Party Down: Season 1 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)PARTY DOWN is a fascinating show on several levels. For one thing, it was easily the funniest new show of the 2008-2009 season. It didn't start off that way. The first couple of episodes are OK, but it quickly finds its groove and by the end of the year it is as funny as you could hope for a show to be.
If you are a VERONICA MARS fan, the show is ceaselessly fascinating. The show focuses on a group of Hollywood wannabes and wash outs who work for Party Down Caterers. The manager is played by Ken Marino, who was memorable on VERONICA MARS as shady private eye Vinnie Van Lowe. One of his employees is played by Ryan Hansen, who was the magnificently lame Dick Casablancas. Adam Scott and Jane Lynch, who play two other Party Down caterers, had guest roles on VM. And virtually the entire rest of the cast of VM make guest appearances, from Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars) to Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls) to Alona Tal (Meg Manning) and many, many others, including Veronica Mars (who has a wonderful turn as the sadistic head of a rival catering company). The show has been renewed for a second season and I'm pretty confident that many, many others from Neptune will put in appearances in the future. None of this is too surprising. One of the co-creators of PARTY DOWN is VERONICA MARS creator Rob Thomas and two writers from that series, John Enbom and Dan Etheridge, also served as co-creators. The final co-creator, Paul Rudd, guest starred. As I said, if you are a fan of VERONICA MARS, you will get a blast at seeing all the actors you have loved from the earlier series.
PARTY DOWN is the flipside of ENTOURAGE. If the latter is about largely undeserving people basking in the glory of another's success, this is about people striving for their own success and failing abysmally. Except for Ron, the manager who dreams of having his own fast food franchise, the Party Down employees are all working on the fringe of the film and television industry. Constance (Jane Lynch) is an aging "B" movie queen, star of such classics as DINGLEBERRIES. Roman (FREAKS AND GEEKS's Martin Short) is an aspiring Sci-fi script writer (one of the season's highlights is Roman cornering George Takei in a bathroom and peppering him with questions about the Mind Meld, which Takei keeps trying to explain was not his thing). Kyle and Casey (the latter played by Lizzie Caplan, seen earlier this season as Jason Stackhouse's vampire draining girlfriend on TRUE BLOOD) are both still working the dream, always waiting to hear back from their agents and dreaming of a big break. But Henry (played by Adam Scott), the show's emotional center, has given up. His hard work paid off in only one real "success," a beer commercial in which he uttered the tagline: "Is anybody having fun yet?" Deeply ironical, given the dead end job everyone is working. It is a great cast and they work wonderfully with one another. Late in the season, however, the incredibly funny Jane Lynch leaves the show. I haven't read why, but my guess is that it was so that she could work on the pilot of the new FOX series GLEE. I don't know if that means she won't be back or to what degree she will be involved with the show in the future. Luckily, her replacement was the equally funny Jennifer Coolidge. (Interestingly, Lynch and Coolidge were paired - in more way than one - in BEST IN SHOW, as the trainer and owner respectively of a full size poodle.)
Every episode of the show takes place at a catered event. There are no scenes outside of the workplace. We see them at a couple of weddings, at a birthday party, at a meeting of Young Republicans, at a party to celebrate someone who might be a Russian mobster getting off on a murder charge, a porn awards ceremony, and other wonderful affairs. Hilarity ensues. My favorite moment might have been when a Russian gangster goes up to Jane Lynch and recounts poetically, passionately, and almost reverentially a scene from one of her movies. And she, touched, replies, "You've seen DINGLEBERRIES?!" Not exactly a title you'd assume could provoke any such response.
I love the relationships that develop among the characters. Ron's almost sad attempt each week to get his workers to perform their jobs with some degree of professionalism. The way that Kyle and Roman continuously dig at one another. Constance's consistently over familiarity with the party guests. Henry and Casey's romance-in-all-but-name and Henry's chagrin when people recognize him from his beer commercial and his persistent reluctance (except on one occasion when he feels it might save his life) to say his famous beer commercial line.
I suspect that this is a show that most people will get to know via DVD, since not everyone manage to get Starz. Do yourself a favor and check this out.

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Party Down is a Starz original series about a group of struggling dreamers who are stuck working for tips while waiting for their big break. As employees of the L.A. catering company "Party Down," these misfits mingle with guests at everything from sweet sixteen parties to the most lavish Hollywood soirees. Follow these engaging wannabes as they wait on guests while waiting on something better to come along.

