Season 3, Episode 1
In the months leading up to the premiere of the show's thirds season – even before a specific return date was set – Bill Lawrence and the cast and writers of Cougar Town implemented their own grassroots campaign to increase awareness for the show, doing everything from a death march of reviews, twittering their thumbs off, hosting a Paley center panel, releasing a 10 minutes spoiler reel to make sure people understood that the show's original premise is no longer in use, and even throwing up viewing parties all over the nation where fans could gather, watch the first few episodes of the show, and drink oh so much wine.
As such, this paragraph is not for you, the fan who clicked on through. You can skip down a little if you like. No, these opening paragraphs are written to appear on blog's main page, where someone randomly scrolling through other posts might see it and briefly flirt their eyes over these words. To those people, I would suggest the following. Read these inspired pleas from Ryan McGee and Maureen Ryan. Then visit this post from Alan Sepinwall, whose collected a number of clips from the past two seasons to show exactly how the show shed it's old premise and became so much better for it. Then if you are still not convinced, go visit the 10 minute reel I mentioned above. I readily admit that Cougar Town's sense of humor is purposefully specific and a little weird, and in no way to I expect it to appeal to everybody. But if you've never seen the show, or you wrote it off based on the first few episodes (I don't blame you), you owe it to yourself to give it a real, honest-to-goodness chance, lest you miss out on something that you might enjoy as much as I and many others do.
Because as all the fans who actually watched the premiere know, it was pretty fucking great, and an excellent example of why the show needs to stick around for year to come.
To stick with that idea of changing perceptions that I mentioned at the start (and yes fans, this is where you should commence reading again), this afternoon I watched one of the most awesome pieces of television ever made, the Alias episode “Phase One.” Selected by ABC as the show to follow Super Bowl XXXVII, “Phase One” had to both serve the needs of the master plot while also allowing those that stuck around after the game to easily understand the show's world. As such, there was a lot of unnecessary exposition, but more importantly it was an hour which wrapped up most of a season-and-a-half's worth of storylines while also providing new ones in the process.
I obviously bring this up because “Ain't Love Strange” seems to have much similar goals in how it plans to capture any potential new viewers that will have turned in thanks to all that relentless promotion. The show of course has already shed it's original, terrible premise, and it of course addresses that simply by being something else entirely, but it's also interesting to note how it gives itself a clean slate for the upcoming season.
The main way that it does this of course is through the main A-plot, where in we see Grayson propose to Jules. Now, this was a plot point that I had more or less ruined by Twitter (and frankly, I also deduced it from ABC's terrible marketing for the show), so besides giving me another reason to detest the fact that I have class on Tuesday nights, it also means that I doubt I can properly critique this storyline in regards to how it was set up since I saw it coming from a mile away and thus could pick up on all the (hopefully) little hints throughout the episode. However, I will admit that I was moved by the closing scene, as I'm sure that many people were.
Those new to the show? Probably not as much. But I believe that's okay for two reasons. A), it hopefully meant that those unfamiliar with the show wouldn't know enough about its formula to predict the ending, and that that sense of surprise could take the place of the emotion for the characters that they didn't feel. B) More importantly, setting Grayson and Jules off on a new plotline – them planning for their wedding – could hopefully be something that would intrigue new viewers into tuning in for the upcoming weeks, while also leaving that messy “will we have children” debate from season two behind.
I wasn't so impressed with the other two plots of the episode, but I believe that they will also serve their own important purposes for the new audience. The Travis/Bobby plot felt just unnecessary – I couldn't quite understand why the show would want us to care about where Dog Travis ended up, nor exactly why Bobby thought giving Boy Travis would somehow help him stay close to son. However, it does do some important leg work it further transitioning Travis into adulthood (according to Bill Lawrence, he's 21 now), which should make it easier for new viewers to understand how he fits into the Cul-de-Sac Crew group dynamic, much more so when he was still a teenager. Secondly, it introduces the green screen, which just has so many comedic possibilities.
The C-plot, which involves Ellie and Andy worried about whether Stan will turn out to be a Devil Baby, was certainly funnier than the Bobby/Travis plot, but I think suffered from the formulaic nature of it's structure, especially the generic “he'll be fine, he's got you as great parents” speech that Laurie had to give. I mean, I enjoyed seeing Stan ape Laurie's actions – nothing from the episode made me happier – but I wish the show had explored that angle further, and not gone with such a pat ending. But for the new viewer's, this plot did a lot legwork introducing Laurie, Ellie, and Andy, and reminding even the staunchest CT fans that Stan still exists, and it did it all very efficiently.
