Busy Philipps

TV Review: Relocated ‘Cougar Town’ Might Not Be Worth Finding

BrianTT — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:32:10 -0500

CHICAGO – When ABC canceled “Cougar Town” after three seasons of mediocre ratings offset by some critics who were surprisingly loyal to the show, TBS swooped in and grabbed it up for a potential two seasons, the first of which premieres tonight, January 8, 2013. The show had some strong episodes but also a very inconsistent rhythm in its time on ABC and I hoped that the move along with the vote of confidence from the network would reinvigorate everyone involved to bring their A-game. My hopes were slightly dashed by the episodes sent to press, all of which have their laughs and display the talents of the cast but all of which also waste the opportunity to reboot, choosing to recycle instead.

Television Rating: 2.5/5.0

The best thing about “Cougar Town” has long been the cast. The show was nearly disastrous in the first season when it focused too heavily on Jules (Cox) and her search for sex and love. It found its critical following and a few loyal fans when it expanded to more closely resemble “Friends,” developing the entire ensemble instead of just focusing on one lead. Busy Philipps, who plays Laurie, started to really shine, even winning some awards, and other supporting players like Dan Byrd and Brian Van Holt were given a chance to shine.

Cougar Town
Photo credit: TBS

When a show is pushed through the door on one network and moves to another, wouldn’t you assume that is the time to iron out anything that isn’t working, take some risks, and really elevate a show? Would you be surprised to know that the season premiere of TBS is NO different than it would have been on ABC? In fact, the show feels even more desperate for laughs but that’s because it’s telling the same jokes. Most people who stumble upon the show on TBS could easily mistake the season premiere for a repeat given the network’s tendency to air past hits like “The Big Bang Theory.” For “Cougar Town” to really work on TBS, it needed to feel fresh and new. A new start and not just a new home. That’s not the case.

However, it’s not a complete loss. “Cougar Town” is one of those shows in which the ensemble is talented enough that any week could produce major laughs. Philipps, Byrd, Cox, and Van Holt rule and I don’t mean that as a slight on Ian Gomez, Christa Miller, or Josh Hopkins. They’re all good here. It’s the writing that frustrates me. There are a lot of sitcoms on network TV working with talented ensembles that don’t get enough press — “Happy Endings,” “Go On,” “Suburgatory,” “The Middle,” “Raising Hope” — and I feel like “Cougar Town” needs to do more to be a place to visit. Especially now that the “Town” has moved to a new neighborhood that might be harder to find.

“Cougar Town” stars Courteney Cox, Christa Miller, Busy Philipps, Dan Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Ian Gomez, and Brian Van Holt. It premieres on TBS on Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 9pm CST.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Blu-ray Review: Insulting, Miscast ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’

BrianTT — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:15:54 -0500

CHICAGO – “I Don’t Know How She Does It” could have been just another misogynistic (you would never see “I Don’t Know How HE Does It”…the very title implies sexism) alleged comedy but it goes well beyond that partially because it features one of the worst screenplays of 2011 but also because it is easily one of the most miscast movies ever made. I liked HBO’s “Sex and the City” (not the movies) but Sarah Jessica Parker simply fits this role about as well as Gene Hackman would fit in the co-lead role of the sixth “Fast and the Furious” movie. She’s awkward, uncomfortable, and never once believable. It’s nearly fascinating like a car crash. Instead, it’s just awful.

Blu-ray Rating: 0.5/5.0

A stunning portion of the first act of “IDKHSDI” consists of lead character Kate Reddy (Parker) trying to turn her store-bought pie into something that looks homemade. Seriously, these are the characters in this film’s concept of serious problems — how other mothers look at their bake sale offerings. And someone thought this was dramatically weighty enough to be a movie. It should have been called “I Don’t Know How She Can Be So Shallow.”

As for Parker, she brings way too much Carrie Bradshaw to a role that needed to be an “Everywoman” in order to work in the slightest. Carrie wasn’t an everywoman. She wore the newest fashions, dated gorgeous men, and traveled in incredible social circles. People wanted to be her or her friends. She carries way too much of that character into this one, making her miscast in the entire film. The true shame is that there are some seriously talented people in the supporting cast, including Pierce Brosnan, Christina Hendricks, Olivia Munn, and Busy Philipps. We’re used to people like Kelsey Grammer and Seth Meyers slumming in bad comedies but even this one feels below their pay grade.

Much worse than the miscasting is the stereotypical misogyny. Women prepare for bake sales. Men take clients to strip clubs. Women worry about when their kids get to school. Men don’t notice when they’re out of toilet paper. Really? Sigh. What year is it? 1960? This would have looked outdated then. It’s just an awful, horrendous, laugh-free script. I don’t know why they made it.

