Tag / Cougar Town

by admin

Book 39 (of 52) – This Will Only Hurt A Little

This Will Only Hurt a Little – Busy Philipps

From Freaks and Geeks to Dawson’s Creek and ER to Cougar Town, Busy Philipps has been a mainstay on television for over twenty years now.  In her memoir, It Only Hurts a Little, she covers her life story, from Oak Park to Arizona to, finally LA, where she realized her childhood dream to become an actress.

This was the first celebrity memoir I’ve read (or listened to) in a while that I’ve really enjoyed.  Busy takes herself and her career seriously, but not too seriously, and gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into shows that I’ve watched and enjoyed.  She was (and maybe still is?) a big deal on Instagram Reels, so maybe I’ll have to give her a follow.

by jim

Post Mortem – Cougar Town

cougar-town-cast-tbsAfter 6 seasons, split evenly between ABC and TBS, the poorly-named Cougar Town drew to a close this spring.  Originally featuring Courteney Cox as a divorced cougar (hence the name) trying to navigate the dating world, the show quickly pivoted to focus on Cox and her family and friends, far surpassing any juice in the original premise.

After 6 years, the show was starting to show its age.  Brian Van Holt had left the show as a regular during the last season, and the rest of the cast also seemed ready to move on.  At the end of the day, Cougar Town was the most successful post-Friends attempt by any of the Friends and certainly brought an audience to TBS, along with Conan, that might not have gone there otherwise.

by admin

Midseason Review – Tuesdays

old-tv-set1We continue our look back at my expectations for the fall television season, and today we are focusing on Tuesdays.

7:00

Selfie – I love Karen Gillan and am quite fond of John Cho, but put them together in this loose adaptation of Pygmalion and, at least based on the pilot, you get a steaming pile of something or other.  I will give this a chance to improve due to the talents involved, but I don’t hold out a great deal of hope.

Well, the show was quickly pulled off the air and cancelled.  Hopefully, Karen Gillan returns to our television screens quickly, in something worthy of her talents.

The Flash – Spinning off from Arrow comes this latest forray from the CW in to the world of DC superheroes.  Hopefully it follows more from Arrow‘s example than Smallville‘s.

I don’t know if this has been the best new show of the season, but it has certainly been the most fun.  It has a sense of joy that neither Smallville nor Arrow had before it that brings a bit of levity to the DC television universe.

7:30

Manhattan Love Story – I’m not too sold on giving this new show, about the romance beteen two nuerotic New Yorkers, a shot.  But, I’m willing to try anything once.

Well, some show had to be the first one cancelled this season, which is about the only thing this show accomplished.

8:00

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The show, which greatly improved following the events of Captain America: Winter Soldier, returns for a second season at a later timeslot and with a new status quo.

The battle between SHIELD and Hydra continues in a much improved show from one year ago.

Supernatural – For some reason that nobody can particularly understand, the show returns for its 10th season.  The show has been adrift for quite some time now and last season really started to drag.  I’m willing to keep watching, but I don’t know for how much longer.

Due to timeslot conflicts, I had to record this on a different TV.  To date, I’ve watched maybe 3 episodes of the new season and I’m not in much of a hurry to watch the rest.

Marry Me – Casey Wilson reunites with the creator of Happy Endings, who also happens to be her husband, for this new comedy.  Happy Endings was a tremendous show that ended way too early, so I will give this a shot and hope that it rekindles some of that magic.

This also needed to be recorded on a different TV due to timeslot conflicts.  I haven’t watched much of it, but I have enjoyed what I’ve seen.  It does seem to scratch, at least a little bit, that Happy Endings itch.

New Girl – The group returns for season 4, and less couples than we have seen in year’s past.  Hopefully, the funny keeps coming.

I think the problem is that they have too many characters that they don’t really know what to do with.

Continue reading →

by admin

Midseason Review – Tuesdays

old-tv-set1We continue our look back at my expectations for the fall television season, and today we are focusing on Tuesdays.

7:00

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Following the success of The Avengers, ABC, corporate sibling of Marvel, gets to air the spin-off featuring a team of SHIELD agents tracking down threats across the globe.

