Review: ‘Cougar Town’ – ‘Make It Better’

A quick review of last night’s “Cougar Town” coming up just as soon as I have non-McConnaughey examples…

I haven’t had time to review the last few episodes, but haven’t entirely loved any of them, for different reasons. (The flashback episode, for instance, felt like it was trying to stuff too much backstory into a short period, kind of like the “Co-Pilot” episode of “The Shield.”) But with the exception of how the Wade/Laurie relationship ended, I really enjoyed “Make It Better” a lot. It had a good mix of running gags (“Grease in Space,” Jules being very late to Tebowing, Painkiller Ellie being so much nicer than regular Ellie) and pathos. The Jules/Chick scene in the hammock was predictably beautiful, as any chance to let Ken Jenkins tear up always will be money in the bank.

I wasn’t crazy about Wade’s exit, not because his suspicions didn’t ring true, but because the show never bothered to make him enough of a character in his own right for his departure to have the emotional impact it was meant to. He was just a temporary obstacle to the Travis/Laurie pairing that the show has been itching to try out for a while now, and while there have been some funny Wade moments here and there, they’ve always involved other characters’ reacting to Wade (Laurie hoping that he would be “blacker than space,” Travis having to be Wade’s FaceTime surrogate) rather than something notable about him. Which is fine to a point – the show has lots of other characters to service, especially now that window doctor Tom has become more prominent – but means that any attempt to make us care that he’s gone falls flat, even if Laurie is sad about it.

Overall, though, a strong return to form after several uneven installments in a row.

What did everybody else think?

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