I don’t have Starz, as my cable provider only carries plurals using the letter “s”–those repressive motherfuckerz–so I had no clue that this even existed. And when I did hear some rumor that it existed, the it sounded crap: a series about down-on-their-luck Hollywood-wannabes who work for a catering company. Hijinks ensue! Every week new guest stars (“hosting” the parties where the catering goes down)! Love Boat meets Entourage–that’s one unseductive mashup, there.
But–with some wit and style from a creative team which included the Veronica Mars head honcho and Paul Rudd–season one is pretty damn funny. The cast is generally very strong, with a standout trademark loop-de-loop turn by Jane Lynch. But my favorite is Ken Marino, the schlub team-spirit work-ethic-chanting supervisor with a huge schlong (episode 4, I think). All of these are available on Netflix’s play-now, so… give it a go.
there’s an interview on the avclub today with one of the actors from the show–the guy who played the male nurse in knocked up and the smarmy brother in step-brothers.
I think AV Club first pointed me toward this show…
Steven Weber guest stars as vaguely-East-European gangster Ricky Sargulesh, and makes Roman (Martin Starr) sniff his fingers … for a reason that is difficult to interpret. Fantastic. (J. K. Simmons shows up as a foul-mouthed film producer–always threatening to rip something off and shit down the hole–also fantastic.)
I’m into season 2, and the show is the most consistently funny thing I’ve seen since The Thick of It. Ron reminds me of John.
i’m on episode 5 of season 1. roman reminds me of mike.
okay, it took me a couple of episodes to get into this but i’m at the end of season one now and this is really very good. i resisted at first because it seemed to me to be skating on the very thin ice of caricature, but the show pulls off the very difficult task of balancing caricature and deep comic generosity. this is a very funny show but it’s also a deeply melancholy show. ken marino’s ron is such a wonderfully written and acted character–marino is one of two or three guys on the state that i liked a lot, and he’s just great here. he should be a bigger star than he is.
a bit of a quality drop from jane lynch to jennifer coolidge at the end of the season, but perhaps she’ll be less grating in season 2. and i’m hoping against hope for a return of steven weber as ricky sargulesh.
i’m three episodes into the second season and ron is significantly not as good a character as he was in season 1. megan mullaly is a surprisingly good replacement for jane lynch though.