Cougar Town (ABC)
Premiere: Wednesday, Sept. 23, 9:30-10 p.m.
Competition: Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, Glee, The Beautiful Life
Cast: Courteney Cox, Busy Philipps, Christa Miller, Dan Byrd, Brian Van Holt, Josh Hopkins
Status: We've seen the first episode.
Should you watch Cougar Town? Read on...
We're completely forgiving show runner Bill Lawrence for giving the show a title that has been overused since it's inception because Courteney Cox is lighting up the screen in one of fall's freshest comedies.
Cougar Town is "a show about a woman who was married for 20 years, gets divorced and she's starting all over in Florida where it's full of single women," Cox told us at TCAs last month. And while the pilot is a little rough around the edges, it's fun and different than anything else out there.
Cox portrays Jules, her single-mom, fortysomething character, to perfection, while still leaving in a smidgen of the Monica Geller clumsiness and neuroses we all know and love. Christa Miller, Lawrence's real-life wife and former Scrubs mama, plays Cox's married, noncougar voice of reason BFF, while Busy Philipps plays the young single gal Jules is fighting to emulate, not imitate. Why should you watch? Courteney says: "It's not homogenized. It's real, it's funny, it's fast-paced [and] it deals with real things but in a fun way." So there!
We loved the Scrubs-esque vibe of this sexy comedy, not to mention seeing one of our favorite Friends back on the tube, but we're split. Some of us will be watching live, and some will be hitting record. If you're debating between this and Glee, we advise you to set your DVR for Cougar Town. Although if musicals aren't your thing, Cougar Town far surpasses anything TBL has to offer.
Verdict: DVR
Fall TV Preview 2009: Cougar Town
Are you interested in Cougar Town? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Find out more about the season's new shows in our Fall TV Preview photo gallery!