Party Down
May. 23rd, 2009 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerYesterday I watched the first episode of Party Down. I had high hopes, as it was created by the same guy who made Veronica Mars; but it’s a very different show than Veronica Mars, and I liked it considerably less.
Party Down’s premise is that a bunch of aspiring actors in LA have banded together and formed a business that caters parties. This sounded promising – parties! – but somehow, the scriptwriters and the cinematographers and the actors managed to suck all the fun off out it.
It reminds me very much of The Office. It has the same kind of humor, where the characters say and do awkward, embarrassing things (I understand that other people think this is hilarious but it pushes all the wrong buttons for me), and similar cinematography: very basic camera angles, poor lighting which leaches the color, the magical ability to leach the liveliness out of every frame.
It occurs to me that this is the opposite of the colorful, formalistic camerawork in Pushing Daisies. The shows’ worldviews are opposites, as well; in Pushing Daisies everything and everyone is fascinating (sometimes evil, but fascinating), whereas in Party Down everything is just so dull that the characters just ooze existential ennui: how can life possibly be this boring?
The show did have its funny moments – there is this priceless exchange, when Kyle-the-idiot-jerk is trying to figure out Henry-the-new-guy’s place of the acting totem pole:
Kyle: Who’s your agent?
Henry: State Farm.
Kyle: Awesome. They give you some good auditions and stuff?
—and there were a number of other moments that made me laugh out loud. But I don’t think I’ll be back for another episode.
Party Down’s premise is that a bunch of aspiring actors in LA have banded together and formed a business that caters parties. This sounded promising – parties! – but somehow, the scriptwriters and the cinematographers and the actors managed to suck all the fun off out it.
It reminds me very much of The Office. It has the same kind of humor, where the characters say and do awkward, embarrassing things (I understand that other people think this is hilarious but it pushes all the wrong buttons for me), and similar cinematography: very basic camera angles, poor lighting which leaches the color, the magical ability to leach the liveliness out of every frame.
It occurs to me that this is the opposite of the colorful, formalistic camerawork in Pushing Daisies. The shows’ worldviews are opposites, as well; in Pushing Daisies everything and everyone is fascinating (sometimes evil, but fascinating), whereas in Party Down everything is just so dull that the characters just ooze existential ennui: how can life possibly be this boring?
The show did have its funny moments – there is this priceless exchange, when Kyle-the-idiot-jerk is trying to figure out Henry-the-new-guy’s place of the acting totem pole:
Kyle: Who’s your agent?
Henry: State Farm.
Kyle: Awesome. They give you some good auditions and stuff?
—and there were a number of other moments that made me laugh out loud. But I don’t think I’ll be back for another episode.
