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First Airdate: April 24, 2009
Written by John Enbom
Directed by Bryan Gordon
You know how nostalgia can color a memory and make the entire thing seem golden and rosy, rubbing away any of the more negative parts? And remember how culture can progress over time and make something that seemed perfectly fine at the moment seem uncomfortable in retrospect? "Taylor Stiltskin Sweet Sixteen" is the beneficiary of both of those fine feelings, providing yet another slump just weeks away from two of the most excellent episodes of an excellent program.
It's not that the episode is genuinely bad. However, the uncomfortably casual gay jokes mostly are, and the runner where Roman is attempting to seduce a teenage girl absolutely is. But in what seems in retrospect to be a divine power's attempt to bolster this episode and protect it somewhat from the power of hindsight, it also features one of the most robust and interesting casts of side characters yet.
JK Simmons is the most notable cast member here, playing hardnosed movie producer Leonard Stiltskin, harnessing the anger that would later win him an Oscar for Whiplash and channeling it into an absurdist cartoon. He is throwing a lavish Sweet 16 party for his daughter Taylor on the Queen Mary. However, a beef with her A-lister boyfriend has led to the popular kids boycotting the party and Taylor locking herself in her room while the losers who actually showed up mill about uncomfortably.
Although Simmons is and was clearly the biggest get, also on hand are... Kevin Hart, giving one of his most subdued and well-timed performances as the perpetually stoned businessman/rapper Dro Grizzle; Breckin Meyer, who is perfectly cast as the smarmy, just slightly clueless actor friend of Henry's who is set to play a vampire-fighting Edgar Allen Poe in a blockbuster tentpole and quite clearly the worst person for the job; and Joey Lauren Adams as Leonard's sexually voracious wife, harnessing her raspy voice for comedy in a way that made me wonder why she never got quite as much attention as the Jennifers, Tilly and Coolidge.
Unfortunately, these side characters are a constellation around one of the most unfocused collections of plotlines the main characters have ever experienced. Roman's is the only plotline that is actively bad, but Ron isn't given much to work with beyond yet another opening to discuss franchising opportunities for his soup restaurant that blossoms into ample opportunity to humiliate himself, which has worn thin at this point. Although his tossed-off delivery of the expectation that the rappers who asked for him "probably want hoes" is a sharp comic bit that highlights his hopelessly clueless worldview.
Henry and Casey are given another typical plotline for them: Henry is given an opportunity to play Abraham Lincoln opposite Breckin Meyer's character (the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter came out about a year after this episode, so it seems that they are Simpsons-style predicting the grim future of one Seth Grahame-Smith), only for his hope to be snatched away at the last moment. This is underscored by one of the darkest, most sarcastic endings to a Party Down episode ever, which is a true feat. Casey is relegated to being a supporting player in both his and Constance's storylines rather than getting much interesting to do herself.
And while Jane Lynch is delivering as usual (the myopic obsession with high school popularity combined with her usual earnestness is a heady cocktail), what she is asked to do here could hardly be called a "storyline" in the first place. The only character who has something remotely interesting to do is Kyle, whose storyline is half sitcom, (his recently bleached teeth are painful to the touch), half sex comedy (he must sleep with the producer's wife in order to get the role of a lifetime), all delightful.
Much, but not all, of what happens onscreen is still funny and delivered by talented performers. However, it's far from the delirious heights that this show was capable of reaching, both in terms of thematic tightness and character development.
Rating: B
Brennan Klein is a millennial who knows way more about 80's slasher movies than he has any right to. He's a former host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast and a current senior movie/TV news writer at Screen Rant. You can find his other reviews on his blog Popcorn Culture. Follow him on Twitter or Letterboxd, if you feel like it.
First Airdate: April 24, 2009
Written by John Enbom
Directed by Bryan Gordon
You know how nostalgia can color a memory and make the entire thing seem golden and rosy, rubbing away any of the more negative parts? And remember how culture can progress over time and make something that seemed perfectly fine at the moment seem uncomfortable in retrospect? "Taylor Stiltskin Sweet Sixteen" is the beneficiary of both of those fine feelings, providing yet another slump just weeks away from two of the most excellent episodes of an excellent program.
It's not that the episode is genuinely bad. However, the uncomfortably casual gay jokes mostly are, and the runner where Roman is attempting to seduce a teenage girl absolutely is. But in what seems in retrospect to be a divine power's attempt to bolster this episode and protect it somewhat from the power of hindsight, it also features one of the most robust and interesting casts of side characters yet.
JK Simmons is the most notable cast member here, playing hardnosed movie producer Leonard Stiltskin, harnessing the anger that would later win him an Oscar for Whiplash and channeling it into an absurdist cartoon. He is throwing a lavish Sweet 16 party for his daughter Taylor on the Queen Mary. However, a beef with her A-lister boyfriend has led to the popular kids boycotting the party and Taylor locking herself in her room while the losers who actually showed up mill about uncomfortably.
Although Simmons is and was clearly the biggest get, also on hand are... Kevin Hart, giving one of his most subdued and well-timed performances as the perpetually stoned businessman/rapper Dro Grizzle; Breckin Meyer, who is perfectly cast as the smarmy, just slightly clueless actor friend of Henry's who is set to play a vampire-fighting Edgar Allen Poe in a blockbuster tentpole and quite clearly the worst person for the job; and Joey Lauren Adams as Leonard's sexually voracious wife, harnessing her raspy voice for comedy in a way that made me wonder why she never got quite as much attention as the Jennifers, Tilly and Coolidge.
Unfortunately, these side characters are a constellation around one of the most unfocused collections of plotlines the main characters have ever experienced. Roman's is the only plotline that is actively bad, but Ron isn't given much to work with beyond yet another opening to discuss franchising opportunities for his soup restaurant that blossoms into ample opportunity to humiliate himself, which has worn thin at this point. Although his tossed-off delivery of the expectation that the rappers who asked for him "probably want hoes" is a sharp comic bit that highlights his hopelessly clueless worldview.
Henry and Casey are given another typical plotline for them: Henry is given an opportunity to play Abraham Lincoln opposite Breckin Meyer's character (the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter came out about a year after this episode, so it seems that they are Simpsons-style predicting the grim future of one Seth Grahame-Smith), only for his hope to be snatched away at the last moment. This is underscored by one of the darkest, most sarcastic endings to a Party Down episode ever, which is a true feat. Casey is relegated to being a supporting player in both his and Constance's storylines rather than getting much interesting to do herself.
And while Jane Lynch is delivering as usual (the myopic obsession with high school popularity combined with her usual earnestness is a heady cocktail), what she is asked to do here could hardly be called a "storyline" in the first place. The only character who has something remotely interesting to do is Kyle, whose storyline is half sitcom, (his recently bleached teeth are painful to the touch), half sex comedy (he must sleep with the producer's wife in order to get the role of a lifetime), all delightful.
Much, but not all, of what happens onscreen is still funny and delivered by talented performers. However, it's far from the delirious heights that this show was capable of reaching, both in terms of thematic tightness and character development.
Rating: B
Brennan Klein is a millennial who knows way more about 80's slasher movies than he has any right to. He's a former host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast and a current senior movie/TV news writer at Screen Rant. You can find his other reviews on his blog Popcorn Culture. Follow him on Twitter or Letterboxd, if you feel like it.
Categories: television