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K Street - The Complete Series (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's hard to decide which aspect of K Street was the most satisfying...
* The ending was positively brilliant. For all those who would, confidentially, love to stick it to Saudi Arabia, watching the "bad guy" walk away with the loot just pulled my grin from ear to ear.
* The first two episodes verily lifted me out of my chair, mouth agape, asking, "How are they doing this?" Now that time has passed, you'll have to appreciate that these topics were *peaking* as news stories -right as K Street was wrapping production for the week-. For those 'tuned in' to politics and world news, it was a thrill that is indescribable. Carville actually interacting, on camera, live (as in -real life-!) with Howard Dean and Phili mayor Street at the height of their news cycles? You could actually watch C-SPAN (and FOX News! remember the debate?) to see a true-to-life angle of a K Street episode! Beat that!
* There were more cameos than I could enumerate... all A-list Washington insiders. Real senators, real journalists, playing full-blown _parts_ in the week's story. And how brilliant each one was! Never did you feel that they were phoning it in for air time. No, these cameos furthered the pulse of the story.
* There is no way that the season could have been planned as it was... It must have been decided around the 3rd or 4th week that it would be the CIA-informant-leak story that would bring the Carville-Matalin office down. I'm almost certain that the writers could have allowed a much brighter, upbeat story to carry through, but they _abided_ by their dynamic philosophy... as Washington goes, so goes the show. Bravo.
* The cinematography was fantastic. Even when the dialogue faltered, the low off-angle shots kept the tempo steady. And so many extended shots, with only one chance to make it work! I can't remember a failed scene.
* Who could have shone brighter than Carville and Matalin? This was their vehicle, and there is no K Street -concept- without them. Certainly Soderbergh's story took center stage in the second half of the series, leaving Mary and James to simply wonder outloud what the hell was happening... But if you care about politics, you care about the story, because you care about these two people.
* Roger Guenveur Smith (playing Francisco Dupre) is a -star-. His aura is undeniable, his character is the heart of the mystery. He was given these lines, probably sometimes in mid-shot (probably some improvised, on his own), and he *stuck* _every single one_. The actors in the room must have been left breathless.
For all those out there who've ever said or thought, "Now -that's- television." and want to experience that once again, you can't pass this show up. Judge the experiment for yourself... I came in with no expectations and was floored. Regardless, you'll have a better grasp of what works and what doesn't work in dynamic art after one viewing of K St.

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K STREET is an experimental fusion of reality and fiction--an entertaining, fly-on-the-wall look at government, filmed in and around the corridors of power in Washington.The series ventures inside the world of powerful political consultants--a world that few people ever experience first-hand. Produced on location in Washington, D.C., the largely improvised ten-episode series combines fictional characters with appearances by real-life political figures, all centered around the biggest political news of the week.

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Boomtown - Season One (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'd say a lot more about NBC, but I don't want to be sued for slander. Suffice it to say that the day they canceled this show after only two airings in the TV-graveyard of Friday nights, I promised to never watch any new NBC drama again. This was one of the most well written dramas i have ever seen, with characters that really carried the series. It wasn't just a situation drama, the protagonists were flawed and human yet still larger than life. I am happy to see that it's coming out on DVD and I'm more than willing to pay up for it (and I don't usually buy TV shows on DVD). Hopefully DVD can do for "Boomtown" what it has done for "Family Guy"; resurrect it back for a new season in the future.
If you want to see good quality TV, watch this show. No one will ever remember "Lyon's Den" which killed it, or "Kingpin" which NBC tried to replace it with; but this show and NBC's shoddy treatment of it will be remembered as long as television exists.
Amended on Nov 3, 2004
I just wanted to say that I don't think Vanessa Williams ruined the show. I was willing to give it a chance and see where it would go from there, they never got a chance to focus an episode on her and it's only because NBC put her on at the same time that they forced the writers to be more "procedural" that we may think she brought the show down.
Me, i'm just smiling at NBC's predicament now, what with Lost and Desparate Housewives bringing intelligent and gripping TV back to us and them wallowing in last place with not one critical or ratings hit in site. Ah, Karma is a female dog...
As of April 4 2006, the only new NBC show I have watched is My Name Is Earl, and NBC still refuses to do the intelligent thing by teaming it up with Scrubs. I follow the West Wing out of respect in the downtime between the Simpsons and The Sopranos, but never again will I view an NBC drama series.

