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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010 3
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‘Cougar Town’s’ liquid assets tv review from C1
by (Brian Van Holt); Jules’s new love, Grayson (Josh Hopkins), who lives across the cul-de-sac; Jules’s Gen Y party-girl office assistant, Laurie (Busy Philipps); and finally, Jules’s son, Travis (Dan Byrd), a college freshman who keeps coming home to experience hismother’s smotheringly needy expressions of love. Everyone in “Cougar Town”—
except the college kid, who isn’t 21 yet — drinks wine, beer, margaritas, sake, you name it. Their eyes light up at the sight of alcohol. If it’s not happy hour at Jules’s house, then they’re all down at the pub Grayson owns. I want to come out firmly
CLASSIC MEDIA LETTHEGAMESBEGIN!“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” bested zombies and pop stars this week. Grammy nominations lost without ‘Rudolph’
those zombies—werehighon America’sMust See lists as holiday-viewing seasonbeganin earnest.Fa la la la la la . . . . Here’s a look at theweek’s winners andlosers:
A
WINNERS “RudolphtheRed-Nosed
Reindeer.”More than12million people—including 2.5million2- to-11-year-olds—made the 46th- anniversary broadcast of the animatedholiday special the week’s second-most-watched scriptedshow.Only a rerunof “NCIS”didbetter, averagingmore than15.1millionviewers for reasonswe cannot explain.We choose insteadto focus onthe fact thatRudolphWithHisNose SoBright attractedtwice asmany viewers as the seasonfinale of AMC’s zombie saga. “TheWalkingDead.”
Approximately 6millionpeople caught the first season’s finale of AMC’sundeadstalkers.About 4 millionAmericans betweenthe ages of 18 and49 years tunedin. While that’s fewerpeople inthat age bracket thanwatched “RudolphtheRed-Nosed Reindeer” this year, it’s
red-nosedreindeer, an
undiesparade, an“NCIS” rerun—and, of course,
THE TV COLUMN Lisa de Moraes
nonetheless a big enoughcrowd tomake the first seasonof “WalkingDead” themost watchedseries inthat age group inbasic
cablehistory.Reminder: 18-to-49-year-olds are, to advertisers,what JustinBieber is to tweener girls. “It’snowobvious that zombieswas anunfulfilled needintheAmericanpeople,”FX President JohnLandgraf saidthis week ina conference callwithTV critics to talk about the cancellationofFX’s scruffy cop drama “Terriers.” “TheSing-Off.”Back for a
secondseason,NBC’s goofy a cappella contestdrewan average ofnearly 9million viewers—its biggest audience ever. “TheVictoria’sSecret
FashionShow.”CBS’s annual holiday knickerspageant luredits largest audience since 2003— nearly 9millionpairs of verywide eyeballs.
LOSERS “TheHasselhoffs.”Apitiful
crowdof just 718,000 botheredto catchtheunveiling ofTheHoff’s
newA&Ereality
series.Toput this inperspective, thepremiere of A&E’s othermost recent reality series, “StorageWars”—a sort of storage locker versionof “AntiquesRoadshow”—clocked2 millionpeople. “SkatingWiththeStars.”
ABC’s accident-prone ice skating competitionseries took a ratings tumble thispastMonday. Just 4.7 milliontunedin—andsuddenly, lastweek’s second-episode audience of 6.1millionlooks good. “GrammyNominations
Concert.”Despite aperformance bypouty-lipped, swoosh-browed heartthrob JustinBieber—and another byPBS’s least favorite sex kitten,KatyPerry—the size of the audience thatwatchedthis year’s “Grammynominations concert” onCBSplungedby about 20 percent comparedwithlast year, to
5millionviewers.That’s also downa troubling 30percent comparedwiththenomination- announcing-concert special’s debut onCBS
in2008.Those two earlierGrammynominations concertshadone thing in common: a “RudolphtheRed- NosedReindeer”
lead-in.Yes, the Grammys, like Santa’s sleigh, needthe guiding reindeer.
demoraesl@washpost.com
(and soberly, for themoment) in favor of thisnarrative device. It’s refreshing to see grown-ups drink this much and not wind up in jail or, worse, in punitive states ofDonDraper-like brood- ing. “Cougar Town” gets at a cer-
tain tipsy joy — a joy almost forbidden now in mainstream popular culture. The characters here drink, sometimes to excess. They love life, evenas they insult one another: Ellie compares Laurie’s hair to the color and shape of chicken fat. Everyone tells Grayson his eyes are too tiny. Dispensing relationship ad-
vice to Travis, Grayson says: “I always imagine [the woman] without a face.” “I think I just read that tip in
Ted Bundy’s biography,” Travis says. In fictional Cougar Town,
Fla., nobody ever misses a beat. It’s an idealized world in which one always has a drink and a retort handy.
