The best television shows are those that initially don't appeal, then later do, then, some time later, become all-time favourites.
The phenomenon is very similar to, say, the slow burn of falling in love with a beautiful woman you at first dislike.
Think Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in African Queen, think sparks flying and think arguments that dissolve into passionate embraces and trains and tunnels and long summers and the passion of youth and all that.
A recent example was Entourage, which initially appeared to be a great televisual exercise in self-abuse, a vehicle for young Hollywood actors to ponce around like a bunch of A-grade dweebs on crack.
Then I got it.
Best of all, once I did get it, there were boxed sets of six series down at the video shop waiting for some serious watching.
By the way, watching television shows series by series, in a boxed set with no ads and none missed because you were working late or drunk or falling in love with Katharine Hepburn at the time or something else got between you and your first love, watching TV, is quite the best way to watch a show.
But - where was I?
Oh yeah.
The latest show I've fallen for also dwells on the "group of Hollywood actors waiting for a break" theme, and also did not initially attract.
The sad thing about Party Down is there will be no long summers spent with the curtains drawn tightly shut to keep the sun out to develop the perfect conditions for watching six series of the show.
That's because on June 30, 2010 Party Down was cancelled after its second series, despite it being warmly received by critics.
That is horribly disappointing.
The only good news is that the second series begins tonight on Comedy Central at 9pm.
Party Down follows a Los Angeles catering team of aspiring Hollywood actors, writers and hangers on who work small-time catering gigs while hoping for a big break.
In each episode the team is working a different event, with their troubled lives getting badly tangled up with their attempts at running a professional business.
In series two, Henry (Adam Scott) takes over as team leader, and Lydia (Megan Mullally, who played promiscuous borderline alcoholic and drug addict Karen Walker on the sitcom Will & Grace) joins the crew.
If there is a similarity between Entourage and Party Down, apart from the Hollywood setting, it is a storyline that becomes more compelling as the series goes on, and characters for whom one gradually develops an empathy.
In Party Down, it is the overblown egos, the wretched, failed lives that glare from behind the sad veneers, that keep the show engrossing - and funny.
Series two has 10 episodes.
You should watch them.
