“Hey, do you think your mom likes me?”
 

The Show

Courteney Cox Arquette (Friends, Dirt) stars as Jules, a recently divorced, 40 year old mom living in suburban Florida with a successful real estate business who is attempting to get back into the dating scene.  Director Bill Lawrence channels his previous series Scrubs with reckless abandon and fans of that series will see lots of similarities.  The film style is the same, as is the quirky, not-everyone-will-get-it humor.  Lawrence brings in wife Christa Miller (Scrubs, The Drew Carey Show) as Jules’s best friend Ellie as well as several cast members you’ve likely seen before but can’t quite remember where.  It definitely has quite a bit of potential, but rather it will reach that point remains to be seen.

The problem I’m having with this show is the title character.  “Cougar” used to be a novel idea to describe older women dating/sleeping with younger men.  These days, it’s about as clichéd as the playboy neighbor or the much-more-intelligent-than-his-parents kid in television (both of which are in this show as well).  Actually, it seems that virtually every character in this show is a cliché in one form or another: the dominant, insulting wife; the pushover husband; the pretty, dumb friend and the redneck ex round out this cast.  Maybe they were going for that angle, to be tongue-in-cheek – with Bill Lawrence at the helm, it’s probable.

One reason to watch the show.
 

Don’t get me wrong: Courteney Cox is looking great and I enjoy her, but the neuroticism she brought to Monica Gellar is still very much there, just in a different way.  Now, instead of being obsessive about cleanliness, she’s become obsessive about being alone, keeping her son as close to her as possible and drinking wine constantly.  She’s an interesting character: one minute, she’s moving her teenaged son into a very small office just to make his room a massive bathroom for herself (complete with heated floors and a Japanese toilet that “cleans her hoo”) and the next, she’s co-signing a condo lease for her young assistant and good friend Laurie (Busy Phillips – He’s Just Not That Into You, ER).  I genuinely can’t decide if I’m rooting for her or not.

There are some very bright spots, of course.  She has a very close – if not sometimes uncomfortable – relationship with her son Travis.  She finds joy in his heartbreak because he’ll cry on her shoulder, making her feel needed.  The dynamic between the two can be slightly unnerving at times.  In one episode, she makes him rip wax strips from her armpits.  Luckily, with those oddities comes Dan Byrd as Travis.  He plays the role with such dry wit, such sarcasm, that I found myself liking him immediately.  His bright adolescent attitude really counters his control freak of a mom and he even manages to pull off some pretty bad ass one-liners throughout.  Cougar Town casting found a gem with this actor.  Brian Van Holt (Threshold) as Jules’s crazy stupid ex-husband Bobby Cobb takes the cake in every episode without fail.  He is hysterical in his simplistic naiveté and is consistently given the best lines in the show.  Hell, the guy lives on a boat in a parking lot and goes fishing for catfish with his arm.  However, he is loyal and as dumb as a St. Bernard, making him easily the most lovable character.

Another reason.
 

CougarTown has a habit of forcing humor on the viewer.  When Jules attempts to show off her “flexibility” to a much younger boy toy, she inadvertently pulls a muscle in her leg.  I anticipated these types of jokes long before they happened and it’s by far the worst part of the show. Thankfully, the writers appear to have caught on to this and it happens less and less as the season goes on. On the other hand, the show does an excellent job of creating some type of lesson for the characters at the end of each episode.  Watching Jules, along with the rest of the cast, grow emotionally despite their ages makes for a very rewarding experience.

Episode Highlights

I had a hard time choosing an episode that was my favorite in this season. I was such a fan of Scrubs and with this show being created by the same team, I fell in love with it immediately.  The first few episodes feed a lot of the clichés I mentioned earlier, but as the show goes on, there’s a stronger dynamic created between all the characters that is just awesome to watch.  It’s a show that evolves throughout its 24 episodes and it’s for the better. 

Audio/Video

Season One is presented in a standard definition widescreen format (1.78:1) with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound.  There’s also some Spanish and French subtitles thrown in for good measure.  The soundtrack is awesome with plenty of memorable songs throughout, but the montages have a habit of overpowering the dialogue that occasionally occurs during them.

Special Features

Cougar Town: The Complete First Season is presented in a three disc DVD collection with the following extras:

• Taming Cougar Town Featurette
• Ask Barb Featurette
• Stroking with with Bobby Cobb Feaurette
• Deleted Scenes
• Blooper Reel
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Saber-Tooth Tiger Town trailer
• “My Sexualitay” Music Video

The Taming Cougar Town Featurette is the most robust of the special features and even that isn’t very long.  It explains how Kevin Biegel and Bill Lawrence began with the idea of Cougar Town and how the show has evolved across season one.   The Ask Barb Featurette has the shows true cougar answering questions with a heavy sexual undertone.  If you love it, there’s plenty of it on the disc.  If not, back away slowly – she could potentially creep you out.  The Stroking with Bobby Cobb featurette is a bunch of small clips with Bobby and Andy as they assist the public on the golf course.  It’s by far the funniest collection of extras in the set and they are worth multiple viewings for the one-liners alone.

I’m usually upset that most deleted scenes aren’t included in the movie or series but in this case, I feel like it was the best decision to leave them on the cutting room floor.  Much of them are alternate stories to the characters that didn’t really fit in to the season. The Blooper Reel is way too short to really be watch-worthy and features very similar screw ups from all the cast members.  The Saber-Tooth Tiger trailer is hilarious but I won’t ruin how awesome it is by telling you the details. Just see it. The music video is exactly what you’d expect and you’ll already know what you’re getting yourself into if you’ve already watched the season.

Overall

Fans of Scrubs will feel right at home here and will absolutely love what Cougar Town offers.  Thankfully, I’m a fan and this is a new series that anyone can find something to love about.  It’s fun, top-notch entertainment.

ComicsOnline gives Cougar Town: The Complete First Season on DVD 4.5 out of 5 middle aged women.

Buy Cougar Town: The Complete First Season on DVD at Amazon.com now.

Keep it here at ComicsOnline.com for more movie reviews and Everything Geek Pop Culture.

This review was written with assistance from the lovely Jenn.