Party Down is back! Fourteen years after the show’s premiere, it's returned for a long-awaited Season 3 on Starz, much to the delight of fans. Thankfully, almost all of the original cast has returned, which includes Martin Starr as Roman DeBeers. While he may be a hilarious and beloved character, Roman kind of sucks as a human, and Starr has now weighed in on whether or not his character of 14 years is still a jerk.
Over the course of Party Down's first two seasons, pretentious “hard sci-fi” enthusiast Roman did morally questionable things, like impersonating a rockstar to get laid, sabotaging his former writing partner out of jealousy, and constantly belittling the free-spirited actor Kyle, who is essentially a good dude and Roman’s antithesis. When I brought this point up to Martin Starr and Kyle himself, Ryan Hansen, they said the following about where their characters stand a decade after we last saw them:
"Martin Starr: I feel like in the first two seasons, there were little glimmers of hope that Roman might be a decent person, but all that's been shattered. We come back to a proper, jaded human being who has not left the shitty circumstances that he is in, that he was in 13 years ago.
Ryan Hansen: And Kyle, yeah, I feel like you’re right, he was a pretty good dude. Pretty dim, a little into himself.
Martin Starr: Yeah, I mean, some flashlights have a lot of battery and some have just a little bit of battery left."
Wonderful. In classic Roman fashion, Martin Starr answered the question by belittling Kyle’s intelligence. In all fairness, Ryan Hansen does seem to agree that Kyle isn’t the brightest of bulbs, even though he is a generally decent guy. Given the fact that Roman has been trying to make it as a screenwriter in Los Angeles for the past 14 years but still works at the titular catering company, Starr seems to think he’s more bitter than ever. He also confirmed that Roman is, in fact, a bad person, which I suppose is something all of us fans just have to accept.
Air Times: Fridays at 9:00 p.m. ET
How To Watch: Starz, the Starz app, or as an add-on on Hulu premium.
The charm of Party Down has always been that they managed to gather such an impressive cast of comedic talent. Starr and Hansen are joined by big names in comedy like Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, Adam Scott and Megan Mullally, who have all been up to plenty since the decade-long Party Down hiatus. There’s also some new talent you’ve probably seen before working for Party Down Catering, but unfortunately, they couldn’t be joined by one of the show’s main stars, Lizzy Caplan. Still, they wish her well and hope she comes back for a potential Season 4.
Roman may not be the best guy in the world, but he and the rest of the Party Down crew are still hilarious, which you can see for yourself by watching Party Down Season 3 on Starz! Thankfully you can stream it from anywhere, and there’s plenty more television coming our way in 2023.
