Nothing funny going on in Cougar Town

TV REVIEW

A NUMBER of new words have crept in to the vernacular in recent times and in many ways, the word cougar, as a description of an older woman who goes out with younger men, is my favourite.
It’s fun to use but really makes no sense to me. I doubt it has any basis on actual cougars but as I said, it’s funny. I first heard it used about Demi Moore when she married Ashton Kutcher and it seems to have grown in poularity since, so popular indeed that there is now a television programme based on the idea.
Cougar Town stars Courtney Cox, she of Monica in Friends fame. Her character, Jules, finds herself recently divorced at 40 and in the middle of a mid-life crisis. Her younger assistant is a twenty-something and revels in trying to get the mother-of-one to go out and party. Despite a series of refusals, one day she agrees. On a night out, she finds that some younder men do find her attractive and so a cougar is born.
I have to say that I was bored even typing it. Cougar Town is flat, boring, dull and silly. Yes, silly and not in a good way. Courtney Cox, who was always very funny in Friends and who I have always considered to have pretty good comic timing and slapstick skills comes across as unable to act, shrill and dull. Her character is not particularly likeable. She is neurotic and very annoying. In fact, she is even more annoying than the horrendously dull Susan in Desperate Housewives. She falls over a lot, can’t hold her liquor and seems to never stop moaning about the fact that she has lost her twenties or that she is too old.
The other characters are also fairly dull. Her son doesn’t seem to do much but look embarrassed by her. Her ex-husband is a caricature and as for her young friend…well, I just don’t care what happens to her. Jules’ best friend, played by Christa Miller, is the same character as she was in Scrubs. There, she played Dr Cox’s sarcastic and pass-remarkable wife and in this, she plays exactly the same character although maybe a little less mean.
After two episodes, there is no evidence of what makes Jules a cougar at all. Okay, she has gone out with a couple of good-looking younger men but apart from that, she has come across as a sad, pathetic and lonely woman desperate to find her lost youth rather than being happy with what she has.
Of course, this is not just my own interpretation but what she tells us in ridiculously long monologues that signal the end of the show is approaching. In fact, I bet that if we were watching this in the United States, there would be an ad break after the monologues.
I won’t lie and say I didn’t laugh a couple of times, I did. I also cringed a whole lot at her antics but still the programme does not sit well with me and I can’t imagine I’ll be going back for anymore torture.
Cougar Town is trying to be a little like Desperate Housewives in the comedy stakes but it lacks the characterisation and scripting to be of any real interest. Tune into RTÉ Two at 9pm on Monday nights if you want to check it out.
A few months ago, I wrote about a new drama that was made about the political life, well the latter-years political life, of Mo Mowlam. This documentary shone some light on the late British MP and former Northern Ireland Secretary and has been followed up with an documentary on her life by RTÉ.
RTÉ have, in recent years, screened some wonderful documentaries and series through the medium of our first language – Gaeilge. The most recent of these is a series which profiles some well-known figures, some political and some not, in Irish society. Entitled Cloch le Carn, this week’s subject was Mo Mowlam.
What was interesting about this programme was it was the first time that Mo’s step-children have spoken about her on camera. Their insights into her character shed new light on a well-loved and very influential figure during her time in Ireland. They spoke about their home life and briefly about life in Hillsborough. They also spoke about the influence cancer had on her and in passing about how it influenced her ability to do her job. They also spoke about her relationship with their father and the effect that her death had on him.     Other interviewees in this documentary were former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who worked closely with Mo during his time in office and also Liz O’Donnell who was the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs at the time.
They all spoke of her straight-talking and ability to annoy and shock those she was working with.
This documentary was, although short, a concise and interesting account of a woman who provided a platform for the peace process in Northern Ireland to begin. For more in the Cloch le Carn series tune in to RTÉ One on Monday evenings.