What looked to be the hit show of the fall has thus far disappointed.  From a strictly Marvel perspective, the lack of any recognizable characters, beyond Coulson, from the movie universe has been a disappointment.  From a Whedon perspective, the show has lacked any of the heart that previous Mutant Enemy productions have shown.  It may be that this show just has too many corporate masters to appease in order to put on a decent show.  I’ll keep watching, though, in the hopes that it improves.

7:30

Brooklyn Nine-Nine – There hasn’t been a real police workplace comedy since Barney Miller left the air in 1982.  The premiere episode wasn’t bad, but sometimes a little bit of Andy Samberg can go a long way.

The show still struggles occasionally with Andy Samberg overload, but, besides that, it has been a very surprising comedy hit.

8:00

New Girl – This show really found its footing once Zooey Deschanel’s Jess and Jake Johnson’s Nick hooked up towards the end of last season.  The two have incredible chemistry, and keeping them apart really served no purpose.  Now if only they could find a consistent usage for Winston.

With Happy Endings ending, Damon Wayans Jr. was available to return to the role he played in the pilot, at least for the remainder of this season.  Things have been a little uneven this season. Continue reading →

by jim

Midseason Review – Tuesdays

We continue our look back at my expectations for the fall television season, and today we are focusing on Tuesdays.

7:00

Raising Hope – The quirky Fox drama returns for its third season with more of the same hilarity.

Nothing new to report on the Raising Hope front.  You know what you are going to get: no more, no less.

7:30

Ben and Kate – The premiere episode wasn’t bad, and I was pretty impressed with Dakota Johnson as Kate, but I could feel Nat Faxon’s Ben starting to grate during the first half hour.  I’m not sure how much more of him I am willing to take.

As it turns out, I wasn’t willing to take any more, since I never went back to watch any subsequent episodes.

8:00

Go On – Matthew Perry’s latest attempt to escape the shadow of Chandler Bing has aired three episodes already and it isn’t bad.  Perry plays a sports radio host who joins a support group after his wife died.

Like most of Perry’s post-Friends output, a lot of the heavy lifting is left to his charm.  There are flashes of something here, though, and if the writers can figure out how to consistently offer something beyond Perry’s innate likability, they will be on to something.

New Girl – Zooey Deschanel returns in one of last season’s break out comedy hits.  The show got stronger as the season went on and the writers found their footing, and I’m looking forward to its return.

New Girl continues to impress, and has even started to find interesting things to do with Winston this year.

Happy Endings – This went from a late season replacement to one of the most consistently funny comedies on TV last season.  The ensemble group plays well off of each other and the writers bring the funny every week.

Still funny, but it seems that hardly anyone is watching.  With ABC burning off episodes by airing them on both Tuesdays and Sundays, I fear we may be looking at the unhappy end of Happy Endings.

Continue reading →

by jim

Midseason Review – Wednesdays

Continuing our look back at September’s thoughts about humpday’s tv output.

7:00

Undercovers – JJ Abrams revisits the spy drama for the first time since Alias, which was one of my favorite series.  That alone will give this show a reasonable leash.  I haven’t seen the pilot yet, so I can’t really comment on it beyond that.

Imagine a show with all of the problems Alias had integrating the spy world with the family stories, but without any of the good stuff Alias had.  NBC has pulled it off the schedule, never to be heard from again.

7:30

Better With You – I’ve enjoyed Jennifer Finnigan and Joanna Garcia in previous series, and last season’s new ABC comedies on Wednesday night turned out to be great, so I gave this a shot.  The only thing worse than this pilot is Garcia’s taste in men.

As you may have guessed from the comment above, this did not get a second chance.  Also, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, F Nick Swisher.

Continue reading →

by admin

2010 New Fall Season – Wednesdays

It’s humpday!

7:00

Undercovers – JJ Abrams revisits the spy drama for the first time since Alias, which was one of my favorite series.  That alone will give this show a reasonable leash.  I haven’t seen the pilot yet, so I can’t really comment on it beyond that.

7:30

Better With You – I’ve enjoyed Jennifer Finnigan and Joanna Garcia in previous series, and last season’s new ABC comedies on Wednesday night turned out to be great, so I gave this a shot.  The only thing worse than this pilot is Garcia’s taste in men.

Continue reading →