Wizard Versus Nerd

Last night’s Cougar Town...

Cougar Town – “You’re Gonna Get It” (B)

“Bar’s closed. Everybody out, bar’s closed!”

Ah bar trivia. There’s nothing like the soaring highs and wallowing lows of outguessing your friends at questions based on pointless, irrelevant facts. I’m assuming Grayson learned just that when he hilariously decided to close his bar after losing to Laurie for the second time. This was of course after he said bar trivia would be good for business.

I’ve got to say – while this episode may not have been up to Cougar Town’s usual standard, watching Ellie and Grayson turn on each other as Laurie beat them at trivia was pretty awesome, especially the way Laurie just continued to be Laurie throughout the entire process.

LAURIE: Wow, big brain and rockin’ hoots and stems. Just goes to show you can never judge a book by its front part.

Oh and as it turns out, Laurie’s twitter account @TheLarmy is real a thing, so check it out if you have a bit of time.

I also liked the set up for Jules’ little problem this week. It’s so true – when you learn things as a kid it’s always through repetition, so you end up learning the sounds instead of the actual words themselves. I mean it’s never happened to me, but you know... I’ve seen it. Anyways, Jules’ freak out over the embarrassment of saying the Pledge of Allegiance wrong was appropriately over the top and led to a few good Jules gags, my favourite being her suspicion that a random guy in the mall had somehow heard about her screw up (she later turned out to be right).

And her embarrassment tied in nicely with Bobby’s story this week, who we finally got to see play his first (and I’m assuming last) PGA event. This was probably my favourite storyline of the episode, as I love the unique brand of idiocy Bobby and Andy bring whenever they’re together. And more than anything, the conclusion of this storyline just fit. One of the great things about Bobby’s character is that he’s so easy going (willing to live in a boat, etc.), so the way he embraced his mistake was both a good lesson for Jules and a great way to tie up both of their storylines.

The only real flaw in this episode was that the real laugh out loud moments were too infrequent. The story was fine and each story thread nailed down a few great jokes, but not enough to truly elevate the episode. I’m also a little antsy they haven’t yet gone back to that Trav proposing storyline. I’m not sure if they’re putting it off or if Trav walking out with the ring was just there to resolve Jules’ storyline, but either way I feel like they need to acknowledge it. Plus I wouldn’t mind another episode with Kirsten. She always brings out the best in this show, and it couldn’t hurt to have her back on.

Now, some of my favourite moments from the episode:

GRAYSON: What, does your college just let everyone in?
TRAVIS: No you have to be really good at art... so yeah.

ELLIE: Richard Stands sounds real, like one of those guys who you don’t really know what he did, but there’s a beer named after him.
LAURIE: You know who should have a beer named after him – Ben Franklin. Yeah, he invented baseball, he was an awesome president, and he made the first wig.

JULES: Let’s hold hands, Bobby needs positive vibes.
ELLIE: Vibes can’t be sent through a TV.
JULES: What do you know about vibes... or positivity for that matter?

JULES: Dear Lord, you know I don’t bother you unless it’s important... except for the time that I asked you to speed up my bangs. I’m sorry, it just seemed so serious.

ELLIE: Hey bartender, how could you miss a question about bartending?
GRAYSON: I don’t know, okay. You missed the one about blood draining parasites.
ELLIE: Not the same.
GRAYSON: It is the same.

LAURIE: Look I used to watch Jeopardy every day because I had a major lady rod for Alex Trebek... until I found out he was Canadian. Gross.

And line of the episode:

JULES: Oh yeah, little Amare. He’s ten. I’ve gotta say, those letters are getting a little repetitive. It’s hot, I’m hungry, there’s snakes, you know.