I'm most of the way through Season 1 of Cougar Town (2009-2015) on Amazon Prime. Thankfully, the premise of older women dating younger men has long been abandoned (although the title sticks around; it really should be called Wine, since everyone has a wine glass in their hand at all times).
Most of the characters have changed dramatically since the pilot. Now it's Friends, with the friends middle-aged instead of young adults:
From left to right:
Dimwitte hunk Joey: dimwitted hunk Bobby.
Nerdish Ross and aggressive Rachel: nerdish Andy and aggressive Elle.
Micromanaging, anxiety prone Monica: micromanaging, anxiety prone Jules.
Dotty Phoebe: dotty Laurie.
Sarcastic Chandler, who ends up with Monica: sarcastic Grayson, who will end up with Jules.
Plus teeange Travis.
It's pleasant to watch the trivial daily problems of rich white people, especially when they form a close-knit family group (which, come to think of it, was the main draw for Friends). But the attitude toward gay people is problematic.
Teenage Travis pretends to come out to the babysitting Grayson (the sarcastic one) so he'll be allowed to have his girlfriend over. Andy notes that he has fallen for the trick before: "He made me go to two Pride parades." He says it like it's a humiliation.
Andy has an unrequited crush on Bobby (the nerd), which everybody knows about and plays with:
Elle: Go off with your boyfriends, Bobby and Grayson.
Andy: Only Bobby is my boyfriend.
When Laurie's Mom thinks that she and Jules are a couple, she asks "Which of you is the dude?" Ok, Mom is ignorant, believing that lesbian relationships are divided into masculine-feminine. But instead of educating her, they play along, arguing on which would be "the dude" if they were a lesbian couple.
In another episode, the friends play the "Everybody is a little gay" game, which involves getting a guy to admit knowing about or liking a girly thing, then yelling "Caught you! You're a little gay!" So being gay means being feminine? And being "caught" suggests that it's a humiliation.
In the same episode, they discuss whether guys can have women friends without wanting to have sex with them. Grayson thinks it's impossible; Jules tries to prove him wrong by calling every male friend she's had since junior hig. They all admit that they wanted to have sex with her (most are still interested_.
But...but..you know about the existence of gay men! Did you forget?
Not homophobic enough for me to stop watching, but troubling.
I read ahead in the plot synopses. No gay characters appear, but Elle and Jules pretend to be a lesbian couple to get some of that gay privilege (a standard plot device in the 1990s), and Grayson gets way upset when someone implies that he is gay (a whole episode devoted to it!).
Maybe I'll stop watching before the show gets more homopbobic. But I do like beefcake: none of the regulars seem to own shirts, and there's a never-ending smorgasbord of hunks for Jules and Laurie to date or one of the guys to be friends with. Most appear for just one episode, but here are some who stick around for awhile:
1. Ryan Devlin as Smith Frank, the sophisticated, wealthy college boy whom decidedly unsophisticated Laurie dates (top photo).
2. Shawn Parikh as Sig, Travis's college roommate. No beefcake photos, but people of color are so rare on this show that I wanted to include him anyway.
3. Nick Zano as Josh, the young guy whom Jules dates until he says that he loves her. Then, of course, she has to dump him.
4. Edwin Hodge as Wade, a soldier whom Laurie dates until he becomes too clingy.
5. Scott Foley as Jeff, an "arrogant" (that is, sexy) real estate client whom Jules dates until he asks for a commitment. Apparently girls just wanna have fun.
6. Ryan Biegel as Doug.
7. 1980s hunk Lou Diamond Phillips as himself.
8. David Clayton Rogers as Matt, whom Jules hooks up with.
See also: Cougar Town
Plenty of male eye candy but not sure why this show ran so long unless the target audience was drinking as much wine as the characters do
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