What I’m Watching: Party Down

Party Down: Season 2, Episode 9 “Cole Landry’s Draft Day Party” (B+)

The look on Henry’s face when Ron asks him about his situation and porn expertise is simply priceless. Henry is really terrific in the role of pointing out how ridiculous everything is, and there’s so much that Ron does whose ridiculousness bears repeating. Lydia got a chance to shine and let out her inner crazy in this episode by revealing her passion for sports. Her outburst after she discovered that no one followed football included a hilarious question: “are you even American?” I liked all of the awkward conversations between Henry and Casey about her not bringing him to the party. Henry being bothered by the logic of Casey’s animatronic robot routine was very funny. Roman’s discovery that the football player was into hard sci-fi was fantastic, though it wasn’t much of a surprise that Roman couldn’t take it well and ended up trying to antagonize him. The NFL passing on Cole Landry wasn’t a surprise either, but it did provide Lydia with a reason to start yelling at the quarterback, his father, and his agent to get their acts together, which was great. It also gave us another spectacular chance to see Casey putting her skills to work, acting on camera as Cole’s girlfriend. I loved when she looked at the camera after being yelled at by Rihanna and sheepishly said, “you can’t say fuck on TV.” Among the best lines in the episode were Lydia’s snapped quip to Casey – “language, you’re a girl” – and everything that was said during the uncomfortable conversation Henry had with the angry agent, being told to tell thee guy’s wife that if she loved him, she wouldn’t call on this day, and finding out which kid was bitten by a hamster to determine whether he should be brought to the hospital.