A quick review of tonight’s “Cougar Town” coming up just as soon as I can control my gag reflex…
“You Can Still Change Your Mind” serves as a good illustration of the various sitcom theories I sometimes espouse about character growth and/or characters you enjoy hanging out with. I’m not sure I laughed out loud a single time(*) at this one (your mileage will obviously vary), and yet I enjoy the Cul-de-Sac Crew enough that I was perfectly happy to spend 20+ minutes with them as they dealt with various touchstones of my youth like Simon and the horror that is Zubaz.
(*) Though I came close when Grayson whined about Jules taking away the pore-cleansing strip without letting him see all the gunk it had soaked up. I’m weird that way, too.
It helped that there were actual character stakes, of varying degrees, to the three main stories, and continuing things we know well about these people. Jules will always worry too much about Travis, Ellie will always push things too far in taunting her friends and then have to apologize, and Bobby usually wants to be taken more seriously than it would appear from the way he talks, dresses, eats and in every other way lives. There are times where the various heartwarming “this is how I really feel underneath all the stuff we were just joking about” moments on Bill Lawrence shows can feel forced, but in an episode like this they can wind up being the strongest part.
What did everybody else think?