Change is a tough thing for any sitcom, especially on-screen; but a marriage between two characters is hardly the only change facing Cougar Town, who find themselves on a new network as season 4 begins. So with ‘Blue Sunday’, there is challenge on top of challenge: establishing a new world and set of problems for Jules and Grayson to deal with moving forward, all while introducing the Cul De Sac Crew to a new audience (“to the world”, as Jules says in the very meta opening scene).
Season four picks up a week after season three ended, in a finale featuring drunken confessions from Travis and the Ellis/Cobb wedding. When Ellie bursts Jules’s new wedding bubble with talk about routines and mundane married life, the warning alarms for Blue Jules (who apparently is quite dark) begin to ring. Grayson isn’t prepared for this, and with Andy (whose levels of estrogen are causing him to feel the side effects of Jules’s depression, along with Laurie) and Bobby – who is trying to teach Travis the merits of running away from problems in life – doesn’t really have a well of advice to turn to.
What makes the plot work (instead of just being a narcissistic downward spiral by Jules) is the situation isn’t really about Jules’s depression at all – it’s about Grayson and Ellie, and how their relationships with Jules have changed, now that Grayson is her husband. She is no longer the protector of the precious being that is Jules Cobb (Cobb-Ellis? Ellis? Ellis-Cobb?) – they are still best friends, but Grayson is the person who she needs when she’s feeling down, not Ellie. That may include crazy things like apologizing for what he does in dreams… but such are the rules when you love somebody that much: you put up with some annoying and weird shit sometimes.
Now I’ve spoken many times about how much I love Bobby’s character on the show, and how he’s subtly evolved over the first few seasons. Part of that evolution is his relationship with his son, who is now 21, a ripe age for fathers to reflect on their lives at that age, and what happened in the years in between. Unfortunately, the advice he’s trying to impart is a little misguided – as Travis’s conversation with Laurie at the end proves, running away from problems is a great short-term solution, but one with a high emotional cost in most situations. Bobby is taking steps forward as a father (would the philandering golfer of the past care so much about his son’s maturity?), even though he still stumbles himself when it comes to learning from mistakes of the past.
Even though ‘Blue Sunday’ is a very Cougar Town-y episode of Cougar Town (I know… terrible phrase), the darker tone of Bobby and Jules was surprisingly heavy for a season premiere (although maybe its just hard to compare it to last season’s)… but maybe that’s just part of the ‘cable effect’ (‘Thanks TBS… Can we curse now?’). Either way, it was a successful return (and for some, an entertaining introduction) to one of the most fun casts on television, an episode filled with emotional arcs and heart-warming goofy personality we all love. Welcome back Cougar Town.
Grade: B+
Other thoughts/observations:
– Bobby has some long ass hair this season… it has replaced Dan Boyd as the show’s Official Awkard Haircut.
– Tom was still on crutches from falling off the roof in last season’s finale. Continuity across networks, what what!
– I guess Milky Guessy won’t be making a comeback. Anyone up for a game of Domination Ball?
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