Though Courteney Cox followed
Friends with FX's deeply cynical
Dirt, she returns to her comedy roots with ABC's far sunnier
Cougar Town. Created by Kevin Biegel and Bill Lawrence of
Scrubs, the sitcom centers on 41-year-old Jules Cobb, a divorced real estate agent who lives in the Florida suburbs with her 18-year-old son Travis (Dan Byrd, from CW's underrated
Aliens in America), who finds his excitable parents embarrassing. With her form-fitting dresses and sassy gal pals, party girl Laurie (Busy Philipps,
Dawson's Creek) and bossy mom Ellie (Christa Miller, playing a variation on her
Scrubs harpy), Jules is more Desperate Housewife than Friend, and even starts the show by having a fling with a young hottie, though she's just as much of a perfectionist as Monica. If
Cougar Town revolves around women (and wine), the men--Cobb's lovable loser ex Bobby (Brian Van Holt), Ellie's goofball husband Andy (Ian Gomez,
The Drew Carey Show), and bar owner Grayson (
Ally McBeal's Josh Hopkins, the Mike to her Susan)--get plenty of face time.
The series proved a bigger hit than Dirt, but it gets off to a bumpy start with shrill acting, lines that skew more crude than clever, and an unhealthy relation to body image, like the way Jules licks chocolates before throwing them away. Fortunately, the writing improves, the actors settle down, and chemistry of the "cul-de-sac crew" gels as the year unfurls. Renewed for a second season, the first features Lisa Kudrow as a catty dermatologist, Sheryl Crow as Grayson's age-appropriate girlfriend, and scene-stealing General Hospital vet Carolyn Hennesy as Barb. Don't let the title fool you, this is one sex comedy that prizes community building over bed hopping. As Lawrence states in the featurette, "No one's ever said the word cougar on Cougar Town." --Kathleen C. Fennessy