Whether or not the show is
ultimately successful remains to be seen. “Cougar Town” is watched by 8 million or so viewers
aweek.The ratingshave been flat, but as people fre- quently say about today’smulti- media-scape, flat ratings are the new fantastic. (ABC is giving “Cougar Town” a hiatus begin- ning in February to try out some new comedy shows, then bring- ing it back in the spring.) “Cougar Town” suffers froma
mild identity crisis that dates back to its second episode. The
It’s refreshing to see grown- ups drink this much and not wind up in jail or, worse, in punitive states of Don Draper- like brooding.
politics. When asked to explain politics to ditzy Laurie, Grayson once said: “Donkeys like hy- brids, health care and homosex- uals. And elephants like God.” “I sawan elephant pray at the
circus once,” Laurie replies. This all happened in such a
covert way that it defies usual network formats and tropes: If it’s not a show about a naughty divorcee’s haphazard love life and worries about her wrinkles, then what the heck is it? Last spring, creatorsBill Law-
pilot really was about cougars, a very mid-2000s term of art to describe women over 35 or so who date younger men; some still regard the show through that wan premise. It alsomoved obnoxiously fast for some view- ers, having inherited its frantic, sans-laugh-track pacing from “Scrubs,” which was created by one of “Cougar Town’s” creators. But if you stuck with it last
season, you could actually see “Cougar Town” wriggling out of its confining conceptual skin and emerging as something strangely more tender than ad- vertised and even beautiful (if it’s not too insulting to call a comedy with so many boob jokes beautiful). Jules discovered love again
with Grayson, a character who was originally her antagonist, embodying the illogical inequity that stipulates that men get sexier as they age, while women don’t. Over many, many glasses of
wine and beer, a thousand pret- ty-good jokes added up to a refutation of not only gender stereotypes but also suburban stereotypes. The show’s funniest moments revolve around the eternal combination of awk- wardness and sweetness, such as the little songs Grayson com- poses on his out-of-tune guitar, or the gang’s frequent games of “penny can,” which, yes, involve trying to toss pennies in a can. “Cougar Town” also found its
strength in rapid-fire, free-asso- ciative commentary, often about the gender wars and class, but also aboutmovies, race and even
4.1 WRC (NBC) 5.1 WTTG (Fox) 7.1 WJLA (ABC)
7:00 u News
u Seinfeld u Wheel
9.1 WUSA (CBS) News 7:30 u Access 8:00 Te Sing-Off
u Te Office u Human Target u Jeopardy! u u Ent. Ton.
Middle
14.1 WFDC (UNI) u Llena de Amor 20.1 WDCA (MNTV) u Meet, Browns u 22.1 WMPT (PBS) Business
House-Payne u CHUCK KENNEDY/THE WHITE HOUSE BURNINGISSUE: President Obama tasks the“Mythbusters” team.
