Shut Up It's On

I’m a little late in writing this because I don’t want the party to end, you know? In some ways this has been an almost perfect show that only the “cool kids” know about, making it perfect. It’s totally the “Love Buzz” Sub Pop singles club 7″ b/w “Big Cheese” of television. But much like all great beautiful things, it’s time on Earth is ephemeral; “Constance Carmell Wedding” is the series’ 20th and possibly last episode.

Jane Lynch got to return for one episode as Constance married the dad from The Wonder Years. It WAS him right? IMDB isn’t being helpful with this episode, so I’m just going to assume that. Constance thought it’d be fun to hire her old Party Down crew to work the wedding instead of just, you know, inviting them as guests. When Casey heard about her future dinosaur of a husband Howard  being married nine times previous, being rich and having movie connections she assumed Constance wasn’t doing this for love. Constance assured her that wasn’t the case, while Henry was told by Howard that if Howard didn’t mean what he said about loving Jane Lynch he’d be “Jack Shit.” Constance, despite Henry and Casey’s protests signs a prenup. After two interruptions, one of which from ex-lover Patrick Duffy, Constance marries Howard. Howard drops dead as the couple’s car drives off towards a metaphorical sunset. After Constance double checks to make sure Howard isn’t faking, Howard’s daughter is informed by her lawyer that the prenup is in fact void, because good old Howie signed it “Jack Shit.” Constance is a rich widow. Happy ending for Constance Carmell!

Roman accidentally gets very high. VERY high. So high that paramedics end up taking him to the hospital because they claim they had never seen anyone so high on marijuana before. Roman during his high time wrote an epic sci-fi story on a roll of toilet paper, which Kyle later tells him is “pretty badass.” Happy ending for Roman DeBeers!

Ron ends up with Danielle, daughter to Lugozshe the Party Down CEO. Danielle was at first concerned that if she dumped her fiance to be with Ron Ron would be shitcanned by her father. It turns out however that Lugozshe is getting divorced, with the missus getting the company. While a theoretical season three would most certainly have Ron screw things up with Danielle’s mother for him to never get more power, if the show ends now we can just call this a happy ending for the founder of R.D.D.’s.

Lydia finally succeeds at gold digging with the aforementioned recently divorced Lugozshe. Merry conclusion for four eyes!

Kyle Bradway remains to be Kyle Bradway. With an old Jewish music producer in the room Kyle’s band Karma Rocket sings a song that can easily be interpreted as being about the Holocaust. The law of averages dictate that he’d capitalize on one of his many opportunities so yayyyyy.

Casey ends up not getting the big career-changing Apatow part. But she inspires Henry and we’re left to assume that she’s going to keep trying to make it anyway.

To me, Henry Pollard is the heart and soul of Party Down, always surrounded by delusional craziness, always grounding himself with his seemingly justified cynicism of the universe and being able to make the witticisms we love him for. For most of the people watching the show, we relate to Henry than anybody (remember, only the cool kids watch it.) Look at Casey, Roman and Kyle fall over and over again when trying to reach the spotlight. Look at oblivious Lydia try to make her bland daughter the next Miley Cyrus. Look at Ron act like Ron while trying to get to the top of the catering company. What person in their right mind would think to “go for it” in that environment? Apparently Henry Pollard is that person. Casey’s smile at her boyfriend taking up her challenge to go on an audition mirrored our smile when realizing our avatar is letting himself dream. I’ve been hating on season finales the last month or so, but I’d be crazy to not love this one; it gave the show a lot of toys to play with for a theoretical Season 3, and if the ridiculous happens and this was the series finale, the last fifteen seconds of the show would show us a man ignoring the shit flicked at him for the previous nine hours, fifty-nine minutes and forty-five seconds and fucking going for it. The lesson here is to follow your dreams. Before you get canceled.

P.S.

Last week Martin Starr had tweeted, “He’s leaving. And with him goes the Party.” We retweeted this openly worried that Starr was referring to Adam Scott’s departure.Starr himself assuaged us over the Twitter airwaves that he was referring to a friend of his who borrowed a DVD of the show. The point of this story is Martin Starr sort of knows who we are, so show Shut Up It’s On some respect.

The part I found the funniest when watching a second time was Ryan Hansen’s delivery of Kyle saying, “Aww! You sure he ain’t just foolin’ around!?” to Constance after Howard dropped dead.

Directed by Ken “Ron Donald” Marino.

Things To Say When Rewatching Step by Step

“Is that fucking Patrick Duffy?”

“If you’re not crazy enough to believe it for you, how are you going to believe it for me?”

“Either I’m going to die any instant, or I’ve been dead a while. If there’s anything that could be done to help me… you could put me in a life machine.”

“The Holo what?” “-caust. Okay everybody…”

“Come on Ron, it’s me, I know that look. Is it your bowels?”

“What part is flanks on a human? Vagina?” “Oh God, don’t guess.”

“We finish each other’s…” “…food, I know”