NETFLIX’S NEW SERIES Nobody Wants This is a wonderful television throwback that’s doing something that hasn’t been done before (or, at least, hasn’t been done in a long time). Led by the ever-charming Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, the show runs for 10 episodes in total, but it’s not structured like a long movie broken up into pieces; each episode, in turn, feels like its own mini, episodic, romantic comedy, while also maintaining a serialized story for the entire season. In other words? It’s two things that have become increasingly rare in recent years: a really great rom-com, and a really great sitcom.
Clearly, Nobody Wants This, which comes from creator and showrunner Erin Foster, has lots of respect for great sitcoms of the past, though—because it includes a sly connection to one of the very best (and most underrated) of the last 25 years: Party Down.
Party Down initially ran for a pair of seasons on Starz in 2009 and 2010 before being unceremoniously cancelled due to low viewership. The show built a cult following over time, though, and eventually returned in 2023 for a revival season where almost the entire cast—including leads Adam Scott and Ken Marino—returned.
In Nobody Wants This, the Party Down story continues. In the show’s third episode, titled “Either Aura,” podcaster Joanne (Bell), is having a moment of anxiety over an unanswered text from rabbi Noah (Brody) when she decides to give one of her old flings, a dude named Kyle, a call.
A quick cut to Kyle then reveals that its not any Kyle, but Ryan Hansen’s character Kyle Bradway from Party Down. One of Kyle’s passions in Party Down is his role as the frontman for his band, Karma Rocket, and the character in Nobody Wants This immediately appears on screen, playing video games and wearing a “Karma Rocket” t-shirt.
It’s only a brief cameo, where the show uses Kyle as a vehicle to show the kind of shallow guys that Joanne is typically into, and also as an opportunity for some great comedy. Joanne asks Kyle if he thinks she’s a good person, and he quickly responds in the negative. Upon letting her discuss more, he goes deeper: “I see what you’re doing,” he says. “You’re calling the worst person you know, because only somebody as shitty as me would think that someone as shitty as you really isn’t that bad, huh?”
Their conversation is cut short not long after that (and with a couple of totally lewd remarks added from Kyle for good measure), but it’s the kind of cameo that works perfectly for a number of reasons: it helps to further illustrate who one of our main characters is, and what kind of person she’s trying to evolve into, and it’s also a reference where people who get it (the Party Down heads!) are going to be psyched.
It’s worth noting, too, that Bell herself had a role in Party Down; she played rival caterer Uda Bengt in two episodes during the show’s original run. So the connection here is actually not as random as it may initially seem.
In any event? It’s wonderful to see more of Party Down, and it feels right to come via a show that hits on so many of the great touchstones of sitcoms past, while simultaneously being its own great new thing.
