Won't you take me to...Cougar Town

In the new ABC comedy Cougar Town (Wednesdays at 9:30pm), Courtney Cox plays Jules Cobb, a 40 year old recently divorced mom, insecure about being back on the dating scene and struggling to deal with the fact that she’s getting older. With the help of her much younger friend and party-girl Laurie (Busy Philipps), Jules is introduced to the exciting world of bars, cocktails, and hot younger men. The pilot, which sets all this up with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, sadly never really takes off and Cox is left to pretty much carry the entire show on her own. The script was rigid and inorganic, with the dialogue and story never quite feeling natural. That said, however, I did let out a few hearty “HA’s” during the course of the episode and that was mainly due to Cox’s sparkling performance. She has a hilarious way of fusing insecurity with a bold, manic energy. Cox is both endearing and empowering at the same time, which isn’t easy to pull off.

The second episode, which aired Wednesday, felt much more fluid. Jules realizes that since she became a mother at such a young age, she never had a chance to be wild and crazy, like everyone else did in their 20's. So, to make up for lost time, Jules sets out to cougarize the town, ends up pulling a Lionel Richie, and parties all night long. She bar hops, dances on poles, has a run in with the cops, and tops it all off by pigging out on a stack of gigantic pancakes – an adventure for Jules, but as any twenty-something will tell you, a pretty standard night out. It’s a great scene, hilariously told via a montage of cell phone photos set to Beyonce’s Single Ladies. Again, Cox’s performance was the best part of the show, and this time the script and the story managed to give her much more to work with, which was enjoyable to see.

The main problem with Cougar Town is that Jules has the misfortune of living on one of the most boring cul-de-sacs in TV land. The supporting characters in her life are - for the most part - uninteresting and flat, from best friend Elle (Christa Miller from Scrubs), who is wedged in between the unfunny roles of critic and grumpy wife/mom, to Grayson (Josh Hopkins), Jules’ smarmy, yet handsome across-the-street neighbor who is undoubtedly being cultivated for a future love interest. I’ve seen enough TV shows and romantic comedies to know that when a man and a woman hate each other that much from the very beginning, they’re going to end up having sex later. But, I digress. If Cougar Town is going to succeed – and it does have the potential to do so – Jules’ world has to get a lot more interesting.

After the jump, is the montage of Jules’ drunken night out that had me cracking up. I can’t say I’ve never had a night like that before! Man, 21 was a good year… Anyways, I’m working on the recap of Modern Family as we speak so check back soon for that post!