Dipshit corporate hell
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First Airdate: May 1, 2009
Written by John Enbom
Directed by Fred Savage
I'm going to lay my chips on the table right now. I think season 1, episode 8 of Party Down is the best episode they ever put out. You may notice that we're not talking about that episode today, and you would be correct. "Brandix Corporate Retreat" is a practice run for the next episode, righting the ship and pulling out a tightly constructed farce but with a couple pieces missing that would be found by the following week.
This episode is almost literally a door-slaming farce, as the central focus of the back half of the episode is a team-building meeting where various characters file in and out of the room, just missing each other as they try to accomplish their various goals in similar ways. The biggest flaw is that the most prominent element that allows this farce to flow is a plot point marinated in such toxic masculinity that it sets the teeth on edge somewhat. To wit, basketball star Rick Fox (played by Rick Fox) is speaking at a corporate retreat being catered by the Party Down crew.
Casey and Rick Fox hit it off as she helps him write jokes for his gig, but both Roman and Henry suspect that she is sleeping with him, which eventually - through a series of misunderstandings - leads to the explosive reveal that Casey and Henry have been secretly seeing each other, all while Ron is trying (and hopelessly failing) to bring his team together through a variety of exercises he stole from the company putting on the event. Possessiveness and jealousy fall very much into Roman's wheelhouse, but Henry's reaction to his casual girlfriend's actions are, while emotionally understandable, pretty gross to watch in practice, especially as this is what drives his decision to try and abandon Party Down entirely for the corporate sector.
At the very least, one major strength of the episode is that it never actually establishes whether or not Casey actually slept with Rick Fox. That is certainly not Henry or Roman's business, and the show allows how they handle the ambiguity to be the problem rather than centering and criticizing her sex drive.
In addition to a bit of late-2000s grossness, this episode fails the characters of Constance and Kyle, who get nothing meaty to do this time around. However, both of them deliver the episode's most satisfying comedy moments around the edges (Constance's consternation at why a headshot of herself in glasses makes her feel smarter, and Kyle's bodily reaction to being smacked in the shoulder are the biggest standouts).
Taking both of those flaws into account, this episode is an excellent return to form for the series. Ken Marino anchors the episode, both on the micro and macro levels. This episode's self-contained farce is driven by his frustrated ambition to improve his team (all of which comes to a head with his delicious inability to actually solve any problems because of his commitment to the bizarre rules of the game he is forcing on his employees), but he also sets in motion the series' most dynamic plot thrust thus far.
The characters here are finally established enough that they bounce off one another like pinballs in a way that feels effortless and satisfying to watch, even when not all of them are given equal weight in the teleplay. Everything might not be firing on all cylinders just yet, but it's firing on whatever number of cylinders something needs to fire on, minus one. Hey, I'm not a car guy.
Rating: A-
First Airdate: May 1, 2009
Written by John Enbom
Directed by Fred Savage
I'm going to lay my chips on the table right now. I think season 1, episode 8 of Party Down is the best episode they ever put out. You may notice that we're not talking about that episode today, and you would be correct. "Brandix Corporate Retreat" is a practice run for the next episode, righting the ship and pulling out a tightly constructed farce but with a couple pieces missing that would be found by the following week.
This episode is almost literally a door-slaming farce, as the central focus of the back half of the episode is a team-building meeting where various characters file in and out of the room, just missing each other as they try to accomplish their various goals in similar ways. The biggest flaw is that the most prominent element that allows this farce to flow is a plot point marinated in such toxic masculinity that it sets the teeth on edge somewhat. To wit, basketball star Rick Fox (played by Rick Fox) is speaking at a corporate retreat being catered by the Party Down crew.
Casey and Rick Fox hit it off as she helps him write jokes for his gig, but both Roman and Henry suspect that she is sleeping with him, which eventually - through a series of misunderstandings - leads to the explosive reveal that Casey and Henry have been secretly seeing each other, all while Ron is trying (and hopelessly failing) to bring his team together through a variety of exercises he stole from the company putting on the event. Possessiveness and jealousy fall very much into Roman's wheelhouse, but Henry's reaction to his casual girlfriend's actions are, while emotionally understandable, pretty gross to watch in practice, especially as this is what drives his decision to try and abandon Party Down entirely for the corporate sector.
At the very least, one major strength of the episode is that it never actually establishes whether or not Casey actually slept with Rick Fox. That is certainly not Henry or Roman's business, and the show allows how they handle the ambiguity to be the problem rather than centering and criticizing her sex drive.
In addition to a bit of late-2000s grossness, this episode fails the characters of Constance and Kyle, who get nothing meaty to do this time around. However, both of them deliver the episode's most satisfying comedy moments around the edges (Constance's consternation at why a headshot of herself in glasses makes her feel smarter, and Kyle's bodily reaction to being smacked in the shoulder are the biggest standouts).
Taking both of those flaws into account, this episode is an excellent return to form for the series. Ken Marino anchors the episode, both on the micro and macro levels. This episode's self-contained farce is driven by his frustrated ambition to improve his team (all of which comes to a head with his delicious inability to actually solve any problems because of his commitment to the bizarre rules of the game he is forcing on his employees), but he also sets in motion the series' most dynamic plot thrust thus far.
The characters here are finally established enough that they bounce off one another like pinballs in a way that feels effortless and satisfying to watch, even when not all of them are given equal weight in the teleplay. Everything might not be firing on all cylinders just yet, but it's firing on whatever number of cylinders something needs to fire on, minus one. Hey, I'm not a car guy.
Rating: A-
Categories: television
