Cougar Town Review: Blue Sunday

Cougar Town 

"Blue Sunday" Review

The Cul de Sac crew return

Cougar Town has officially began its fourth season. But with the shift from ABC Studios to TBS will the show take a different route with its already niche market? Here is what Otter thinks of the season première.

Over the last three seasons, Cougar Town has been known for its eccentric, wacky sense of humour combined with light hearted morals at the end of each episode to tie everything nicely together. This seasons première is no different. The foundations of the episode have remained largely the same.

The plot development continues on, a week after the events of last seasons finale. Jules and Grayson are now married and are adjusting to the extremely early phases of it, whilst Travis still somewhat suffers the consequences of admitting his love for Laurie.    

The situation between Jules and Grayson, although lacking in any form of seriousness at all, was nice as it emphasised the polar opposite nature of each character: Jules the extremely high maintenance, paranoid wife in contrast to Grayson's calm demeanour. What proved best about this situation was that it pointed out how Grayson could use his tranquil nature to positive effect on his wife, which was great to see. 

Travis's plot line was a lot stronger. The situation at hand was not faced head on but gently steered towards his dad, Bobby who offered him advice on how to survive in the real world. The relationship between Travis and Bobby has always been an interesting one, as Travis, the intellectual, more often than not in the past has offered help to his dad, effectively reversing the roles. But in the main, it has always seemed to be Bobby who offers the most life altering advice. This was the case for the final moments of this side story, and although it was not tied up cleanly, it is great to know a larger arc between Travis and Laurie will be played throughout the season.

I was always concerned that Christa Miller's Ellie would effectively be a Jordan 2.0 (Scrubs). Thankfully the writers have given Ellie more heart and sensitivity with a hint of vulnerability about herself which has made it far more interesting to watch her development. This was definitely the case in this episode as Ellie was seemingly evil and manipulative at the beginning, yet came out on top as the protective friend of Jules. 

Unfortunately for Andy and Laurie their roles were rather small in comparison to the rest of the cast. Andy remained the faithful sidekick to Bobby, also following the advice given to Travis. But nothing substantial really developed.

As for Laurie, her character was incredibly toned down in terms of her kookiness ( I did not hear a "What-What!" at all). She did deliver some funny lines, but for the most part she remained fairly quiet.

Here's hoping Laurie will cheer up really soon

Overall it was a good start to a new beginning at TBS. There was nothing incredibly outstanding to it, but enjoyable nonetheless. 

At the end of the day, I think Bill Lawrence and the writers are simply trying to achieve a very light hearted sitcom that people can relax and enjoy for 20 minutes without the need for all the background knowledge of previous seasons in order to get caught up in convoluted storylines like hit sitcom HIMYM, and it works very well for Cougar Town.     

7.8/10