Review: Party Down, "First Annual PI2A Symposium" | Season 3, Episode 3
Review: Party Down, "First Annual PI2A Symposium" | Season 3, Episode 3
Catering for Not Not Nazis brings the revival its first gig with an arc of its own
Arguably, this is the first episode of the Party Down revival that actually has the structure of a typical episode of Party Down. After the premiere foregrounded the meta-narrative of bringing the band back together, and last week’s party built on the previous episode to flesh out Jennifer Garner’s Evie, this is the first time where the cast of characters we meet at this week’s gig are a separate story in of themselves that our characters become more and more entwined with as the party devolves.
“First Annual PI2A Symposium” is a modern retelling of the first season’s “California College Conservative Union Caucus,” updated to reflect the ascent of outright Nazism within the conservative movement. In 2009, the college conservatives were certainly being satirized, but mostly as stuck-up and privileged, never really presented as a threat to the social order. Needless to say, a lot has changed since then, and the PI2A (Policy Ideas 2 Action) is swiftly identified as a front for…