Wednesday Wisdom- Cougar Town's a Comedy?

Modern Family
I've always been interested in how having a certain expectation into an episode or a movie can change your appreciation for the experience. Whether it is reading a positive review, hearing a negative comment or making sure you don't listen to anything about the show, how you head into an ep may affect if you like it or not.

So far this television season I've been making a conscious effort to steer clear of reviews and recaps before watching. Before I watched this week's Modern Fam, JJ gave me a call and said "Don't get your hopes up for tonight's tv." Knowing that he was talking about the ABC comedy, I asked him if it was no good. All he came back with was, "not as good as last week."

Now with what you may call low expectations, I was ready for Modern Fam to disappoint after a fantastic ep last week. It surely did not. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any comedy episode this year has come close to last week's Modern Fam, but this Wednesday was definitely another hit. They brought in their first guest star, putting Mrs. Brady from the Brady Bunch movies as Jay's ex-wife. She had her moments, but what I thought was the key ingredient was the fact that she didn't overshadow the genius that is the main cast. Sure Manny was more in the background this week, but he still spit out a few great lines. Jay, Phil and the rest of the crew still had enough screen time to prove why this is the best new comedy on television.

Cougar Town
So I completely passed on this show before it started because it looked really stupid. Then it started getting decent to good reviews and I figured I'd give it a shot. I mean it had to be better than the awfulness that was Hank. And it was. By no means a show I will continue to watch, but it had a small amount of watchablity. I enjoyed Cox as Monica on Friends and I liked her in this to some extent. Busy Phillips' character is the only one that I can say I truly enjoyed. The main thing for me is that there weren't any funny moments. That is something I usually look for in a comedy. And then we have what put it over the edge. The chick from the Drew Carey Show was just brutal.