MOST TV REVIVALS fall somewhere between “disappointing” and “fine, but why does this exist.” Party Down, though, has a secret weapon most TV revivals do not. The new season of the cultishly beloved series about Los Angeles cater-waiters does not need to justify its existence or find some excuse for why most of its characters would be in the same circumstances more than a decade later, and it doesn’t need to tilt headlong against the maudlin pitifulness of a nostalgia engine. Revivals always come packaged with a wistful sense of loss and a begrudging acknowledgment of the passage of time. Even the happiest ones are a little sad. And therein lies the key to this revival’s success: Party Down was always a little sad.
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