Cougar Town has been criticized for being demeaning to women and simply a tasteless flaunting of cougar sex. There is that, though it is done with such humor and respect that it isn’t offensive to me. That’s also not what this show is really about. The interactions between the quirky characters are what carries the show, and my favorite is the interplay between Jules and her son, Travis.
Let’s explore….
At the football game, there’s a snarky respect between them: “Ladies and gentlemen, my mother,” says Travis, after Jules sticks her foot in her mouth by saying she wanted to lick a kid’s body and his mom is sitting right in front of her.
Later, at home when her neighbor can’t come over for wine, they have a cute exchange:
“Hey, you want to stay in, hang out on the couch, maybe watch a movie?” – Jules
“Are you hitting on me?” – Travis
“This wine’s for Ellie. She’s been looking so hot lately I thought I’d get her drunk and try to hit that.” – Jules
“Lesbian mom jokes … awesome.” – Travis
Then, when Travis says he’s going out with his friend Ryan, Jules says, “Home by midnight, and if I ever catch you two drinking and driving, I’m going to show everyone that baby picture of you two holding each others’ penises … so small.” Travis retorts, “You know, Ryan’s mom just says goodbye.”
She more than likely scarred him for life when Travis caught her giving the younger guy a blow job, but it was cute when she’s eating a banana the next morning and Travis swipes it from her and says, “You’re not allowed to eat these anymore.”
Finally, after Jules tells off the junior high school kid who’s stealing her sexy signs, telling him to knock it off because her son doesn’t like it, Travis appreciates it in his own way: “You tortured that poor kid for me … outstanding.”
So far, I like the interplay between Jules and her son, and he gives her a purpose beyond her pathetic quest for a sex life. I hope the writers can keep developing this relationship with the mutual appreciation and love that they have established in the premiere.
How’d you like the premiere of Cougar Town?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Sep 23, 2009 @ 22:27 EST5EDT
I watched it, and also watched Modern Family. I thought both shows were great!
Sorry Rachel, I’ll watch you on the “Internet Machine”.
There is something to be said about curiosity. Last night, I was curious about Eastwick; it wasn’t on my schedule, but it piqued my interest. After watching Melissa Joan Hart, Mya, Mark Dacascos, and Kelly Osbourne on excerpts of Dancing With the Stars on Hulu, I decided to make an unscheduled stop on ABC to check out the results show and stay through the night until Eastwick was over. Modern Family was surprisingly funny, but the show I found interestingly funny was Cougar Town.
Being a man, I went into Cougar Town thinking it was going to be all about sex and hopefully getting some sexy shots of Courtney Cox, who said the opening sequence of her checking herself out in the mirror was NOT a body double–that was all her. And I did get my satisfaction with a few sexy poses, cute outfits, and a flash from Courtney that made a paperboy take a header right into a parked car. Kind of risque for 8:30pm ABC television, huh? Of course, coming from the same production company as Scrubs (Doozer Productions), the comedy writing was to be expected.
Toward the end of the show, Jules and Laurie finally saw the teen who was stealing the signs off of lawns, they slowly took off their shoes trying not to provoke him, but he got spooked and they gave chase until they caught up with him in his bedroom. That was classic.
So . . . I guess, for me, it was really about the sex. I often thought how Busy Phillips would look in something sexy with cleavage, but we didn’t get that last night. Maybe in future episodes . . .
I held off on watching the screener for it, and I ended up thinking it was funnier than Modern Family. Are we seeing a rebirth of the genre here? When is the last time more than one successful half hour comedy premiered?
Wow, funnier than Modern Family? I think people must have over-hyped it to you or something, because that show is pure brilliance.
Modern Family is probably more clever, but for straight up laughs, I think Cougar Town won for me. Of course it’s fresher in my mind to, as I had seen the Modern Family screener a while ago, so last night was just a repeat for me. The coming weeks will tell. Frankly, I’m just excited that there are actually more than a handful of funny shows on TV this season.
I’m still stuck with the incredible similarity of Modern Family to Sons & Daughters, which I thought was much better. I’m kind of hating on Modern Family because people are watching it, when they could have been watching something similar and even funnier several years ago. Hoping to get over it.
Cougartown really surprised me. I didn’t want to watch it, and certainly didn’t expect to like it. I laughed out loud. I was able to completely identify with the characters, and it’s definitely on my schedule for the long haul. Cox seems so comfortable in the role, it’s a great fit for her and I cannot wait to see more.
I didn’t get a chance to watch modern family yet (we TiVo’d it), but now I am excited, since I absolutely loved Sons and Daughters! I’m glad to see there was someone else out there that liked it, too.
I thought it was pretty good. There was a bit of the ‘Scrubs’ groove to the series that allowed me to settle into it comfortably. Now, if Hank and The Middle can keep it together, ABC may have a chance at comedy competition.
yeah, pretty damn good hour of comedy from ABC. Bill Lawrence carried over the scrubs sort of feel to cougartown, and modern family felt a bit like AD to me – the backyard gun gag and throwaway lines that are funnier than most sitcoms set-up jokes especially. I’ll be watching for sure.