TVSquad

(S01E03) Interesting trend with this show: The episode titles have so far been titles of Tom Petty songs. Take a look at the names of the upcoming episodes and the pattern continues for the forseeable future. Wonder how long they can hold on to this convention, especially as linking the episode to a title of Petty song they haven't used before gets harder.

That's the best thing I can say about this episode, to be honest. This one was less funny than last week's episode, which was less funny than the pilot. At least last week's episode had some heartfelt emotion behind it, so the lack of laughs could be excused. But this episode didn't even have that, which made most of what was supposed to be funny fall flat.

Jules is 40. We get it. Things don't come to her as easily as it does someone in her twenties. But this week it felt like she had a big neon sign over her head that said "I'm 40!!!" Maybe it's because I'm the wrong gender, but jokes about mani-pedi-waxing combo sessions don't really play well with me. A woman who's supposed to be at her sexual peak and knows exactly what she wants shouldn't need to be so wound up and insecure in bed that she has to ask her idiot ex if he thought she was a good lover (at least she got the point later on and gave her boy toy some marching orders).

It all felt very sitcommy, a word I use quite a bit and not in a positive sense. I expect more from my sitcoms, so to fall back on old standard sitcom conventions -- "You mean I stink in bed?" -- makes a show feel like it's a relic from the days of Three's Company rather than something fresh and funny. Hopefully, in future episodes, Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel will turn that neon sign over Courteney Cox's head off and just let her play a woman who's just looking to have fun and find something meaningful.

And those neon signs also extend to the rest of the ensemble. Ellie's sign is "Why did I have a kid?" Andy's sign is "Henpecked husband." Laurie's sign is "I'm free!!!" Bobby's sign is "Duuuuuh." The only ones that are surprising to this point are Travis, who's embarrassed by his dad but he really does look up to him in many ways, and Grayson, who's supposed to be the shallow bachelor playboy but we all know has more going on than that.

All of these characters need to shut those signs off if this show is going to succeed. I've been hesitant to compare this show to Scrubs, so I'll skip over that show and compare it to another Bill Lawrence show, Spin City. At the beginning of that show's first season, the characters were painted with fairly broad brushes. It wasn't until the show concentrated on the goings on in the Deputy Mayor's office (sorry, Carla Gugino!) did the show take off. It gave Lawrence and company time to explore the characters a little more. Hopefully we'll see that a little more as time goes on.

But for right now, this is a show that I'm not sure I want to follow every week. And, considering Lawrence's track record, that's saying a lot.

[Watch clips and free episodes of Cougar Town at SlashControl.]