I Don’t Know How She Does It
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company

Synopsis:
Trying to balance work and family is a non-stop juggling act for Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker). As a determined Boston-based finance executive, she devotes her day to her job and her night to her adoring husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) and their two young children. In between conference calls, meetings, deadlines, and her daughter’s school bake sale, Kate manages to survive on a daily basis. But when she gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, and Richard also wins the new job he’s been hoping for, both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate’s charming new business associate Jack Ablehammer (Pierce Brosnan), a handsome executive whose unexpected emotional support becomes a source of refuge.

Special Features:
o A Conversation with Best-Selling Author Allison Pearson

“I Don’t Know How She Does It” stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Christina Hendricks, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Meyers, Olivia Munn, Jane Curtin, Busy Philipps, Sarah Shahi, and Jessica Szohr. It was written by Aline Brosh McKenna and directed by Douglas McGrath. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 3rd, 2012.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

TV News: ABC Bringing Back ‘Cougar Town’ on Tuesday Nights

BrianTT — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:40:59 -0500

CHICAGO – After months of wondering if it will come back at all, it turns out that the total failure of the abysmal “Work It” was the best thing that could have happened to fans of “Cougar Town.” ABC announced today that the Courteney Cox hit will return on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 at 7:30pm CST. I’m still not sold that this is a good fit with “Last Man Standing,” but it’s better than nothing. Hopefully next year they can move “The Middle” to this slot and put “CT” back on Wednesdays where it belongs.

“Cougar Town” stars Courteney Cox, Christa Miller, Busy Philipps, Dan Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Ian Gomez, and Brian Van Holt. The season premiere was written and directed by show creator Bill Lawrence.

Now we just have to figure out how to get the similarly-limbo “Community” back on the air. I’m looking at you Chelsea.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

DVD Review: ‘Cougar Town’ With Courteney Cox Deserves Another Chance

BrianTT — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:16:26 -0400

CHICAGO – If you’re like most people, you probably wrote off “Cougar Town” after hearing the overly simplified concept or watching the incredibly sporadic first few months of the ABC series. You should take another look. The Courteney Cox vehicle, now on DVD, changed gears so radically that there’s a special feature about the mid-season shift in tone on the DVD and I have a feeling this series could improve even more in season two, finding a rhythm that it could maintain for years to come.

DVD Rating: 3.5/5.0

“Cougar Town” stars the very gifted Cox as a single mom named Jules dealing with the pitfalls of being a 40-year-old woman in Florida in 2010. After being recently divorced, she manages weekly issues of motherhood, friendship, career, and dating. From the very-talented Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs”), “Cougar Town” started off a weak partner to ABC’s brilliant “Modern Family” but ended strongly enough that I would be sorry to see it go from the ABC Wednesday night lineup.

When the show began, the emphasis was too squarely on Jules’ attempts to bag a younger man and the jokes about the double-standard between women and men in their forties were hit a little too hard. Cox and her supporting cast didn’t look comfortable and the show couldn’t find a rhythm. Even then, there were hints of what could be, largely because Lawrence is a very talented TV writer and this cast is remarkably strong overall. But the show clearly needed a few revisions before mid-season.

Cougar Town: The Complete First Season was released on DVD on August 10th, 2010
Photo credit: ABC/Buena Vista

As you’ll learn on the refreshingly honest DVD feature “Taming Cougar Town,” the show got those revisions and ditched most of the plotlines about Jules feeling her age and trolling Florida for attractive young men. It became much more of an ensemble comedy and the featurette goes as far as to compare it to “Friends twenty years later,” which may be a bit of an overstatement but clearly states the switch in comedic style that turned the show around.

The show is still too inconsistent to stand with the best comedies on television and it really paled in comparison to its freshman classmates of the form last year in “Glee,” “Modern Family,” and “Community,” but there’s a lot to like here. First and foremost, Courteney Cox is giving one of the strongest lead female performances in a comedy currently on television. Her comic timing is perfect and it’s a shame that the Academy didn’t notice. A nomination would have helped draw viewers to a show that could use the help.

Cougar Town: The Complete First Season was released on DVD on August 10th, 2010
Photo credit: ABC/Buena Vista

But Cox is not alone. The ensemble on “Cougar Town,” particularly Dan Byrd, Busy Philipps, and Brian Van Holt, took about half of a season but they developed a great rapport. Sadly, I think the weak link is Christa Miller. She’s talented but she seems to still be playing a slightly different show, choosing broad stereotypical comedy while the rest of the cast has toned it down and are delivering something more subtle. But Miller has great comic timing and could easily get on the same page by the time the second season premieres.

