Hulu - Cougar Town: Ways to Be Wicked - Watch the full episode now. -- this link can only be watched in the USA...
Ways to Be Wicked - Cougar Town - Citytv Video Portal -- here is one you can watch in Canada...
Note: There are a couple of goofy side-stories, but the one I am focusing on is the one with Ellie and her apparently Narcissistic mother...
It's a little over-simplified, but can get the idea. She acts one way in front of other people and completely differently when just her daughter is around. Everyone else thinks Ellie's mom is sweet, but Ellie knows the truth! For those who don't see what the rest of us see when we meet Adult Children of Narcissist Parents (ACONs: Adult Children of Narcissists) this might be a little tiny bit of an eye-opener.
Synopsis: By Nathan MacLeod (if you can't get the links to work above)...
Cougar Town, "Ways to be Wicked" | Sympatico.ca TV Guide
This week's Cougar Town found a few characters grappling with their fears and insecurities and finally gave viewers a glimpse into the secret pain of Ellie Torres. Perhaps because of the subject matter, I found the episode to be a little lacklustre, lacking in the high number of laughs per minute that I've come to expect from Jules and her Cul-De-Sac Crew.
Ellie's perfectly sweet-seeming mother, Betsy (Susan Blakely), was in town, which lead to everyone in the gang remarking how sweet and hot she was (at 62, she totally qualifies as a cougar). This set Ellie off—she warned everyone very sternly that they should say nothing nice about her mom…unless they wanted to suffer the wrath of the silent treatment.
No one could understand exactly why Ellie was so insistent that her mother not be praised until Jules overheard Betsy talking trash about her, observing that Jules wears so much eyeliner she would like Alice Cooper if she cried. Of course, this lead to the best laugh of the night: Jules with two black streaks running down her face, asking "Who's Alice Cooper, is she pretty?" I had forgotten about the running gag that Jules doesn't know anyone famous, so this callback made me crack up pretty hard.
Now that Jules had seen the dark side of Betsy, Ellie wanted her best friend and "moral compass" to tell her whether or not she was still obligated to spend time with her mother, despite the fact that Betsy has supposedly never said anything nice about her in her life. Jules doesn't give up on her family, we know this, but she has also never had to deal with a person as terrible as Betsy. After failing to get Betsy to say one nice thing about Ellie (not even the “truth gun” could set her free!), Jules let her bestie off the hook and gave her permission to let go of her mom.
I liked the insight we got into Ellie's meanness in this episode. Obviously, the mask that she wears was forged as a defence mechanism to deal with a childhood devoid of any positive reinforcement. I also always enjoy any storyline that focuses on what I perceive to be the real love story in the show: the friendship between Jules and Ellie. (Bobby and Andy's bromance is a close second.)
The other storylines of the night were a bit flat. Grayson tried to bond with Laurie after everyone in the group kept calling him "new guy" (despite the fact that he's been friens with them for several years) because he never asks any personal questions. When Laurie revealed that it had always been a dream for her to run her own bakery, Grayson invested $1100 into a new oven for the bar so that she could bake cakes for him to sell. It turned out that Laurie just liked the idea of owning a bakery, but didn't want to commit to it because she couldn't take the pain of failing. Again, a nice little insight into a character on the show. But this whole cake thing came out of nowhere (apparently she's been an amazing baker this whole time) and felt a bit forced. Also, it just wasn't very funny.
Finally, Travis enlisted the other guys in his house (a.k.a. The Panty Graveyard) to steal a cougar statue from his school. This was a nice little dig at the show's title—something the writers will never get over—and opened the way for someone to say "Why does this school have a cougar? Nothing here has anything to do with cougars." Well played, writers.
Unfortunately, this little scheme of Travis' served no greater purpose than to give him something to do this week. Although I hope the cougar stays on as a running gag (I love me some running gags).
Ways to Be Wicked - Cougar Town - Citytv Video Portal -- here is one you can watch in Canada...
Note: There are a couple of goofy side-stories, but the one I am focusing on is the one with Ellie and her apparently Narcissistic mother...
It's a little over-simplified, but can get the idea. She acts one way in front of other people and completely differently when just her daughter is around. Everyone else thinks Ellie's mom is sweet, but Ellie knows the truth! For those who don't see what the rest of us see when we meet Adult Children of Narcissist Parents (ACONs: Adult Children of Narcissists) this might be a little tiny bit of an eye-opener.
Synopsis: By Nathan MacLeod (if you can't get the links to work above)...
Cougar Town, "Ways to be Wicked" | Sympatico.ca TV Guide
This week's Cougar Town found a few characters grappling with their fears and insecurities and finally gave viewers a glimpse into the secret pain of Ellie Torres. Perhaps because of the subject matter, I found the episode to be a little lacklustre, lacking in the high number of laughs per minute that I've come to expect from Jules and her Cul-De-Sac Crew.
Ellie's perfectly sweet-seeming mother, Betsy (Susan Blakely), was in town, which lead to everyone in the gang remarking how sweet and hot she was (at 62, she totally qualifies as a cougar). This set Ellie off—she warned everyone very sternly that they should say nothing nice about her mom…unless they wanted to suffer the wrath of the silent treatment.
No one could understand exactly why Ellie was so insistent that her mother not be praised until Jules overheard Betsy talking trash about her, observing that Jules wears so much eyeliner she would like Alice Cooper if she cried. Of course, this lead to the best laugh of the night: Jules with two black streaks running down her face, asking "Who's Alice Cooper, is she pretty?" I had forgotten about the running gag that Jules doesn't know anyone famous, so this callback made me crack up pretty hard.
Now that Jules had seen the dark side of Betsy, Ellie wanted her best friend and "moral compass" to tell her whether or not she was still obligated to spend time with her mother, despite the fact that Betsy has supposedly never said anything nice about her in her life. Jules doesn't give up on her family, we know this, but she has also never had to deal with a person as terrible as Betsy. After failing to get Betsy to say one nice thing about Ellie (not even the “truth gun” could set her free!), Jules let her bestie off the hook and gave her permission to let go of her mom.
I liked the insight we got into Ellie's meanness in this episode. Obviously, the mask that she wears was forged as a defence mechanism to deal with a childhood devoid of any positive reinforcement. I also always enjoy any storyline that focuses on what I perceive to be the real love story in the show: the friendship between Jules and Ellie. (Bobby and Andy's bromance is a close second.)
The other storylines of the night were a bit flat. Grayson tried to bond with Laurie after everyone in the group kept calling him "new guy" (despite the fact that he's been friens with them for several years) because he never asks any personal questions. When Laurie revealed that it had always been a dream for her to run her own bakery, Grayson invested $1100 into a new oven for the bar so that she could bake cakes for him to sell. It turned out that Laurie just liked the idea of owning a bakery, but didn't want to commit to it because she couldn't take the pain of failing. Again, a nice little insight into a character on the show. But this whole cake thing came out of nowhere (apparently she's been an amazing baker this whole time) and felt a bit forced. Also, it just wasn't very funny.
Finally, Travis enlisted the other guys in his house (a.k.a. The Panty Graveyard) to steal a cougar statue from his school. This was a nice little dig at the show's title—something the writers will never get over—and opened the way for someone to say "Why does this school have a cougar? Nothing here has anything to do with cougars." Well played, writers.
Unfortunately, this little scheme of Travis' served no greater purpose than to give him something to do this week. Although I hope the cougar stays on as a running gag (I love me some running gags).
