Review: 'Cougar Town' - 'I Need to Know': Fact or fiction?
Jules holds Travis too tightly, the guys grow mustaches, and Andy gets the dog treatment
Dan Byrd in "Cougar Town."
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A quick review of tonight's "Cougar Town" coming up just as soon as I have a racist salt shaker collection...
Last week's episode was a reassuring start to the TBS era for "Cougar Town," and "I Need to Know" is an even stronger outing, with a collection of fine escalating running gags (Laurie egging on Grayson's minor homophobia, Ellie turning Andy into a dog, the gang forgetting to feed poor Tom's cat(*)) circling around a strong, funny central story about Jules struggling to kick her addiction to Travis.
(*) I've said in the past that the crew's treatment of Tom walks a very delicate line, in much the way "Parks and Rec" needs to remind us every now and then that Jerry is more than just the butt of everyone's jokes. The feral cat thing, while very painful for him, stayed just to the right side of that line, because it was a mistake rather than something they deliberately chose not to do.
Jules' inability to let go of her son has always been one of the show's strongest themes — season 1's Thanksgiving episode, which is easy to point to as the moment when "Cougar Town" arrived as the show we know and like today, was all about that relationship — and "I Need to Know" did an excellent job of playing it for laughs as long as possible before the pathos kicked in. Whether Jules was making Travis and his date watch "Game of Thrones" and its explicit sex scenes, or suggesting that she and her son now be "Friends with benefits," or insisting that loving Travis is the same as being in love with Travis, this was a consistently funny, uncomfortable storyline, and well directed by Courteney Cox herself, in her third outing behind the "Cougar Town" cameras.
I'd have liked for the mustache growing stunt to have a payoff in and of itself, rather than setting up Laurie's stunt with the Glarmy, but that's a minor complaint for what was otherwise a very strong, "Cougar Town"-y episode of "Cougar Town."
What did everybody else think?
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January 15, 2013 at 11:45PM EST Reply to Commentperfect episode. Cougar Town looks good on TBS
Mike D
January 15, 2013 at 11:47PM EST Reply to CommentWas there a point to the covering up of Steve Gutenberg's face on the 3 Men cover? I didn't get that joke.
PJM Ted Danson's and Tom Selleck's careers made it into the 90s and his didn't.
January 16, 2013 at 12:39AM ESTjoshmassey Yeah, my guess is Guttenberg didn't give permission to use his likeness and the others did, so they slammed him a little bit.
January 16, 2013 at 12:57AM ESTgco211 Having seen Party Down, I doubt he was protective of his image. It was just a joke that didn't quite land.
January 16, 2013 at 4:08AM ESTGet Serious
January 16, 2013 at 2:21AM EST Reply to CommentI'm confused about the word "homophobia." I thought it meant hatred of homosexuals.
This episode used it to mean, what, the fear that someone may think one is a homosexual?
So weren't they using it wrong?
Ana Phobia = Fear
January 16, 2013 at 3:11AM ESTChi The word means fear, but hatred is a connotation, since it usually goes hand in hand.
January 16, 2013 at 10:59AM ESTGet Serious Well, OK. But Grayson neither feared nor hated them. So why apply the term to him?
January 16, 2013 at 1:10PM ESTAdam Many people use homophobia in many different senses (and incorrectly in terms of what it actually means). In this case they were using minor "homophobia" to mean Grayson's discomfort with homosexual and/or homosexual lifestyle, not his actual fear or hate of homosexuals.
January 16, 2013 at 2:26PM ESTireneinidaho
January 16, 2013 at 2:50AM EST Reply to CommentThe mom on this show wants to be "friends with benefits" with her son?????? And you don't think that's sick, Alan?? I watched the reruns of much of last season on TBS before this started, based on your enthusiasm for the show. What I saw was a bunch of self-absorbed alcoholics, who live in a fantasyland where alcoholism doesn't extract any physical or mental toll. And before you assume that I'm a teetotaler, let me say that I'm having a glass of brandy at the moment and had a couple of glasses or wine with dinner. But these characters were just grating. I watched the first ep of this season, but that was all I could take. And from what you've said, Alan, about this episode, I'm glad it's now out of my DVR queue.
bob I agree, I was clutching my pearls through the entire episode. When that bad mother suggested that friends with benefits to her son I called for my fainting couch. I have no doubt this country cox women uses birth control and shows her ankles in public.
January 16, 2013 at 4:58AM ESTDrew T. Alan shouldn't think it's sick. The line was immediately followed with Jules realizing she used it incorrectly, as well as Travis saying he sure hoped she did. I thought it was one of the scene's funniest episodes.
January 16, 2013 at 8:53AM ESTBgklein yeah, and that Tobias guy saying he could "taste those leading man parts" and prematurely shot his wad? How dare comedies play jokes on poor phrasing!
January 16, 2013 at 9:55AM ESTMK You might want to stick to ABC Family if these sort of things offend you.
January 16, 2013 at 10:30AM ESTBen Kabak It was a joke. Stick with Disney shows.
January 16, 2013 at 2:47PM ESTvanessaM Give the girl a break. Not everyone finds it screamingly funny when an alcoholic talks about wanting to have sex with his or her child. Even Alan called it an "uncomfortable storyline." YMMV, obviously.
January 16, 2013 at 11:25PM ESTbrian_shea
January 16, 2013 at 8:52AM EST Reply to CommentBoth this episode and last week's episode of The Office had a simple goal - remind people of the central themes of the show/season. The Office failed miserably for me. This one nailed it. It was a good way to set up the recurring themes that drive the show in a funny way while also having some resolution or understanding to give newer/less obsessed viewers going forward.
That is if they aren't freaking out about how much wine the characters drink and whether Jules briefly leans over the line of appropriateness once in a while.
scoopie77
January 16, 2013 at 12:21PM EST Reply to CommentThey were watching "Game of Thrones" while making incest jokes in this episode. It was fitting. The writers know what they're doing.
Matt
January 16, 2013 at 8:32PM EST Reply to CommentSee, this is exactly why I'll never understand the love for this show because I hated everything about Jules and Travis. It never has nor ever will be funny to me, while the stuff that didn't revolve around inappropriate mother/son relationships worked and kept me from turning off the TV.
nath I agree, mostly. I didn't like some of the other stuff either. The Jules-Travis thing was cross-the-line creepy (and what kind of idiot is Travis that he thinks watching Game of Thrones with his mom, dad, and stepdad is a good idea for a first date-- and he has no one in his life to tell him otherwise?). The Laurie-Grayson plot didn't work for me because Laurie made a mountain out of a molehill and upended Grayson's life to prove a point. And once again ignoring a request from Tom! Their selfishness is just hilarious!
January 20, 2013 at 1:36PM ESTMost of this episode fell on the wrong side of selfish, creepy, and contrived for me.
srpad
January 16, 2013 at 10:37PM EST Reply to CommentWait, so no one from Game of Thrones is from the future?!
PckrFn75
January 19, 2013 at 2:56AM EST Reply to CommentIt was a good episode but it looks like Season 4 could get a little raunchy compared to the previous 3 seasons. The viewer ratings were down from last week which are not too good to begin with. I don't think it's doing well at all on TBS. I think TBS will run out the 15 episodes and will then decide to not renew the series.
PckrFn75
January 19, 2013 at 3:00AM EST Reply to CommentI agree it was a good episode but season 4 looks to be a little raunchy compared to the previous 3 seasons. I don't think it's doing well at all on TBS. The viewer ratings for this episode are worse than last week. I think TBS will air the 15 episodes and will decide not to renew the series.