Round Two: Cougar Town

Cougar Town: Season 1, Episode 2 “Into the Great Wide Open” (C)

The second outing for this show is not a good one. The fun and freshness of the first episode is almost completely gone, and the show’s sustainable future is now very much in question. The main premise of the show is that Jules is getting older, but there needs to be something else besides that. Every joke can’t just be about how Jules is trying to act younger than she is; there has to be some kind of storyline each episode that drives, or at the very least supports, each episode. The rivalry between Ellie and Laurie over who has a stronger friendship with Jules. While it’s fun to see the way Ellie with hapless husband Andy, the fact that the two friends talk on the phone while looking at each other from neighboring houses was only funny the first few times. The other supporting characters aren’t worth much, especially Jules’ son and ex-husband, whereas they were far more entertaining last week. Jules has a job in real estate, and perhaps it would be better if she spent some more time actually working than just sitting around with her friends. That worked well on her last show, but it’s not appropriate here if there’s nothing else left to pick up the slack.