Review: 'Cougar Town' - 'Walls': Penny can for your thoughts?
The cul-de-sac crew returns in an uneven episode
Busy Philipps and Brian Van Holt in "Cougar Town."
"Cougar Town" is back, boys and girls. Earlier today, I posted an interview with co-creator Bill Lawrence, and now I have a quick review of tonight's episode coming up just as soon as I carry on the message of .38 Special...
One of the things I talked about with Lawrence was his awareness that the writers had taken Jules' clingy, overprotective relationship with Travis as far as it could go, and that they're going to move off of that very soon. And that was a relief to hear, because the A-story of "Walls" (which I watched before I spoke with Lawrence) featured Jules at her most annoying, and was a little tough to sit through at times. It was good to hear Ellie call her out on it near the end - "The clingy mom act? It's not cute anymore." - and hopefully we get little to none of that going forward.
Wednesday's regular timeslot episode is the much better of the two airing this week, but I am a sucker for all things Penny Can.
What did everybody else think?
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April 18, 2011 at 10:14PM EST Reply to CommentAgreed that it was nice to have Cougar Town back ... but also agree that it was a pretty uneven episode. The biggest disappointment is that this was the episode used to possibly grab new viewers with the Dancing With the Stars lead-in (loved the card gag playing off of that lead-in!) instead of the many stronger episodes from this season. Not sure I'd tune back in if this episode had been my first time seeing the show. Luckily though, its not, and I will always tune in for Cougar Town!
Mike Blah blah blah Patrick Marooniac! What up buddy?
April 19, 2011 at 7:58AM EST
April 19, 2011 at 9:09AM ESTMj
April 18, 2011 at 10:16PM EST Reply to Comment1855pennycan has too many numbers. What am I missing?
sepinwall Bill said on Twitter that it doesn't matter if a phone number has too many digits; just dial it in order and you'll get there.
April 18, 2011 at 10:23PM ESTmj Thanks Alan, I just figured that out. I got "the mailbox of Bobby Cobb is full and not accepting any more messages"
April 18, 2011 at 10:26PM ESTklg19 The number on the closed captioning was rendered as PEN-E-CAN, if that helps.
April 18, 2011 at 11:07PM ESTThis episode cracked me up. I just kept on laughing through the whole thing. It just kept on giving.
mrbilliam
April 18, 2011 at 11:22PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, I assume you saw the episode back when it was supposed to air during the hiatus. Do you remember what the title card said? As Patrick above mentioned, ours said "Hey, Dance fans! Please still be there."
April 18, 2011 at 11:22PM ESTsepinwall I actually only saw it last week, when it already had the DWTS gag. The title card gags are often done very last-minute, as my screener of tomorrow night's episode just had the generic "Welcome to Cougar Town" card.
April 19, 2011 at 11:00AM ESTMark S.
April 19, 2011 at 12:40AM EST Reply to CommentLaurie: One for $19.99 and two for $50.
Jules: That's not a deal.
LJA
April 19, 2011 at 2:20AM EST Reply to CommentYeah, Courteney Cox was pretty insufferable in this one. Ouch.
I liked everything else, though. I wish I could get through on the phone number, but like others, I keep getting the "Bobby Cobb's mailbox is full" message. That, and a busy signal.
cadfile
April 19, 2011 at 6:34AM EST Reply to CommentI too love all things Penny Can.... It fits that Bobby would agree to endorse it.
I tuned out the Jules story because I was done with her clingy Mom act a couple of episodes ago.
"No one can find an empty paint can!"
bearcouch
April 19, 2011 at 9:01AM EST Reply to CommentHow could you not like Jules? "Imagine hook hands!" *click-click*
bearcouch Imaginary*, gah
April 19, 2011 at 9:02AM ESTPamela That was one of my (many) laugh out loud moments. "I don't know what we're doing!"
April 19, 2011 at 11:27AM EST"No one ever does!"
April 20, 2011 at 4:05PM EST Reply to CommentI want a Penny Can app on my iPhone and iPad!
Ben
April 20, 2011 at 7:16PM EST Reply to CommentI don't mind clingy Jules, since it's all just a gag anyway, and usually one that amuses me. I didn't think she was even that bad in this episode. I mean, she -wanted- to be clingy, but it was mostly indirect, her just telling the rest of the gang about it. Not much even got through to Travis. And I thought it was hilarious when they were giving examples of how she was too clingy like "You want to live in his blood".
I also think Ted is hilarious in HIMYM when he's being a douchebag, though, and it doesn't make me like him even a bit less. So I guess I'm more accepting of these kinds of character quirks. I'm always surprised when I hear how much people hate this stuff.
April 26, 2011 at 11:00AM EST Reply to CommentI wish I knew about it sooner. If I did, I would have definitely called that phone number. I hope they do it again.