Party Down S03e01 Bd5 ((free))

The revival had to address the absence of Lizzy Caplan (Casey Klein) and the late, great Ken Marino... wait, Ken Marino is back (and brilliant as ever as Ron). But the show had to fill the void left by Casey and Roman (Martin Starr, who appears briefly later in the season).

Zoë Chao (from The Afterparty ) joins as Lucy, a highly chaotic, avant-garde chef who refuses to serve standard party food. Tyrel Jackson Williams joins as Sackson, a young Gen Z worker obsessed with TikTok clout, serving as a perfect foil for the older, jaded staff. party down s03e01 bd5

Ron Donald’s storyline in the premiere is particularly affecting. His hyper-seriousness regarding the catering business has calcified into something even sadder. The visual gag of the catering station being positioned next to the casket is the kind of dark humor the show perfected years ago, and it lands with the same impact here. The revival had to address the absence of

Ken Marino’s performance as Ron is the soul of the show, delivering peak physical comedy, especially when he faces severe gastrointestinal distress (an off-handed "broken finger" joke included). Zoë Chao (from The Afterparty ) joins as

Party Down returned in 2023 after a 13-year hiatus, and the premiere smartly acknowledges the gap without leaning too heavily on nostalgia.

TV revivals are notoriously difficult to pull off, but Party Down succeeds by recognizing that its characters are meant to be stuck in a holding pattern. The beauty of the show has always been its ability to find humor in failure.