Cougar Town – Terrible Title but Great Show

Ok so, ‘Game of Thrones’ was an easy one everyone loves it and it wins Emmy’s, big risk, but I started this blog to talk all types of TV not just the critically acclaimed stuff. Not critically acclaimed definitly describes ‘Cougar Town’, in fact it could get cancelled any minute but that is no reason not to love it.

Originally broadcast in September 2009 to quite a bit of hype ‘Cougar Town’ was going to a be a comedy about being a Cougar, specifically Courtney Cox as a Cougar. Jules Cob, Cox’s character was recently divorced from her husband of 20 years and missing out on her youth and wanted to recapture it by hooking up with hot young things. Now I know what your thinking, this premise is the exact reason I didn’t watch the show and never plan to. Yes true not particularly appetising but the premise has changed. Six or seven weeks into the 1st season the writers came to their senses. The comedy was old and the show had no heart so to their credit they decided to make a change.

The ‘Cougar Town’ that exists today is about a group of 40 something neighbors called the ‘cul-de-sac crew’ another incredibly lame name invented by the crazy but loveable Jules Cob. The group takes care of each other with mocking and general silliness. Jules is an intensely over protective mother and incredibly vain but a massive mama bear that takes care of everyone. Her ex husband Bobby Cob is a hillbilly with a big heart and very little brain who is committed to being a good dad though he has no idea what that means. Jules’s best friend is Ellie Torres an incredibly cruel wickedly funny stay at home mum who lives never door and  Andy Torres her husband is a cuban businessman, an eternal optimist and fun loving guy. He is perhaps more in love with Bobby than his own wife. Laurie Keller is Jules assistant at her real estate agency. She is in her 20s, a massive partyier and the voice of youth in the group. Across the road lives Grayson Ellis, Jules’ obvious love interest, an emotionally unavailable man child who sleeps with any dumb women he can find to get over the pain of divorcing his ex wife, that is until he falls in love with Jules. And last but not least there is Travis Cobb Jules’s nerdy son who has Emilio Estevez marathons or the “Estevez Festivez”.

This group loves playing games like ‘Petty Can’, drinking red wine specifically out of ‘Big Carl’ and helping each other to over come their flaws whether it be Jules’s smothering of Travis or Bobby’s inability to get his life together. The show is a straight talking satire of the issues people face in their forties and in fact has nothing to do with Cougars, except for Barb a 50 year old women they bring in every now and then for a one liner.

Now if that doesn’t convince you to give it a go, Cougar Town is also written by the same writers as Scrubs, Kevin Biegel and Bill Lawrence. These guys know what they are doing, they even mock the stupid title in the opening credits every week. For example (It’s Okay to Watch a Show Called Cougar Town).

Last but not least the show’s title will be changed in the 3rd season, so if you start watching now, people never have to know that your watching Cougar Town. It couldn’t be easier.

Introductions…

Hello to everyone – well probably no one except for you Lisa but that’s okay. This blog was born from an epic fest of graduation angst over coffee and toasties. Now that school is over it’s starting to sink in that perhaps Screenwriting isn’t the easiest career choice in Australia. And while we thought we were prepared for a few years (at least) of a lot of work without much gratification, it seems that perhaps we were seeing this time through rose-tinted glasses.

At the moment I have a casual job at a cinema- which only real perk is free movie tickets. I get fed up with a lot of Australian reviewers so thought it was about time to put in my two cents.

Game of Thrones

OK, OK, I know I’m a little behind on this one but hey the blood and guts put me off for a time. Sometimes I get scared to start shows so I never do, lucky in the case of “Game of Thrones” I over came my fear to find my favourite new TV show. The first episode almost convinced me I was right, there was indeed a lot of blood, fighting, boobs similar to the opening episodes of ‘The Tudors’ and ‘The Pillars of the Earth’. Neither which created a fan in me. But ‘Game of Thrones’ had something else, heart.

Unlike ‘The Tudors’ where I couldn’t care less what happened to Henry the 8th, I mean who, would he’s a womanizing power hungry douche, I cared about the characters in ‘Game of Thrones’. I understood Lord Stark, he didn’t want to leave his family, he loved his wife, but he had to honor his king. It was all very likable and relatable. Sure blood and guts but heart as well.

Another great thing about “Game of Thrones” is it has great female characters. A lot of medieval dramas lack in the heroine department, relegating women to the roles of sluts and mother sometimes both but not “Game of Thrones”.  Lady Stark and her daughters are strong women doing their best to survive in a brutal world with grace, individuality and a fighting spirit.

And who could forget ‘Game of Thrones’ crowning glory, Peter Dinklage, the best character in the entire show and the coolest, wittiest most insightful character on TV in 2011. If you don’t like anything else you will love Peter Dinklage. What it is like to be a dwarf in medieval times is fascinating. “Better to be a rich cripple than an poor cripple”.

My only complaint about the series is remedied early, as everyone up until the 3rd episode seems to have unappealing sex generally from behind but as the sex gets more personal and story driven, that is no longer the case.

So if you haven’t already seen it, get it now, get the DVD, download it, just do it, you won’t regret it.

Graduation

Well here I am at Graduation. I know what you thinking graduating is so boring and yes you are right it’s super boring. Not only that but because I go to RMIT I get to graduate in a 2 and a half hour ceremony with six thousand other students at Docklands Staduim, boy do I feel like a real individual. I’m still reeling from the realization that dinner is a long time away and probably at somewhere pretty average. I had plans to go out with my family,  yes I know I should have figured it out a week ago when I got the ticket but some how I missed it.

A total of 7 of us are graduating from the Advanced Diploma of Professional Screenwriting and 6 are graduating in absentia and while I felt they were missing out on something a week ago,  I now feel very envious of them at  home tonight, eating, laughing enjoying their lives. I may never get to do that again.

Oh well at least after this drawn out disaster I will have a proper sense of closure with the course.  The future is bright because I will never be here again.

Start At The Beginning

Well hello, you big wide world of randoms, plus any friends of Anna and I’s reading this out of pity, This is our new blog. This blog was born out of graduation anxiety. I have just graduated you see and I don’t like graduating. I’ve graduated before and it doesn’t suit me. I generally go crazy, alternating between checking job sites 20 times a day, eating my weight in cheese and watching massive amount of TV.

Last time a graduated I lasted a total of 9 month out in the big bad world before I turned around and climbed back in the womb of education and signed up for another course. It’s hard out there especially when you have ambitions like mine. I want to be a screenwriter.

Watching TV is my favourite thing in the whole wide world you see, I just love it. When other people go out and party on the weekend I always have to weigh it up, is it really going to be better that sitting and watching TV.  That why I just graduated from RMIT’s Advanced Diploma of Screenwriting, if can’t spend all my life watching TV I’m going to do the next best thing and write it.

My co-writer of this wonderful blog Anna feels a similar way about films but I’ll let her tell you that herself. So buckle up to hear about me, my favourite shows (good, bad and truly shameful)  and my struggle to get this great ambition of mine on the road. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.