Party Down ‘California College Conservative Union Caucus’: Free Market Issues

Sometimes television comedies are too quick to take potshots at political parties, particularly Republicans. And at first glance, ‘California College Conservative Union Caucus’ could be written off as a series of cheap gubernatorial jokes, but if anything, Party Down‘s second episode takes shots at American politics in general, and more importantly, begins to lay the foundation for Henry and Casey, arguably the show’s main plot thread through its two seasons.

The event itself is ripe with comedic possibilities, and there’s no time wasted, packing joke after joke about the institutions of democracy and political ideology. I won’t go into detail on most of them, but the title is an obvious indication of my favorite part of the episode, which centers around a college caucus where Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to pay a visit to. One of the gifts the group plans to give him is a box of cigars, which sparks a massive debate (and group vote) when its determined they are Don Targas cigars, which being Cuban, are communist. There are others about family values, the Republican ways of undermining women, the belief of hard working always paying off… the list goes on and on. And while the jokes are all pretty hilarious – especially the Jim Abbott bit – their real importance is really carving out some of these character’s identities more.

The strongest of these is Casey Cline, who is really struggling to hang onto a failing marriage, especially when there’s an easy opportunity to wiggle her way out of it. Continued failure as a comedienne is leading Casey to question her dream, but the hope of a Comedy Central gig has her hesitating on whether to follow her husband to his new job in Vermont. There’s comedic opportunities, and seasonal weather… but what the show is really trying to tell us is that Casey really isn’t a family values person, and that she’s clearly not ready to give up on Hollywood just yet.

Of course, her evaporating optimism puts her right in the path of Henry, who is just drinking and self-medicating himself into a lull of existence. His defeatism plays off both the Republican upstarts and Casey well, showing that while he doesn’t really have much faith in himself to succeed in life, he hasn’t lost all hope yet. Having Casey ask him if she wants him to stay in the second episode might be a case of something happening too quickly because the show doesn’t have a lot of time, but how the show frames Casey as the one little sliver of light in his life is a tiny piece of endearing material in a sea full of depressing notes.

As funny as it can be at times, ‘Union Caucus’ is a “mouthpiece episode”; that is, much of the dialogue not involved with the main plot is concerned with re-iterating the show’s cynical attitudes: Kyle and Casey both deal with rejection, Henry is borderline depressed, and Roman and Ron both show signs of their ignorant desperation to achieve something with their lives. These people might have a lot of funny things to say, but there’s no doubt the writers want to remind us how depressing their lives really are, and for some, these themes might feel a little too heavy for the second half hour of a comedy.

Ron Donald is really the star of this episode, though. His attempts to impress the secretary of the conservative group into letting him meet the Governator are hilarious, and build up to a great scene with Ron burning an American flag frantically as Henry, along with the rest of the party, watching him flail around with it. One of the favorite thingsParty Down’s writers like to do is have Ron fail in the worst, most unintentional ways imaginable, and this is only the first of many great Ron Donald moments at the end of episodes. A very funny second episode, and one which incorporates the party into the team’s hijinks in a much funnier way than the first episode, which relied to heavily on played-out suburban stereotypes for laughs.

Grade: B

Other thoughts:

– didn’t really care for Constance in this episode. Her ignorance sometimes annoys me, but Jane Lynch’s comedic talents usually cover up those flaws. Not so much in this episode, where her attacks on intolerance just felt like filler pieces.

– best line of the episode? Henry’s response to Ron’s question about what his reaction to seeing him in a Soup R’ Crackers with Arnold: “What the fuck am I doing in a Soup R’ Crackers?”

– “Him, the arsehole in the argyle.”

– Was not a fan of Jeffrey. His annoying tendencies and overweight, groveling wanna be personality just grated on me, and I didn’t find much of his interactions with Ron amusing and/or important in any fashion, except to remind us that shit rolls downhill (he yells at Ron, Ron goes and yells at people like Henry or Roman).

what did you think of ‘Union Caucus’? Think it was a big improvement on the pilot, or is the show still trying to find its legs early on? Feel free to leave your comments below, and stop back next Thursday for ‘Pepper McMasters Singles Seminar.’