As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to bend a little and give Cougar Town a try. I was mostly swayed by the presence of Courteney Cox and Christa Miller in the cast, combined with the enjoyable nature Bill Lawrence's previous show Scrubs.

Cougar Town stars Courteney as Jules, a recent divorcee who became a mother in her early twenties. As such she feels she's missed out on all the excitement and fun her friends had before settling down and she's now determined to enjoy herself. Sort of a mid life crisis and sort of a sexual reawakening. It's an interesting idea, but not quite original - you could condense it down and call it "Desperate Housewife: The Sitcom".

But, the important things here are not the premise of the show; it's the cast and dialog. They're both fantastic. On the cast front we have an exceptionally likable and fun performances from Courtney (Jules) and Christa (Ellie). In addition Dan Byrd (Jules's son Travis), Ian Gomez (Elli's husband - Andy) and Brian Van Holt (Ellie's Ex-Husband Bobby) are all great on screen as well. Even if the relationship between Jules and Bobby post-divorce is a little unusual.


I'm not so keen on the handsome divorcee next door Grayson (Josh Hopkins), he's not exactly unlikable. But he does feel like a very lazy character for this show to use. He stands as the example of "double-standards" between the genders, whoring away with young women all the time without being judged. Something for Ellie to rail against because she's afraid of being thought of as a whore. He's also a clear candidate for "will they/won't they" nonsense, but I'm hoping the show doesn't go in that direction. His dialog with Ellie over the morning papers is good fun though.

Likewise I'm not that bothered with Busy Philipps's character Laurie; in essence she's nothing more than a catalyst for Ellie's more excessive actions. Constantly trying to convince Ellie to come out and live a little. Beyond that she's about as deep as a puddle evaporating in the summer sun. There's also another character; one Barbara (Carolyn Hennesy) who works with Ellie


Humour-wise there were a few moments which were good, and sadly quite a lot which just fell into stereotypical 'older woman' or 'getting old' jokes. One of the best moments was an exceptionally funny photo montage of a night out; plenty of amusing moments captured together and left for the viewer to join the dots up. This photo montage also catalysed another well earned funny moment where Travis and Bobby go 'take revenge' on a bouncer for being mean to Ellie then attempt to escape in a golf cart. Which, as I'm sure you're aware, isn't the ideal choice of vehicle for get away from someone who can run.


A good example of a joke which fell flat was the teenage boy who kept stealing all the sexy pictures of Ellie from around the town. While there was a great moment involving those signs, it wasn't anything to do with this sub-plot. It didn't really feel like it made much sense in this day and age, and when I saw the inside of his room I was astounded that his mother was so calm about the whole thing. The lad came across as a creepy obsessed little stalker rather than a naive over-sexed young lad. A story arc which could have been dropped down to a single joke really.

We're just two episodes in at the time of my writing this, so the show is still a little unformed. For myself the make or break point is going to occur further down the line, once the show has settled a little and we understand the characters and the direction the show is going to take. It's not quite funny enough for me yet, it feels more like a light Desperate Housewives, and that's fine - but only time will tell if it's going to keep me watching.
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This week's television remains mostly Situation Comedies, but Dexter's season premiere has now joined the list, likewise Family Guy and American Dad. Now, due to the difficulties I have in watching television during the week I'll probably remain a week behind everyone else as far as Dexter is concerned.

American Dad:
Episode One: In the Country... Club

One of my favourite genres in the world of film is the war movie, or more specifically the America sub-genre of 'Vietnam Movies' "In the Country... Club" grabbed these and gave us a wholesale feast of them. With Platoon, Apocalypse Now and Rambo all being homaged and parodied on the field of 'Vietnam re-enactment paintballing' this episode was nothing short of amazing.

As an aside, where's the British "Falklands War" movie genre? Gap in the market there! Quick, get writing about trench foot!

Community:
Episode Three - Introduction to Film

Community continues to be my favourite new show this season, after spending the first two episodes going "**** me, it's Chevy Chase" I spent the third one going "**** me, it's John Michael Higgins". John is one of those people who's been in so many shows I adore, including (but not limited to) Arrested Development,
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Seinfeld and Boston Legal.

He was fantastic as the offbeat 'seize the day' Professor Whitman, a role which looks like it was a one off - but I'm hoping might have the potential to become recurring. Either way it was great to watch him shimmy up lamp posts, tear up menus and just have immense fun on screen.

The rest of the cast continue to grow, at this moment things are still very centered around Jeff, but we are getting to know the others. The episode wasn't as strong as last weeks, but it was still clever, funny and warming to watch.

Cougar Town: Episodes One and Two
Kevin Biegel and Bill Lawrence's new "older promiscuous woman" related show has made it onto my viewing list thanks to the interesting cast (especially Christa Miller who's one of my all time favourite women on TV) and Bill's own involvement. More on this show later this week, but if you want a short version - it's something I feel guilty about liking.

Curb Your Enthusiasm:
Episode Two: Vehicular Fellatio

I wondered how long Curb was going to take to resolve the majority of it's "Meet the Blacks" plot and clear space for the Seinfeld reunion arc to move in. It looks like that plate is now clear, and while I am going to miss Vivica A. Fox a lot at least J.B. Smoove is around for a while longer.

The opening (and closing) joke in particular was something very special, I've never understood those products which are so heavily vacuum sealed that it's impossible to open them without application of force, a knife or often both - and it's also a situation I've been in more than once myself. So Larry's cries of frustration and anger were hilarious.

Dexter:
Episode One:

I've held off from watching Dexter's first episode despite it being leaked online, this has of course frustrated a few of my friends who've already seen it and know better than spoilering it for me. If I'm honest I've approached this season with a real sense of trepidation, mostly because the third season was a huge let down.

After watching it I'm still undecided. As I've said many times before, Michael C. Hall is great, but Dexter's last season started well before degenerating into a mess. We'll see how things turn out.

Family Guy:
Episode One: Road to the Multiverse

I don't know how long I'm going to be writing about Family Guy on here, probably just when there's the odd exceptional episode. This was one of them, but then I've always enjoyed the Brian/Stewie heavy "Road to ____" episodes as they often shake things up. This one was no exception, giving us a 'Sliders' (now there's a show which should have ended when the cast started to leave) style trip through alternate realities. Some of which were very funny, the Disney reality in particular was amazing.


Seriously how awesome are those? Just look how amazing Peter looks.

But unfortunately the other dimensions on the whole were kind of "eh" and a lot of the other really cool alternate realities only made an appearance in the title sequence. I especially liked these two:



I am tired of the constant 'Meg is ugly', let's treat Meg like crap jokes though - that's one ship which has gotten old.


The Office:
Episode Three: The Promotion

I don't have that much to say about this week's Office, apart from a few moments it seemed to be lacking in funny. I'm not sure how this Jim/Scott co-Manager thing is going to work out, it feels like it's going to be milked for a while (and it's not that funny) before everything returns to normal. I'd be a lot happier if the writers could come up with a solution which results in some growth and change in the office without losing any of the characters. But we'll see, as next weeks episode "Niagra" looks to be a great one.

On DVD I've just finished the second season of The Sopranos, more on that tomorrow. I'm also gearing up to watch Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy, I just can't find the time right now.
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