“Cougar Town: The Complete First Season” DVD Review
As is the case with just about any TV series, you have to get through the first few episodes to really get an idea of where a series is going. Bill Lawrence’s shows have always been a clear example of that, whether it’s Spin City or Scrubs, his material and ideas take a bit getting used to—not only for the viewers but also the writers and actors who always seem to hit their stride with a few episodes of the series. Cougar Town is Lawrence’s latest effort and while the premise may be a bit off putting at first, it’s one that quickly grows on you, regardless of your gender.
Synopsis
Golden Globe® nominee* Courteney Cox (Friends) stars in the hilarious hit comedy Cougar Town: The Complete First Season. After spending the last seventeen years as a wife and mother, recently divorced Jules (Cox) has reluctantly waded back into the dating pool and quickly finds herself in over her head. Now forty-something and single, Jules tackles real-life issues – dating, parenting and friendship. It doesn’t help Jules that her two best friends can hardly stand each other, her ex-husband is hanging around more now than he did during their marriage…and there’s that handsome divorced neighbor that Jules can’t quite get out of her head. Packed with laugh-out-loud moments and featuring a cast of television’s brightest comedic stars, Cougar Town struts its stuff in this DVD collection, along with exclusive bonus features and one or two special surprises. Cougar Town – it’s more than a place, it’s a state of mind.
Obviously the main premise of the show is older women “going after” younger men but it seems that’s even something that the writers found to be finite as it quickly shifts from that premise after the first few episodes. This is a relief because as humorous as calling older women “cougar’s” is, it’s not usually something that lasts past a few one-liners. The opening of the series seemed like that scene from Knocked Up, only it went on into several episodes, but since the writers quickly resolved that “issue” there really wasn’t much to complain about as the series progressed into its own individuality.
Truth be told there are a lot of similarities between this and Lawrence’s other shows, which really isn’t a bad thing at all. I was a huge fan of Scrubs (and wasn’t even warming up to its redux…which not surprisingly crashed and burned) and was pretty well acquainted with Spin City, so diving into Cougar Town wasn’t a huge surprise when it came to the type of humor it was spitting out. It’s the same type of quick and witty one-liners that I was used to. Thankfully like Lawrence’s other shows this one features a pretty vast cast which is ripe for plenty of humorous situations and character exploration. Add to the fact that Cox’s character has a variety of friends to play off of on the show and you’re rarely without a situation in which something funny isn’t going on.
Admittedly the show does lean towards the act of sex for laughs a bit more than other shows so if you’ve grown tired of such things then you’ll probably want to avoid Cougar Town…but then again what would you really expect from a show with that kind of title anyway? It’s definitely a witty and well written show but even I got kind of bored of the constant sex jokes…which is kind of surprising to be honest, but that tends to happen when you watch nearly nine hours of a show with very few breaks inbetween episodes.
Overall Cougar Town is definitely a Recommended series to check out and considering how much it improved over this first season alone I expect it to be even better by the time it gets into its second season in a month or so.
The DVD
Cougar Town arrives with its first season in a standard clear amaray case that houses the three discs required for this twenty-four episode season. Packaging is similar to other ABC Studios releases, although the cardboard o-ring that accompanies this set isn’t fancy in the least…just a standard cardboard slip with only slight embossing around Cox’s silhouette. Video is a standard 1.78:1 presentation and it looks great and is more than adequate for a series of this caliber. The DD5.1 mix was surprisingly thorough throughout the season, with a decent surround mixture for crowd sequences although the majority is all center channeled focused.
Extras include:
• Bloopers (2 minutes)
• Deleted Scenes (fifteen total)
• Taming Cougar Town – Discover How Cougar Town Has Evolved From Its Initial Comedy Pilot Into Today’s More Subtly Sexy ABC Hit (5 minutes)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Saber-Tooth Tiger Town (2 minutes)
• Ask Barb – The Ultimate Cougar Answers Your Questions (18 minutes)
• ‘Stroking it with Bobby Cobb’ series (4 minutes)
• “My Sexuality” Music Video (1 minute)
The list looks impressive but once you get into it there’s under an hour of goodies to check out. Some commentaries would’ve been nice, but this is par for the course for Lawrence shows on DVD it seems. Worth a Rental for newcomers or Recommended for serious fans of the show.
Cougar Town – The Complete First Season is now available on DVD.