The writing on “Cougar Town” still fluctuates a bit but there’s something redeeming about every episode in the entire second half of the season. In the last few years, several great comedies have taken time to find their feet, including “30 Rock” and “Community.” It almost seems more common for a program to take time to find its rhythm than to see it jump out of the gate in perfect form. So it took “Cougar Town” longer than average. The important thing is that it got there.

The DVD release for the first season of “Cougar Town” is a bit lackluster. The show looks beautiful in its original HD broadcast, so why do fans who are willing to buy it have to visually downgrade to a merely average standard widescreen transfer? The show should be available on Blu-ray or at least look better than this standard release. The special features have a fun spirit but are all amazingly brief and the set includes no commentary tracks. The aforementioned featurette, while interesting, runs less than five minutes. It says something that the most entertaining featurette is a spoof of the now-gone sexual focus of “Cougar Town” from “Jimmy Kimmel Live” called “Saber-Tooth Tiger Town” featuring Cloris Leachman and Shirley Jones. You can probably guess how that goes, but you should still see it.

Special Features:
o Bloopers
o Deleted Scenes
o “Taming Cougar Town”
o “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Saber-Tooth Tiger Town”
o “Ask Barb”
o “Stroking It With Bobby Cobb”

“Cougar Town: The Complete First Season” stars Courteney Cox, Christa Miller, Busy Philipps, Dan Byrd, Josh Hopkins, Ian Gomez, and Brian Van Holt. It was released on DVD on August 17th, 2010 and is not rated. It runs 520 minutes.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

TV Review: ‘Cougar Town’ With Courteney Cox Reeks of Desperation

BrianTT — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:05:50 -0400

CHICAGO – There are major chunks of ABC’s very disappointing “Cougar Town” with Courteney Cox that resemble a stand-up comedian so eager to please that you can see the desperate flop sweat forming on their brow as joke after joke hit the floor with a thud. More pathetically manic than honestly funny, it’s the writing on the weakest part of the network’s entirely new Wednesday night line-up that lets down its talented star.

Television Rating: 1.5/5.0

The title of “Cougar Town” subtly refers to the local high school football team but, of course, also references its lead character, a single mother named Jules (Cox) who lives in a town apparently just down the sex-crazed spectrum from Wysteria Lane on “Desperate Housewives”. One of the few remarkable things about “Cougar Town” is the single-minded focus of the premiere - Jules needs to get laid.

Courteney Cox, Busy Philipps.
Photo credit: ABC/Michael Desmond

Jules is recently divorced with a smart ass kid (the very funny Dan Byrd of the sadly belated “Aliens in America”) and a moronic ex-husband (Brian Van Holt). But they’re merely window dressing. “Cougar Town” is about the ladies, most notably her best friend (Busy Philipps) and horny neighbor (Christa Miller), who both push Jules into the supposed trend of older women bagging younger men.

Courteney Cox.
Photo credit: ABC/James White

Almost immediately, “Cougar Town” warrants a raised eyebrow. Does anyone on Earth think that Courteney Cox, who looks amazing and plays a likable character who comes off as smart and sweet, would have trouble meeting guys? The writers try to play the concept that Jules isn’t getting out enough, but the fact is that it’s a tough sell to portray Jules as desperate for the company of a man.

But it’s not for lack of trying. Every joke in “Cougar Town” is about Jules’ frustration with her age or sexual frustration. The writing on “Cougar Town” is about as subtle as “Age of Love,” the notorious reality show about older women and younger men. Every joke is predictable and telegraphed and, worst of all, the men steal the show including Byrd and Josh Hopkins as a playboy neighbor.

The problem with “Cougar Town” is simple - the writers started with concept instead of character. The best writing always works from plot and character not from a theme. When every joke has to work its way back to Jules’ getting laid or being frustrated with her age, you sense the desperation to hammer home the theme instead of build a believable, three-dimensional character.

Ultimately, “Cougar Town” is a massive waste of an opportunity. The cast is interesting and the concept isn’t really that bad. Imagine a show that honestly portrays a forty-something divorcee looking for love. “Cougar Town” thinks it’s that show but there’s nothing honest about it. It’s a beautiful star telling sex jokes, not anything normal women can relate to in any way. The show may be about a woman trying to find a stable, satisfying sex life, but I doubt it will be on the air long enough for that to actually happen.

‘Cougar Town,’ which airs on ABC, premieres on September 23rd, 2009 at 8:30PM CST. It stars Courteney Cox, Busy Philipps, Christa Miller, Brian Van Holt, Dan Byrd, and Josh Hopkins. It was created by Bill Lawrence.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com