Review: 'Cougar Town' - 'Make It Better': Rise of the sex robots
Jules and her dad battle injury at the same time, while Grayson tries to give Travis some game
Brian Van Holt and Josh Hopkins in "Cougar Town."
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A quick review of last night's "Cougar Town" coming up just as soon as I have non-McConnaughey examples...
I haven't had time to review the last few episodes, but haven't entirely loved any of them, for different reasons. (The flashback episode, for instance, felt like it was trying to stuff too much backstory into a short period, kind of like the "Co-Pilot" episode of "The Shield.") But with the exception of how the Wade/Laurie relationship ended, I really enjoyed "Make It Better" a lot. It had a good mix of running gags ("Grease in Space," Jules being very late to Tebowing, Painkiller Ellie being so much nicer than regular Ellie) and pathos. The Jules/Chick scene in the hammock was predictably beautiful, as any chance to let Ken Jenkins tear up always will be money in the bank.
I wasn't crazy about Wade's exit, not because his suspicions didn't ring true, but because the show never bothered to make him enough of a character in his own right for his departure to have the emotional impact it was meant to. He was just a temporary obstacle to the Travis/Laurie pairing that the show has been itching to try out for a while now, and while there have been some funny Wade moments here and there, they've always involved other characters' reacting to Wade (Laurie hoping that he would be "blacker than space," Travis having to be Wade's FaceTime surrogate) rather than something notable about him. Which is fine to a point — the show has lots of other characters to service, especially now that window doctor Tom has become more prominent — but means that any attempt to make us care that he's gone falls flat, even if Laurie is sad about it.
Overall, though, a strong return to form after several uneven installments in a row.
What did everybody else think?
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupMeg
March 6, 2013 at 11:41AM EST Reply to CommentI only started watching around the time that Travis fled to Hawaii, aside from an episode here and there. Can someone tell me how old Laurie is supposed to be? Is she about 10 years older than Travis?
I'm trying to decide if I find the pairing creepy. It's not that it's such a huge gap, more just that she's known him since he was 11 and she was 21, and that IS just a little creepy for me. It seemed like she was meant to be late teens early 20's in the flashback episode, right? And he was still pre-pubescent? Just rubs the wrong way.
mgrabois Travis is 21, Laurie is about 29. By the Creepiness Rule (you should only date people older than half your age plus 7 years, otherwise it's creepy) they're right on the edge of appropriateness.
March 6, 2013 at 1:23PM ESTnath Travis was 14 in the flashback.
March 6, 2013 at 2:58PM ESTGet Serious He's her friend's college-age kid. She's on her own; he's being supported by his mother. All of that makes it creepy, ridiculous formula or not.
March 7, 2013 at 1:13PM ESTPlus they advanced Travis's an extra year so they could more easily justify a pairing between them.
If they feel they have to take the show in that direction, let it be a dream sequence.
Heisenberg
March 6, 2013 at 12:36PM EST Reply to CommentThought it was a terrific episode!
mgrabois
March 6, 2013 at 1:25PM EST Reply to CommentI almost missed the episode since my DirecTV DVR said that the original air date was last week and it thought this was a rerun.
Jeff I watched live, but always DVR it, and my Directv DVR did the same thing. Heard Time Warner had the same problem...
March 6, 2013 at 1:54PM ESTJackie
March 6, 2013 at 1:30PM EST Reply to CommentLoved last night's episode! An instant favorite of mine as it did what Cougar Town does best and blends great comedy and emotion. I didn't mind the quick exit of Wade. Whenever there is a guest star on a series as a romantic partner, you know it isn't going to last anyway so I'd rather it this way than dragging out the inevitable.
Felixdacat
March 6, 2013 at 3:03PM EST Reply to CommentSo, I’ve been DVR’ing the old episodes that TBS has been showing during the day. What I have found is…season 4/TBS, no loss of quality.
Is Cougar Town the most amazing, funniest, best darn sitcom in the televised medium’s history? No. But it is a very well written, well directed, greatly performed show. It is a very comfortable program that easily makes you care about its characters. Besides, I love wine although it breaks my heart to see them sometimes drink that nasty white stuff (oh sorry, should have done a wine snob alert).
Is the inevitable Laurie-Travis hookup high on the creepy potential (a past episode established Laurie as 9 years older). Sure, but the writing staff was able to forge ahead with the difficult Grayson wants a baby storyline and did so with praise worthy style (bring back Holly!!!). Busy Phillips and Dan Byrd should make it interesting…btw, there is an old episode where Jules tells Laurie to never hook up with Travis.
David
March 6, 2013 at 8:12PM EST Reply to CommentDid you really think "thanks," "thanks back" was "predictably great"?
David "Predictably beautiful" rather. Still, I thought the writing in this episode was horrible.
March 7, 2013 at 9:58AM ESTsepinwall I think Ken Jenkins getting emotional (whether on this show or on Scrubs) is always beautiful, no matter what the dialogue involved is.
March 7, 2013 at 10:23AM ESTbirkoff1
March 7, 2013 at 1:46AM EST Reply to CommentI thought the flashback episode was great, while this one was middling at best. The break-up bugged me also, but not from our lack of investment in Wade but for how perfunctory it was, and for how it enabled them to continue banging the Trav-Laurie drum in a mere 20 TV minutes since it seemed like they were going to let it go on the back burner for a while. On the plus side, this is the first time I have actually enjoyed Ken Jennings as Chick, but conversely, none of the plots landed for me in any specific way, and there just seemed to be a lower concentration of gags than we've come to expect from CougarTown; perhaps because we didn't get the full gang together for any significant amount of time.
chip_christian
March 7, 2013 at 12:06PM EST Reply to CommentThe other thing that I had a problem with was Tom dispensing painkillers to Ellie for no reason at all. I like to imagine in his life as a surgeon he's highly competent.
David
March 7, 2013 at 12:23PM EST Reply to CommentBy the way, does anyone relate to the claims about landlines? It's been a while since I had one, but my experience was the opposite of what the writers claim. If the landline rings, you pretty much know it's going to be a telemarketer. But would the writers have us believe that, when there is an emergency, rather than calling you on your cell phone where a friend or relative knows they can get a hold of you immediately, they will call your landline instead?
LJA
March 7, 2013 at 2:27PM EST Reply to CommentHumor+Heart=Bill Lawrence classic. Loved this one. Grayson coaching Trav on how to be a "playa" killed me, but not as much as the emotional scene between Chick and Jules. Ken Jenkins does it again, I love that guy.