“Wine up, everybody!” – Jules
This is a Cougar Town installment wherein the comedy is a lot funnier than the drama dramatic.
Still, the comedy is really on point, helping to keep the show well in place as one of the more enjoyable half-hours that you can spend in front of a television. Let’s dispense with the drama first (and I’m thinking drama should be read as drah-ma with a really flat New Zealand accent) and then get to the laughs.
The main storyline involved Travis (Dan Byrd) finally taking off for college and mom Jules’ (Courtney Cox) absolute inability to deal. I kind of felt like we dealt with a lot of this theme while Travis graduated from high school during the final episodes of Season One, so it was slightly annoying to see Jules go to “crazy town” levels, rifling incessantly through old shoe boxes and Travis’ hair alternatively, sleeping in his STUD t-shirt to capture his smell (slightly creepy), taking him on a motorcycle ride and driving erratically so as to make Travis hug her all the tighter (creepy and dangerous both), and so on.
The B and C storylines weren’t that much more exciting, quite frankly: Ellie (Christa Miller) and Andy (Ian Gomez) sparred over whether or not to tell baby stories about baby Stan (and thus condemning themselves to standard issue boring parents), while Laurie (Busy Philipps) taught Bobby (Brian Van Holt) how to use the Internet.
What made the episode shine are the nearly constant quirky moments that are squeezed out of the ho hum drama. For example, Ellie and Grayson (Josh Hopkins) had an amazing (and amazingly weird) exchange, spurred by Ellie giving Andy the cold shoulder during their fight. Andy “craves” eye contact with Ellie, but she’s unwilling to give it. In fact, she takes things up another notch by announcing that she’s going to turn her piercing stare to another man. This follows:
- “How do you like it, dime eyes?” – Ellie
- “It’s cold.” – Grayson
- “Brr…” – Ellie
Only this cast and the show’s brood of silly and offbeat writers could pull off such bizarro escapades, but Miller and Hopkins pull it off beautifully, and it’s extremely funny.
Another example involves the Laurie-Bobby story, again with a small-ish but effective moment. Laurie is set to begin class in teaching Bobby how to use a laptop. She then realizes that she’s on a boat moored in a parking lot that has no electricity, and she and Bobby share a knowing look. A smash cut later the two are seated at a table at Grayson’s bar, and Laurie deadpans again that she’s ready for class to begin. She also mentions that, “The internet is like a series of spider webs,” which is pretty funny in a “series of connected tubes” kind of way.
Overall, I certainly don’t need every episode of Cougar Town to have the dramatic tension of the initial build-up to the Jules-Grayson relationship, but I am looking forward to everyone getting over Travis leaving for college so that we can get to something fresh. Of course, if the comedy built off the idiosyncrasies of the characters keeps coming strong, it’s much less of an issue than it otherwise would be.
More thoughts on this week’s episode:
- I’ve talked before about how I always enjoy when show episode titles play off each other. “Let Yourself Go” resonates nicely with relation to the brilliant “Letting You Go” from late in Season One (yeah, that was the one with morning drinking and midnight Enya, cowboy hats, and popcorn in case you were wondering).
- “It’s still pretty obvious.” – Ellie, in response to Travis asking if his STUD t-shirt still looks “ironic” as he has been working out so much (made all the more weird/funny by fact that this exchange takes place between Jule’s son and her best friend)
- Reason #731 why Cougar Town rules: playing quarters with red wine. That’s simply how the cul-de-sac crew rolls.
- And: “It’s really hard to chug pinot.” – Andy
- #732: Bobby and Travis fishing on Bobby’s boat… which is parked in a parking lot.
- Weirdo neighbor Tom agreeing to do household chores as he believes Ellie’s son died = amazing.
- “Ghost baby.” – Tom
- “Suck it, mom jeans.” – Laurie
Some stats and info about Cougar Town, “Let Yourself Go”
TV SHOW – Cougar Town
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 2, Episode 2
AIRED ON – September 29th, 2010
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – ABC/TBS
GENRE – Comedy, Relationship Shows
CREATED BY – Kevin Biegel, Bill Lawrence
CAST – Courteney Cox, Christa Miller, Busy Philips, Dan Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Ian Gomez, Brian Van Holt
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.