What I’m Watching: Party Down

Party Down: Season 3, Episode 5 “Once Upon a Time Proms Away Prom-otional Event” (B+)

I’m not classifying this as a penultimate episode since I’m very much hoping that the next installment won’t be the last we’ll ever see of this show, though I have no gauge whatsoever on how popular this series return has been. I do know that its casting has been fantastic, and that only improved with Liv Hewson from “Yellowjackets” and “Santa Clarita Diet” appearing as Escapade, who revealed she was acting when Kyle and Sackson got into an annoying dance-off and that she was trying to set her mother up rather than find herself a new manager. Seeing Constance and Lydia together again was fun, but the best part of Constance’s appearance was how she shifted into nightmare boss mode when she saw that Sloan was impressed by her viciousness, firing Henry and even non-employee Evie just to make a point. Evie, who did show up in the end despite Henry’s worries that she wouldn’t, was excited about getting to use nepotism to get him a gig, and that could be a great future for the two of them. Roman nearly found himself the perfect woman, and it’s a wonder that he didn’t screw it up badly enough to negate a deal for a random, potentially up-and-coming streaming service. Lucy continues to do a disservice to Ron’s business, this time by not warning him about munching on sea urchin that was both hot already and then left out in the sun, and the results of that were not at all pretty. Ken Marino deserves enormous credit for going all in on all of Ron’s antics and everything he must endure.