Despite these narrative missteps, I can't say that I disliked, or even mildly enjoyed this episode – I flat out enjoyed it, even if I didn't love it. Even at it's low point, the show can still bring the funny (I'm obviously not counting the first six episodes), and that's exactly what the show did here, providing an entirely enjoyable hour even in the fact of some undercooked storylines. And it may just be the fact that the show's back after nine months off the air, but I could really feel that this show deserves more seasons based on this episode alone. I mean, couldn't you?
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
This week in title cards: “Yeah, it's still called Cougar Town. We're not happy about it either.”
“Wow, democracy works.”
“That's not true – when I was young I was crazy about dirty long-hairs.”
“So, you're only going to be mad at me?” “I am.” “Yeah....”
“I don't really know most of there names; I think there's a Steve. Hey, Steve!” “Yo!” “Sup bro?” “Huh, there are two Steves.”
“It's Jules' Slightly Longer Morning Routine Song.”
“When it comes to love, I'm a street-rapping love poet, yo.”
“Raise your hand if you just built a hot tub...”
“This should be the gang.”
“No, don't leave me. Prison's great! You can get those neat teardrop tattoos.”
I obviously bring this up because “Ain't Love Strange” seems to have much similar goals in how it plans to capture any potential new viewers that will have turned in thanks to all that relentless promotion. The show of course has already shed it's original, terrible premise, and it of course addresses that simply by being something else entirely, but it's also interesting to note how it gives itself a clean slate for the upcoming season.
The main way that it does this of course is through the main A-plot, where in we see Grayson propose to Jules. Now, this was a plot point that I had more or less ruined by Twitter (and frankly, I also deduced it from ABC's terrible marketing for the show), so besides giving me another reason to detest the fact that I have class on Tuesday nights, it also means that I doubt I can properly critique this storyline in regards to how it was set up since I saw it coming from a mile away and thus could pick up on all the (hopefully) little hints throughout the episode. However, I will admit that I was moved by the closing scene, as I'm sure that many people were.
Those new to the show? Probably not as much. But I believe that's okay for two reasons. A), it hopefully meant that those unfamiliar with the show wouldn't know enough about its formula to predict the ending, and that that sense of surprise could take the place of the emotion for the characters that they didn't feel. B) More importantly, setting Grayson and Jules off on a new plotline – them planning for their wedding – could hopefully be something that would intrigue new viewers into tuning in for the upcoming weeks, while also leaving that messy “will we have children” debate from season two behind.
I wasn't so impressed with the other two plots of the episode, but I believe that they will also serve their own important purposes for the new audience. The Travis/Bobby plot felt just unnecessary – I couldn't quite understand why the show would want us to care about where Dog Travis ended up, nor exactly why Bobby thought giving Boy Travis would somehow help him stay close to son. However, it does do some important leg work it further transitioning Travis into adulthood (according to Bill Lawrence, he's 21 now), which should make it easier for new viewers to understand how he fits into the Cul-de-Sac Crew group dynamic, much more so when he was still a teenager. Secondly, it introduces the green screen, which just has so many comedic possibilities.
The C-plot, which involves Ellie and Andy worried about whether Stan will turn out to be a Devil Baby, was certainly funnier than the Bobby/Travis plot, but I think suffered from the formulaic nature of it's structure, especially the generic “he'll be fine, he's got you as great parents” speech that Laurie had to give. I mean, I enjoyed seeing Stan ape Laurie's actions – nothing from the episode made me happier – but I wish the show had explored that angle further, and not gone with such a pat ending. But for the new viewer's, this plot did a lot legwork introducing Laurie, Ellie, and Andy, and reminding even the staunchest CT fans that Stan still exists, and it did it all very efficiently.
Despite these narrative missteps, I can't say that I disliked, or even mildly enjoyed this episode – I flat out enjoyed it, even if I didn't love it. Even at it's low point, the show can still bring the funny (I'm obviously not counting the first six episodes), and that's exactly what the show did here, providing an entirely enjoyable hour even in the fact of some undercooked storylines. And it may just be the fact that the show's back after nine months off the air, but I could really feel that this show deserves more seasons based on this episode alone. I mean, couldn't you?
Quotes and Other Thoughts:
This week in title cards: “Yeah, it's still called Cougar Town. We're not happy about it either.”
“Wow, democracy works.”
“That's not true – when I was young I was crazy about dirty long-hairs.”
“So, you're only going to be mad at me?” “I am.” “Yeah....”
“I don't really know most of there names; I think there's a Steve. Hey, Steve!” “Yo!” “Sup bro?” “Huh, there are two Steves.”
“It's Jules' Slightly Longer Morning Routine Song.”
“When it comes to love, I'm a street-rapping love poet, yo.”
“Raise your hand if you just built a hot tub...”
“This should be the gang.”
“No, don't leave me. Prison's great! You can get those neat teardrop tattoos.”
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