Cougar Town: ‘Like a Diamond’

As an unabashed Friends fan, these cameos of Courtney Cox’s former cast mates put the nostalgia part of my brain into overdrive. ‘Like a Diamond’ was no different as Matthew Perry becomes the fourth member of the old gang to appear on the show. Although my bias wooed me over to smile at every interaction Perry and Cox were having, the rest of the episode around it wasn’t one of the best we’ve seen out of the Cul-de-sac Crew.

Don’t get me wrong, consider it’s in the fifth season Cougar Town is still churning out fantastic jokes for the characters that they haven’t had to alter much since season one. However, I feel like we’ve seen variations of these stories over and over again. I mean there are only so many ways you put a twist on an Ellie/Laurie fight where they both eventually come out of it respecting the other a little bit more. Not to mention the countless times we’ve seen the child-like wonder and hope of Bobby questioned by another member of the group, only to see a “miracle” come through at the end which lead them all to believe “hey maybe I should chill out and be a little more like Bobby.”

But since these are only qualms with the storytelling aspect of the show I’m not too worried. What I would like to see going forward is more experimental episodes in the vein of what Community does. Considering the characters are so well established I think an episode or two like that would help shake things up for the better and I’m willing to bet the cast and writing staff would be game for something like a spoof of American Hustle.

In terms of this particular episode, I’m glad they didn’t go too meta with the Sam/Jules, Chandler/Monica dynamic, but it was really fun to see the two actors interacting on screen again (not counting Courtney Cox guesting on Go On last year). Also, I still say Matthew Perry is the best television actor for delivering a sarcastic line: “I’ve been sitting here for about four hours. You don’t work much do you?”

Other moments of note:

• The opening credits tag this week was “Cougar Town: Now with more Friends”
• I’m always a fan of doppelganger stories, especially if it involves Busy Phillips doing a weird Southern accent and saying things like “Bite me, little eyes.”
• “I like wine. Oh, and I also sell real estate.” - Jules
• Laurie was born and conceived in a Jacuzzi and has been medically dead four times.
• “I’m in really good shape!” -Grayson … “Okay, I’ll try to spread the word.” - Sam
• “Grayson, Monica.” – Perry addressing Grayson and Jules in an outtake.