, Fi1m 85): A hitman takes an acting class; the Los Angeles delusion played darker and bloodier. ### Reviews we read (7) - **Vulture**, Kathryn VanArendonk (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the revival for leveraging the passage of time to deepen its themes of unfulfilled dreams and Hollywood futility, noting it captures and extends the original's best qualities without unnecessary justification for its existence. They single out the enduring appeal of the show's grungy, specific humor and the performance of Ken Marino as Ron. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/party-down-review-season-3-revival.html) - **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The dry two-season comedy is an overlooked gem among late-2000s sitcoms, delivering workplace satire through an impressive ensemble cast of failed Hollywood creatives working as caterers. It singles out the subtle humor, deadpan performances (especially Martin Starr) and prescient gig-economy themes for praise while noting some dated elements. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/aug/24/party-down-charmingly-low-budget-workplace-satire-from-the-makers-of-veronica-mars) - **The AV Club**, Genevieve Koski (B+ (episode) / A- (series)): The critic finds that Party Down hit its stride midway through the first season, expanding subplots while maintaining solid writing and performances. The season finale builds genuine tension around the central characters without losing the show's comedic edge. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/party-down-party-down-1798206309) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Andrew Wallenstein (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a superior companion to Starz's other comedy 'Head Case,' praising the cast including Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan, Jane Lynch and Martin Starr, and noting the show's astute meditation on unconventional lives beneath the raucous comedy. Starz proves you don’t need to spend too much production money if you can bring the funny. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/party-down-review-92964/) - **The Telegraph** (70/100, inferred): The original 2009-2010 series is an endearing, slow-burn workplace comedy about struggling actors as caterers whose ensemble chemistry makes it click, with sharp satirical moments. The review notes few side-splitters but praises the familial ease and satirical episodes. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2023/02/24/party-lionsgate-season-3-review-finally-sitcom-revival-doesnt/) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the series a collection of tired clichés about L.A. actors moonlighting as waiters, with a tone that fails to land as either bittersweet or comedic. The promising cast and guest stars cannot overcome the lack of fresh ideas or flavor in the episodes. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/scene/markets-festivals/party-down-1200474112/) - **Den of Geek**, Louisa Mellor (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the sharply written sitcom for its terrific performances and fun guest stars, calling it a sardonic, sometimes shocking, always funny comedy treat that stands on its own as a cancelled-too-soon great. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/party-down-a-us-sitcom-that-richly-deserves-your-time/) ## Details - **Created by:** Paul Rudd, Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Dan Etheridge - **Creator:** Paul Rudd, Rob Thomas, John Enbom, Dan Etheridge - **Director:** Bryan Gordon, Fred Savage, Ken Marino, Jude Weng, Wendey Stanzler, Viet Nguyen, David Wain, Heather Jack - **Writer:** John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Paul Rudd, Dayo Adesokan, Dan Etheridge - **Story:** John Enbom - **Teleplay:** John Enbom, Rob Thomas - **Cinematography:** Michael J. Pepin - **Editor:** Kent Kincannon, Leland Sexton - **Producer:** Bryan Gordon, Fred Savage, Adam Scott - **Cast:** Adam Scott as Henry Pollard; Ken Marino as Ron Donald; Lizzy Caplan as Casey Klein; Jane Lynch as Constance Carmell; Ryan Hansen as Kyle Bradway; Martin Starr as Roman DeBeers; Megan Mullally as Lydia Dunfree; Jennifer Garner as Evie - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 20 March 2009 - **Genres:** Comedy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2DOz2McW8 ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - Starz: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: free - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Hulu: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Apple TV: add-on, hd - Apple TV: buy, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-18.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, JP, MX, NL, NO, NZ, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Comeback* (2005): Lisa Kudrow’s fading sitcom star, humiliated weekly, and just as hard to look away from - *Extras* (2005), Fi1m 81: Gervais and Merchant on the film set’s bottom rung; the same wounded pride, British accents — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/extras.md) - *Toast of London* (2012): Matt Berry’s booming failed actor, voice-over work and all, for those who like it stranger - *Barry* (2018), Fi1m 85: A hitman takes an acting class; the Los Angeles delusion played darker and bloodier — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/barry-lyndon.md) - *Whites* (2010): Alan Davies’s country-house kitchen, another crew of the underemployed hiding from the guests --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/party-down