Diane Dunbrowski is back in Chicago Party Aunt Part 2 to live up to her eponymous title in the big city! Premiering on December 30, 2022, the sequel to the 2021 adult animated series released 8 episodes starring Lauren Ash as the aunt we all love, Rory O’Malley as her favourite nephew Daniel, RuPaul Charles as Gideon, Jill Talley as Bonnie, Ike Barinholtz as Mark, Bob Odenkirk as Feather, Chris Witaske as Kurt and more.
The raunchy comedy is chronicled as content restricted to the adult audience and has been created by the trio – Chris Witaske, Katie Rich and Jon Barinholtz. This season on Chicago Party Aunt, Diane’s lotion business kicks off, Daniel has got a new boyfriend (and it’s a big deal), Bonnie and Mark have a lot on their plate, first concerning the expansion of the family, then other material matters kick in that could land them in huge trouble.
Netflix describes the adult animation as follows:
CHICAGO PARTY AUNT DIANE IS AN IDOLIZED TROUBLEMAKER WITH A TALENT FOR AVOIDING ADULTHOOD — AND A SOFT SPOT FOR HER SOUL-SEARCHING NEPHEW.
-Chicago Party Aunt Part 2 Review Does Not Contains Spoilers-
Witaske’s Twitter may have brought this party alive by introducing Diane’s character, however, the second season falls prey to an almost identical trajectory. With eight episodes in hand, the party fever in Diane’s life never dies out, and the same goes for the multiple references to the big city she lives in. However, as compared to the last season, this outing hands out quite a lot of forgettable moments, which I can’t even refer back to now because their memory is already shaded in my mind.
Much like the previous instalment, what remains in your mind is the ending – when all plugs are pulled out and the show blasts off the finale moment with a die-hard party sequence with Diane at its centre. Part 1 kept the ties close-knit with her circle being limited to her family mostly. The sequel carries out the same tactic, but this time, the map charts out to other aims like Diane being on the lookout for a romantic partner as well. Despite the subtle hints left around during the last season about Kurt once again developing a soft spot for his ex-wife, nothing of the sort is put on the course this year.
One could say that it has more to do with Diane’s character, who simply can’t settle down for anything non-uproarious. So, quite a few episodes pander out to exploring her passing relationships as the feeling of her being caught up in the lonely nest sinks in again, but instead of kicking in at the end of the series like last time, it does earlier in the new release.
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As always, the highlight of the show is the bond shared by Diane and Daniel and even that is put on thin ice for the first time and tested out, even if just for a short while. (Also, it couldn’t have hurt featuring Mikey (her son) more even if Daniel is the favourite child in the house.) Other than that, the storyline picks up on Bonnie’s fixation over the idea of expanding the family, as was hinted in Part 1’s last episode, but eventually it’s put to rest by her interests directed elsewhere due to reasons that I will not spoil here.
Crude humour and mature, adult content remained a constant feature, but after a point you start questioning what all of this is leading to. Moreover, some episodes drag out the aimless plot further. You may feel that I’m just shunning out comedy at this point, but that’s not the case. Even if the last season shares certain similarities with the new one in terms of identifying Diane as the life of the party, which seems to be the only establishment of the series at all, it still gave way to some moments of light-hearted and mindless happiness, but not this one.
At one point it seems like the episodes are introducing some characters that you’ll forget the instant the new episode fades in, while at another, adulthood is thrusted down Diane’s throat to such an extent that it leaves even her disgruntled. As her lotion business kicks off, we get to see a lot of shared screen time between her and Gideon, and as they stand in as the yin to the other’s yang, their energies feed off each other. Their developing partnership brings the show to a close, while also reawakening our dwindled interest in it all. However, all the time and action lost on filler episodes is truly gone and none of it ever comes back to mind.
Chicago Party Aunt Part 2: Worth the Watch?
As Diane goes out saying in the end, “the party never stops with (her)”, but that doesn’t mean the party remains fun throughout either. There’s a lot going on with her as well as her sister in this season, but none of it amounts to the heartfelt dysfunctional erratic emotion we felt during the first round (even if just a little). It can work out as your passable weekend watch if you’re into adult animations, jut don’t head into it with too many expectations.
Even generally, the series was never the best adult animated show out there, but the best part of that was it never even strove to be it and was only concerned with rudimentary comedy. This time, the drama scale seemed to have been upped a tad bit more as a means to wrap up the arcs of these characters and to push them to grow up, which ultimately led to the show’s original personality being compromised in most episodes.
Chicago Party Aunt Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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