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Item Name: Boomtown - Season One; Studio:Artisan Entertainment

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Night Stalker - The Complete Series (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)Grissom from "CSI" needs to be called in on this unusual homicide. It seems that a network ABC mysteriously killed a show that they wanted. It appears that they just pushed it in front of the runaway hit "CSI" but there could be much more to the murder than meets the eye. Remaking a classic whether it be good or bad is always tricky business because you risk alienating the original fans and can be unable to pull in a new audience. "Battlestar: Galatica" is a rare success in the area "reimagining" the concept for a more sophisticated audience. That show has polarized fans of the original they either love it or hate it but producer/writer Ron D. Moore shaped a new series from older material that captured a solid audience because of its intelligent scripts and well written drama. Frank Spotnitz a producer/writer on "The X-Files" and "Millennium" takes the inspiration for those shows "The Night Stalker" and "The Night Strangler" TV movies as well as the humor laced camp classic TV show that followed and unsuccessfully updated it for today's audience by imitating the shows they inspired. While the show failed to live up to its potential it improved by leaps and bounds over time and showed potential after emerging from the shadow of its inspiration. It's possible the show may never of had much of an audience as Spotnitz alienated core fans of the original cheesy but fun TV series (these same people probably never realized that "The Night Stalker" began life as a serious modern day horror movie with humor vs. a humorous show with horror). For what it's worth "The X-Files" took much of the first year to find its groove and I believe that "Night Stalker" would have improved. After the promising pilot episode the show took a downward turn but began to improve again just as ABC pulled the plug. While actor Stuart Townsend can't hold a candle to Darren McGavin's charismatic performance in the original TV movies and the TV series (one of its saving graces) he does a credible job as does most of the cast.
As befits a new TV series "Night Stalker" looks quite good in this transfer. The gritty, detailed images from the TV show have never looked so good. The 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround audio sounds nice with the dialogue and music coming through with crystal clarity. My only reservation is that the entire series run of ten episodes plus the extras and commentary tracks have been packed on two single sided dual layered discs. The Show looks extremely good even with 5 episodes packed onto each of the two discs and with commentary tracks, deleted scenes and a featurette "A Conversation with Frank Spotnitz" included on the set.
"Night Stalker" only lasted 6 episodes. The extras here are pretty good considering the short run of the show. We do get an intelligent commentary track from writer/producer Frank Spotnitz, Daniel Sackheim and Michelle Maxwell MacLaren on the pilot discussing both the triumphs and failings of his new series as well as how he would have resolved the story arc that was designed to last at least a season regarding the murder of Kolchak's wife Irene. We also get a second commentary track with Spotnitz and Sackheim joined by co-producer John Kousakis "The Sea" the second on a two part episode (the second episode didn't air on network TV but did air on the Sci-Fi Channel). Spotnitz provided commentaries for some of "The X-Files" episodes he wrote so he's a pro here providing a wealth of information about the creation of the show and its brief development. Spotnitz and his co-producer also appear on "The Sea-Part 2" providing information about that episode.
You can also print two scripts commissioned for the show but that weren't produced due to the cancellation of the show via the Interactual player. The Interactual software is included on the second disc. The first is "Ascendant written by Melissa Blake & Joy Beth Blake and the second written by Emmy Award winner Darin Morgan ("The X-Files" episodes "Jose Chung's `From Outer Space'" and "The Final Repose of Clyde Bruckman" among many others). While it's not the same as having the final two episodes produced, it does allow fans of the series to continue to delve into the Kolchak's world.
"A Conversation with Frank Spotnitz" provides the background on the creation of the series and Spotnitz's approach with the material. While a big fan of the original TV movies and the TV shows Spotnitz also recognized that the original series could never work today. In tone the show is closer to the original TV movies and "Millennium" as well as "The X-Files". Spotnitz also discusses the reasons for the change in location for the series as well his choice to use high definition video cameras to shoot the show vs. film. Spotnitz discusses the resolution of the show much more in the commentary tracks but he also points out that although Kolchak didn't kill his wife he was born evil which makes him the perfect anti-hero for the story. At the conclusion of the interview we get a brief snippet of an outtake. We get deleted scenes for three episodes "The Pilot", "Three" and "Into the Night".
While "Night Stalker" didn't get the love it deserved and went passed into the world of cancelled shows that just didn't get a chance, we can still enjoy it on DVD. Touchstone has done a marvelous job of presenting the show including commentary tracks, a featurette, two scripts in DVD-ROM format that can be printed out and deleted scenes.


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Carl Kolchak returns in a new series of spine-tingling adventures. Produced by the X-FILES' Frank Spotnitz and based on the original '70s suspense drama, NIGHT STALKER updates the chilling classic in a startling new way. "There's something stylishly scary at work here," says The New York Times. Caught up in an obsessive hunt for his own wife's murderer, Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) discovers that his imagination is no match for the evil that truly lurks in the dark. Paired with skeptic Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union), television's favorite crime reporter will stop at nothing to uncover the supernatural side of the night. Featuring four episodes never seen on TV that complete the series and a host of exclusive bonus material, this 2-disc DVD set is so good it's scary.

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