I'm a little too preoccupied/tired to write about tonight's episodes of "The Middle" (still doing a solid job) and "Cougar Town" (still trying a little bit too hard, and hammering the vanity/insecurity theme too much in this one), but wanted to give you guys a chance to share your thoughts.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Cougar Town & The Middle: Thoughts?
I'm a little too preoccupied/tired to write about tonight's episodes of "The Middle" (still doing a solid job) and "Cougar Town" (still trying a little bit too hard, and hammering the vanity/insecurity theme too much in this one), but wanted to give you guys a chance to share your thoughts.
I find myself warming more and more to The Middle. I really liked the pilot, but feel the characters really growing on me. That said, I realize that Patricia Heaton is the show's center, but they need to put someone else at the forefront a bit more. So far every episode has pretty much been about how harried she is taking care of everyone. I get that that is the premise of the show, but I don't know that that can hold forever, and a little more depth to the kids and Neil Flynn (who has a never-ending supply of goodwill from me) could help keep things fresh and give the show some legs.
ReplyDeleteAnd Courtney Cox is still swinging for the fences at every trip to the plate. I do enjoy her relationship with the neighbor dude, though. She seems to be turning up her personality just for him, but the fact that it is on purpose makes me smile more than when she just gets wacky with everyone else.
This was the first episode of Cougar Town I didn't really enjoy. Honestly, I don't think I could tell you a single line or even the plot of tonight's episode. Just not very memorable at all.
ReplyDeleteI think I've had my fill of Cougar Town. I like the dad and the son, but Courtney Cox overdoes it to the point of annoyance. Are we supposed to be rooting for her?
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that they are using all Tom Petty songs for the episode titles more then I actually like the show.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people have commented on Courteney Cox shouting her lines. She actually started doing this a few seasons into Friends. There was one episode in the sixth season where Elle McPherson's character comments on Monica being extremely loud. I had hoped at the time that it was the writers' subtle way of letting Cox know she needed to take it down a notch. But, unfortunately, it didn't seem to help.
ReplyDeleteBoth on later seasons of Friends and here, Cox doesn't shout any lines that would work any other way. (Well, it's been a while since I watched Friends, so I can't guarantee that one.) It works for me, but not for many of you, but find a line she yells and try to imagine how funny it would be if she said it at a lower level. The answer is not funny at all. But yeah, this episode was pretty bleh.
ReplyDeleteStill enjoying both. My biggest problem with "Cougar Town" is that there is no reason for CC's character to be desperate. She is still smoking hot. Just look at the taking out the trash picture. (Thanks for that Alan!)
ReplyDeleteI also found this episode of Cougar Town less enjoyable than the previous. Too much whining, and not enough jokes.
ReplyDeleteI nearly fell asleep during The Middle, I thought it took a huge step down this week. Chris Kattan positively blows, he sucks the energy out of every scene he's in.
ReplyDeleteI like Cougar Town more and more each week, despite Courteney Cox who I like less and less. The scenes she's not in are my favorite. The ex and the son are great, and I like the couple next door a lot. I really wish someone else was playing the lead.
I love that someone besides me hates all the shouting that Courtney does. I really don't know if she can act without doing it.
ReplyDeleteSo I am still watching hoping that Cox will tone down her shouting.
The ex-husband and her best friends husband are my favorite characters.
But can someone explain to me, what has happen to the mouth on Christa Miller?(Ellie)
She is about a half a step away from looking like Priscilla Presley after the injections of industrial silicone.
I kept looking at her in episode #1 wondering why I knew the voice and could not place the face. She really should stop whatever she is doing to her mouth.
Sorta liked The Middle at first, but the more I see, the more I feel like its just an uncomfortable mash up of other shows...mostly, it reminds me of The Office with its shaky camera and the father's Michael Scott-esque penchant for saying the most awkward possible thing in any given moment.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, its a little too much, its trying a little too hard and its a little too quirky for quirkyness's sake. I'll give it a few more episodes, but I don't find myself becoming particularly interested in any of the characters.
BTW, I like Ed O'Neil in just about everything (even John from Cincinnati) and his character is good here...that's the save for me.
