Thursday, April 01, 2010

Cougar Town, "Everything Man": Pursey-cat doll

Don't have time today for a full-length review of last night's "Cougar Town," but as I missed reviewing last week's altogether, I should say that my opinion here is pretty much in step with Myles McNutt's: even by this show's increasingly weird standards, "Everything Man" felt particularly random, yet the enthusiasm of the cast and creative team manages to carry the day even as we're getting a lot of "at what hour of the night were these written?" jokes about talking Japanese bidets, Travis's girlfriend making out with Dog Travis, or "Molly Ringwald" with rolled R's. And Sheryl Crow's doing fine so far as Grayson's special lady friend, even if she's wisely not being asked to do more than be the foil to Jules and her oddball gang.

What did everybody else think?

11 comments:

Mark S. said...

For a show with a silly premise and an odd cast, it's growing on me. It took the writers a few episodes to figure out how to make the women funny (the men were funny from the beginning) and it's turned into a fairly generic yet funny show.

LB said...

It really is the cast keeping this elevated on the weeks when the writing isn't on par to some of its great moments (such as the Shawshank Redemption re-enactment). At some point, it became must watch television for me (along with Modern Family, it's the only sitcom I watch regularly).

Rich said...

Its all subjective, but i guess i dont know why you find these jokes weird and random any more than Community has recently with its pop cult randomness etc,

I thought this show has gelled into such a wonderful ensemble show about a newly formed pseudo family. Thought there was an overall theme to the show and the way they used Travis pictures to capture Jules real feelings was great.

The scenes are quick and tight and fly with sharp banter and it feels like a real group of friends to me.

Plus the lines were on fire and tell me what one regular member of the cast last night didnt deliver.

Bonus: New Grayson song

LA said...

Grayson singing on Cougar Town is the spiritual equivalent to Turk dancing on Scrubs. It just makes me happy.

This show entertains me.

The whole time they were in that bathroom, I was wondering if it was a bathroom in BL/CM's home and whether they took the cost of renovation as a write-off by using it as a set. Yeah, I really need to stop drinking coffee after 3:00 p.m.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Its all subjective, but i guess i dont know why you find these jokes weird and random any more than Community has recently with its pop cult randomness etc,

I would say there's more cohesion to what Community does than what Cougar Town does (and I say this as someone who has really enjoyed CT since they changed the focus off of Jules dating young dudes). Both shows are strange, but other than the closing tags with Abed and Troy, very little of Community feels like a joke was thrown in there just because people in the writers' room (correctly) found it funny; they're there because they serve the characters and/or the theme.

dez said...

The best part was Grayson's new song. The worst: Sheryl Crow. Is her character's arc almost done? Bah.

Karen said...

For a mostly random episode, this had some powerfully good moments: I'm thinking especially of the two photos Travis took of Jules when her guard was down (that last one killed me, actually), and Jules' confrontation of Grayson about his purseyness, which was an amazing blend of selflessness and selfishness.

No, perhaps not the strongest episode overall--the whole bathroom storyline was just ODD--but one that actually felt like it had glue to hold some of the larger arcs together.

forg/jecoup said...

I love how they love to hangout in the newly renovated bathroom of Jules and the apology hug haha.

Sheryl Crow is just OK, it would have worked better for me if they cast someone not that famous for the role

Allie said...

I caught up with it tonight. Grayson was way too sappy. Heating socks? Give me a break.

Bathroom remodel & Japanese toilet - meh.

The songs - fun, as always. "Pursycat". and especially "shower babies" - (humor is subjective) - I laughed loudly.

Jules's expression at the Grayson, knowing her advice worked - poignant and interesting.

Unknown said...

This has become one of my favorite shows. I love the loose, "random" nature of the show, and I loved this episode no less that the others.

I thought that maybe they'd do a NewsRadio and have the bathroom be "ruined" when someone actually used it. On NewsRadio it was: "I thought it was unspoken that we all were using the ladies' room" when Mathew came out of a stall. Did anyone else think that too?

alex s. said...

At this point, this show feels exactly like Scrubs without the medical background. And instead of John McGinley's Dr. Cox, they have Monica Geller from Friends. It's not awful, but it's not as interesting as it could be, and I'm not sure it will ever come close to either of those series when they were running well.