Time to Pound Grapes with the Cul de Sac Crew!

Cougar Town is not what you think it is about (Courteney Cox screwing younger guys). If you don’t watch, give it a chance. If you watched when it premiered, try again: it is not the same show anymore. It is a show about adult friendships, playing games, and drinking wine. And it is wonderful. I randomly decided to watch it on Hulu at the beginning of its second season and loved what I saw.But I cannot replicate the perfect description given by Mo Ryan in her review on the Huffington Post earlier today:

[CT is] about how friends accept and love each other, despite their flaws…

One of the most enjoyable things about the wonderfully funny and charming new season is how much it unashamedly highlights romance. “Cougar Town” isn’t doing that because it’s returning on Valentine’s Day (these episodes were shot months ago, when the return date wasn’t known), but because that’s really what the Cul De Sac chronicles are about — not just falling in love, but the way people quietly choose to keep loving those they’re closest to.

This show is about deciding to stay true to friends or lovers, even when they flake out or annoy you; it’s about finding strategies to deal with imperfections and problems. Every episode explores one of Jules’ flaws or one of the ways in which her friends can be misguided, but there’s nothing cruel about the excavation of the characters’ mistakes. This is a show about tolerance and forgiveness; it’s not a dissection of failure and regret.

In its return, “Cougar Town” amusingly makes the point that knowing someone that well is a gift not to be taken lightly. As a whole, this series gently asserts that the most valuable luxury in the world is unlimited time in which to get to know friends and loved ones even better.

Couldn’t have made it better myself: 26 Reasons to Love Cougar Town