Out of the first four episodes, "James Ellison Funeral" stuck out like a sore thumb. The writers setup an episode where all the humor would derive from race, and although Party Down is on premium cable and has done some some crazy things in the past, with race there's a difficulty in keeping gentle racial humor from descending into what people could perceive as racism, so the writers tried some more unconventional racial humor with the white mistress showing up and it was more awkward than funny. The mistress was acting way to excitable and the story didn't go anywhere.
I liked Kyle trying to learn blues and Ron's descent into the smoky coffin, but they were overshadowed by the largely unfunny main plot.
Score: 8.5/10