HIGHLIGHTS As if it isn’t enoughdrama
whenFrankie’sparents (guest starsMarshaMasonandJerry VanDyke) come to spendthe holidaywiththe family on“The Middle” (ABCat 8),Frankie makes anunpopulardecision whenshedeclares shewants a “simple”Christmas—translation, less emphasis ongifts. PresidentObama arrives on
theDiscoveryChannel on Wednesdaynight, ashe stops by “Mythbusters” (Discovery at 9) to give thehosts a special
assignment.Themythto bust this week?Whether ancientGreek scientistArchimedes set fire to a Romanfleetusing only the rays of the sunreflectedoff amirror. Thoughthemythhas beentested (andbusted) twice before onthe show, thepresident requests that they give it another trywiththe helpofmorepeople. ChefRamsay challenges the
final four chefs to create adish that combines flavors fromthe foodof two countries on“Hell’s Kitchen” (Fox at 9), and eliminates two contestants from the competition. Sweet babyLilydoesn't seem
like the kindof toddlerwho wouldbite other kids onthe playground, butMitchandCam arehorrifiedto learnotherwise on“ModernFamily” (ABCat 9); meanwhile, the grown-ups get Luke andManny ready for their first schooldance. JoshandBrent reminisce
about the first seasonof their reality showchronicling life ona farminUpstateNewYork on “TheFabulousBeekmanBoys’ HolidaySpecial” (PlanetGreen at 9), andoffer apreviewat the
secondseason,premieringnext spring. Everwonderedwho’s
responsible for the truly crazy outfits thatpopupon“Gossip Girl”?One-hour special “Fashion Forward:Making It” (CWat 9), hostedby “Twilight” actress AshleyGreene,profiles the show’s stylist,EricDaman, andalso looks at celebritydesigners and their clothing lines, including ToryBurch,GwenStefani, Justin Timberlake,AlexanderWang, MarcusWainwright andDavid Neville. Julesdecides that fixing
Bobby’s boat—so it’s able to actually go inthewater—is the key to revivinghis confidence on “Cougar Town” (ABCat 9:30), whileTravisdealswithsome jealousy issueswhenhisnew girlfriend,Kirsten, isn’tpleased abouthis friendshipwithLaurie. Newseries “Hookers:Saved
ontheStrip” (Investigation Discovery at 10) chronicles the life ofAnnieLobert,whomakes it her faith-basedmissiontohelp prostitutes inLasVegas change their lives. Look, a Jonas brother on“Top
Chef:AllStars” (Bravo at 10)! Why?We’renot
sure.Anyway, Joe Jonas gives the contestants a task involving theAmericanMuseum ofNaturalHistory inNewYork. “LateShowWithDavid
Letterman” (CBS at 11:35)hosts journalistBarbaraWalters, actress JaymaMays andmusical guestAlisonBalsom. Actors JeffBridges andRico
Rodriguez visit “TheTonight ShowWithJay Leno” (NBCat 11:35).
—EmilyYahr
26.4 WETA (PBS) u PBS NewsHour 30.1 WNVC (MHz) Al Jazeera 32.2 WHUT (PBS) Smiley 50.1 WDCW (CW) u Two-Men
66.1 WPXW (ION) Without a Trace A&E
ABC Family AMC
Animal Planet BET
Bravo CNN
u Dog the Bounty Hunter (6:00) u (5:00) u
u Dangerously Devoted 106 & Park: Top 10 Live u Housewives/Atl.
Cartoon Network Johnny Test Hole u John King, USA
Colbert
Discovery Disney E!
ESPN ESPN2 Journal
Passport Two-Men
Burn Notice MotorWeek You Can Afford College u Better
u Survivor: Nicaragua u Eva Luna
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u Criminal Minds u Soy Tu Dueña u Burn Notice
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BROADCAST CHANNELS 9:00
9:30
rence and Kevin Biegel even fretted publicly overwhether to change the show’s title, which might getmore people towatch. (“The Family Jules”? “Neighbor- hood Watch”?) They decided — wisely — to stick with “Cougar Town,” figuring that now we are talking about a place that is a state of mind rather than a hotbed of sexual hunger. As a work-around, the writers have taken to mocking the title each week with a tiny headline above the title card: “It’s okay towatch a show called . . . ‘Cougar Town’ ”; or “Now 100 percent cougar-free!”; and the confes- sional “Titles are hard.” Some may find “Cougar
Town’s” treatment of its charac- ters’ alcohol consumption to be dangerously carefree, but I think the show has a self-aware- ness about alcohol so keen it doesn’t have to stop and explain itself. When it is not destroying people’s lives, booze is in fact wonderful and funny and deli- cious. Booze is also a way “Cou- garTown” justifies itsmildmean streak: In real life, sober people would never say the things to one another that Ellie says to Jules, or Laurie says to Ellie, or Grayson says to Andy, and so on. This is the genius of a goodTV
comedy: falling into the rhythm of the well-written jab between characters you love in spite of (because of?) their potential for sharp words. In that world, it only takes 20minutes to resolve a full-on emotional crisis. Here’s to that.
stueverh@washpost.com
Cougar Town
(30minutes) airsWednesdays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.
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