Cougartown is a show I figured my wife would enjoy and so I put it on the DVR season pass, but neither of us have been able to watch more than a few minutes of it despite several attempts. Courtney Cox, who I used to enjoy, is just too much here...and this show is also trying way way too hard. There's just something off about it and I kinda sorta hate its guts with a lot of intensity. So there.
I agree with the consensus, this was a real step down for Cougar Town. CC is all of a sudden quite whiny and annoying, she didn't seem to be that before.
ReplyDeleteoops, that was about Modern Family, not The Middle...sorry, Alan
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched The Middle
Agreed, this episode of Cougar Town felt like the one where the network executives' notes arrived. Why did the neighbor have to be a sympathetic good guy? Why couldn't he stay a loveable cad? Why do the father and son have to have a bonding moment, why can't they stay uncomfortable? And why do we ever have to see the neighbors again ever?
ReplyDeleteI agree with bsangs. I don't buy the premise of the show because: A. No 40 year old woman looks as hot as Cox and B. it seems like they can't decide if the OTHER characters on the show acknowledge her hotness, or, if like other sitcoms, we're supposed to ignore that and pretend that she has "regular gal" problems like getting attention from men.
ReplyDeleteOh man, anon@1:35, in what unforunate burg are you stuck?
ReplyDeleteI know lots of 40 year old women who are as hot as CC. *Lots*.
And you do know CC is is 45, right?
Yes hot 45 year old women do have a world of trouble with dates & dating, everywhere, most of all of course in hot zones like FL and CA beach towns. Hence the premise of the show, etc.
The Middle is ok. I'm going to give it a few more episodes before I decide whether or not I really like it and want to continue watching it. I agree with some of the comments about it being mostly about the mom being overwhelmed by taking care of everyone else.
ReplyDeleteAs for Cougar Town, this is the first episode I watched and it was also the last episode I'll ever watch. There wasn't one thing I can say that I liked about the show.
There was also the part where she said she was pregnant at 19, and if her son is a senior and is 18, that would make her 37 and not 40.
ReplyDeleteThe Middle needs less voice over.
ReplyDeleteApparently I'm in the minority, but I actually liked this week's Cougar Town quite a bit. I thought it was funny and provided some much needed character development.
ReplyDeleteI do find myself laughing and enjoying Cougar Town a lot. However, they are really overdoing the sex aspect. Its just getting to the point where the entire episode is about sex. And Im sorry but her friends watching her sex tape was really gross, not funny at all.
ReplyDeleteI do think its funny but Im having a hard time seeing the longevity of a show like this.
I seem to be in the minority too, but I actually like CC in this show. The supporting characters still crack me up a lot more than hers, but I actually find that CC's shriller tendencies work in this setting (whereas I could not STAND Monica by the last few seasons of Friends). I don't know why, but I feel like it has something to do with her character here being a mom -- the wacky factor reminds me of some moms of teenagers I know.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCan't bring myself to watch the Heaton show, but I am loving the Cox show. And most 40-year old women I know look as good as Courteney. (Better, in fact, because they are botox-, collagen- and surgery-free.)
ReplyDeleteThis was mostly awful. I really enjoyed the 2nd episode as it seemed to set up the series as the adventures of a woman in her 40s who never got to enjoy her 20s because she was too busy being a mom, and now was trying to have those experiences even though she was self-aware enough to know it was too late and not the same.
ReplyDeleteThis was not that. Not at all.
Maybe it's because I'm not a 40-year old Mom trying to rediscover her youth or whatever, but I'm finding the show more and more repetitively annoying. Courtney Cox worked well within the Friends ensemble but now she's surrounded by actors who just aren't as funny and her lead role can't carry all the weight. The obnoxious overstating of their sexual lives is pointless and not even remotely funny. It almost feels like they're saying "hey we're being honest about sex...isn't that funny?" instead of actually cracking a clever joke about it.
ReplyDeleteWatching this back to back with Modern Family, the funniest new show in ages, really amplifies its weaknesses.
I think Bill Lawrence really struck out here.