Marg: Cougar Town Anonymous

Hello, my name is Marg and I like Cougar Town.

Here's the thing. I know TV. I'm into it. I watch stuff you've never heard of. I am a snob and I'm picky. And if it is obviously a stupid show, then I'm not going to watch it. You are probably nodding along, or rolling your eyes because you know that you watch something more highbrow than I could ever dream of watching because it's a 4 episode surrealist sitcom from Portugal and I wouldn't get it. You're a snob too, I take it.

So my fellow television snobs, I understand that when you heard a few years ago that Courteney Cox had a new show and it was called Cougar Town, and it was about a middle aged woman dating younger men - that you cringed and said "No!" like you were Caesar the Chimpanzee in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. You vowed never to watch such a monstrosity. I get it.


I assumed I would feel the same way. But I watched the pilot offering anyway, because I was in a ridiculous writing for television program at the time, and it seemed like something I should do for homework.

Only two moments stood out for me in that pilot. One, it opens with a bare-faced Courteney Cox pulling at her skin in the bathroom mirror. She investigates it with grim fascination, she stretches it and it does not snap back in place. For a scene intrinsically linked with vanity (she's staring in a mirror! She wishes she looked better!) it is one of the least vain moments I've ever seen on a network comedy.

The second moment of the pilot involves Busy Phillips' character Laurie following Courtney Cox's Jules home from a night out with some impossibly young man in tow - she delivers him at Jules' door, then calls out from a convertible "You left this at the bar, bitch!"

And it was really freakin' funny.  

If you know anyone at all who watches Cougar Town - and you've managed to actually hear the words coming out of their mouth over the sound of your own horrified judgmental gasps - you know they will have told you "The show isn't even about that anymore!"

It isn't about Jules the Cougar anymore, this is the truth. This flimsy premise was dropped a few (excruciating) episodes in, and since then, the show has morphed into basically just being about a small group of grown-ups drinking together in the sunny, happy setting of Florida, doing wacky things, playing games, and going on silly, mini adventures.

And people still scoff about it, they turn their noses up at a funny, strange little show without ever giving it a chance. They hate the name, sure, but we all hate the name. Cougar Town hates it's own name (as evidenced by the show's amazing title sequences).

Perhaps it is the look of the show? Cougar Town is bright and day-timey, and doesn't look cool. It is the opposite of gritty.

Perhaps people aren't that into a woman in her forties carrying a show? I really hope it isn't that, since Courteney Cox is really hilarious - and also, anyone that ageist and sexist can go screw themselves.

Ultimately, I hope that when Cougar Town's third season finally airs starting on Feb. 14th on ABC, more people check their egos at the door and give it an honest chance.

Any show that Abed likes so much should at least be worth a shot. 

-Marg
@acuteinsomnia