By Mark HadleyFriday 30 Apr 2010TV and StreamingReading Time: 2 minutes
Cougar Town
CHANNEL: The Seven Network
TIME-SLOT: Thursdays, 8.30 pm
RATING: M
Cougar Town is a sit-com about Jules Cobb, a recently divorced woman who has launched herself back into the dating game, seeking the good times she never managed as a result of marrying young. Every few weeks she begins a new relationship with some toy boy, discovering the joys and complications of living young under the scrutiny of her 17-year-old son. It’s a witty comedy in the style of Friends, helped along by Courteney Cox cast in the role of Jules. Think Desperate Housewives meets My Name Is Earl. The situations that Jules finds herself in are equally unbelievable, and the homespun lessons that tie each episode together are just as predictable. This Floridian mother is sassy, caring, sympathetic – thoroughly likeable in every way. Yet she represents a seismic shift in television heroines that has been building beneath the surface of our sets for years.
There was a time when ‘cougar’ was considered to be as much an insult as calling someone a feminine canine. I remember men and women derisively pointing out the slightly too old looking woman that frequented drinking establishments, more pathetic than predator. An older generation might be more familiar with the phrase ‘mutton dressed up as lamb’. Cougar referred to something more like the clinging nature of the big cat. Now the Urban Dictionary redefines that breed as ‘An attractive woman in her 30-40s who is on the hunt once again … elusive, non-committal, dangerous.’ To her friends, Jules is the sleek cougar no longer troubled by her marriage whose constant dieting and pampering has made her irresistible to the young bucks:
Ellie: “You’re finally someone’s booty call.”
Jules: “All that hard work finally paid off!”
Ellie’s is a contradictory character that seems well suited to our society. Australians have embraced Cougar Town, delivering a ratings return of 1.34 million viewers for episode one and continued to hover around the million mark thereafter. Though critics have lampooned the show Australians seem happy to celebrate the redefined cougar and the accompanying sexual freedom of the middle-aged or formerly married woman. Hotels have even begun advertising ‘Cougar Nights’ as opportunities for men to meet these sexually charged, worldly-wise women. I for one will not be surprised when I see my first cougar bumper sticker.
It’s hard to get worked up, even as a Christian, about the success of another sex-oriented series on the box. Sexual promiscuity is a mere symptom of a world that is building its relationships on the biggest sand dune of all: putting your self first is the one and only way to make sure everyone is happy.