Cougar Town: Season Two

Why isn’t “Cougar Town” a bigger hit? On paper, it all makes perfect sense. It’s run by Bill Lawrence, the man who was behind “Scrubs” all the way to its unofficial finale. (I didn’t mind the med-school year, but it was unnecessary.) It stars Courtney Cox, one of the leads of the biggest sitcoms of all time. It has a really strong ensemble made of up Christa Miller (“Scrubs”), Busy Philipps (“Freaks and Geeks”), Dan Byrd (“Easy A”), Josh Hopkins, Ian Gomez and Brian Van Holt. Oh yeah, and it’s consistently funny week to week.

It can’t just be the title. Right?

Right?

Yes, it’s true that the first few episodes of Season One revolved around single mom Jules (Cox) trying to find younger men, but that changed. The show realized its strength by letting this cul-de-sac crew bounce off each other. Jules is in a solid relationship with Greyson (Hopkins) and shockingly, there is still room for comedy.

The reason it works is because the show is wonderfully character-based. All of the story arcs are based around their emotions instead of their plots. As funny as they are, the arcs take each character seriously. Even Bobby (Van Holt), who is Jules’ ex-husband and easily the most cartoonish character, is treated with respect when looking at his relationship with his son or his friends.

It’s never a flashy show. The most “epic” adventure the characters have is going to to Hawaii in the finale. Yet that's still centered around Travis’ pain, Jules’ and Grayson’s disagreement about their future, and Laurie’s realization about how far she must go to support her friends. Its light nature doesn’t downgrade the show but makes it something special. They’ve created this welcoming environment where it is a treat to see this group every week. What they do is almost irrelevant because they are strong enough on their own.

Ignore the title. This is a delight.

The bonus features include a featurette about the season where the cast and crew spend most of the time bashing the show's title. They keep rumoring they will change it, but who knows? Even their menus consist of mocking the title. It’s a bad title. There are also “Andy’s Dreams, webisodes based around Andy dreaming of some of their recurring jokes. I adored the inspirational sports trailer based around Penny Can, their beloved game where they throw pennies into a paint can. It’s fun. There are also deleted scenes and bloopers.

Season: 4 Yaps Extras: 4 Yaps