For those who missed last night’s premiere of Age of Love on NBC, here’s the pitch: It’ssort of like The Bachelor, excepthalf the girls are in their 20s (the "kittens") — and halfare their 40s (the "cougars"). They try to make moves on Mark Philippoussis (pictured, center), a 30-year-old Aussie who was once a top-ranked professional tennis player. Assuming from the get-go that all the girls would be younger than him, Mark thought he was on a "normal dating show"— that is, until the producers executed a textbook drop shot on him and paraded out the, um, cougars. Game. Set. Match.
The first episode focused on getting to know Mark and thecougars, leaving the kittens to purr (ominously) in the background. The show crawled along with the predictably tedious introductions, annoying Apprentice-style music, and in-your-face editing (meant to play up thegenerational rifts). While the kittens donned bikini tops and frolicked with hula hoops, the cougars spent their hours doing boring, old-personactivities like reading, knitting, and washing clothes. My favorite ageidentifier occurred when the wind kicked up at the pool and a pashmina suddenlymaterialized around every cougar’s neck. (By the way, the area around the pool is insanelywindy.)
Some early revelations: None of the cougars actually looktheir age (except maybe the one who got eliminated first — Oohhh, overhead smash!), the kittens come off like MeanGirls rejects, and it’s a surprisingly tough call to say which team ispacking more silicone. So what’s the verdict? Check back after the jump for acourtside analysis of the first set.
Foot Fault: Thefirst date saw Mark rappelling down the façade of a building with three ofthe cougars, and it was about as exciting as hitting groundstrokes with anoctogenarian. The premise of the date — that being afraid of heights provesyou’re old — is basically insane, particularly for reality-TV aficionados whoknow that Brooke from The Real World: Denver is the worst rappellerever.
Unforced Errors: Thelack of tennis puns in this show made no sense to me. Why would youcreate an absurd and meaningless reality-TV show concept and then showsome uncharacteristic restraint in making hilarious jokes about sweetspots, mixeddoubles, and Martina Navratilova. Host Mark Consuelos, whose teeth arewhiterthan the baseline on Wimbledon Centre Court, didmention that Mr. Philippoussis is searching for that elusive "grandslam inlove," but that just confused me. Was he still talking tennis or had hemovedonto baseball? If so, do I want to know how that differs from a plainold homerun?
Scorecard Confusion: Thereis some seriously fuzzy math going on Ageof Lovethat constantly makes you wonder, "Hold on, does the fundamentalconcept of this entire show make any sense?" Let me break it down:"Mark in the Middle" Philippoussis is 30. If a girl is in her 20s, shecould be any age upto 30. So essentially his age. A woman in her 40s must be at least 10 years older than him. Ergo, he is not really in themiddle. QED! If NBC cared about scientific methodologies, the younger girls would be around15, the show would be called "Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number," and the bachelorwould be R. Kelly (probably a much better show). As it stands, 40-30 makes amore compelling match. Advantage, Cougars!
Cross-court winner ofthe evening: "Can you believe she has a 20-anything year-old son, because youlook amazing!" — Kelli, 40, proved that cougars still know how to be catty asshe made sure Mark had a chance to process just how weird it is that Angela’sson is older than his last girlfriend (Alexis Barbara).
Player of the week: Jayanna,39. The only woman actually in her 30s came out with an aggressiveserve-and-volley game, serving the other cougars with a few trick shots — thedamsel in distress routine atop the building and the poolside swoop-in (aclassic cougar move) — and then displaying a lighter tough once she got close tothe net.
NBC for the NobelPeace Prize: It seems fittingthat a network that uses an evolutionary freakshow like the peacock as its mascotwould be interested in the fundamental questions of nature, but calling theshow "the ultimate social experiment" may have been a bit over the top. And worstof all, they’re not stopping at Age. The preview for The Science of Love, airing after next week’s Age of Love,makes Monday night on NBC look like aBill Nye marathon. This bachelor will date one girl chosen by his"instincts" and another chosen by "science" (apparently, instinctsaren’t "science,"and relationship experts are "scientists"). Mark Consuelos oversees theproceedingsagain, with his teeth still looking like they’ve been soaking somewherein a chemistrylab overnight.
Hitting the ‘Net: Markhosted a thrilling live-blog during the premiere episode. He answered hard-hitting questions like "How is your knee for the Newport tourney?" and boldlyproclaimed that he doesn’t mind if a woman is not into tennis—in fact, he wouldprefer it!(?)
Did anyone else catch the show last night? Are yousetting the TiVo pass for a summer of Love, or is this new NBC lineup a doublefault? More importantly, is America a better place now that the term "cougars" has officially entered the popparlance?
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I noticed the “Scorecard Confusion” as well. It doesn’t seems fair for the ladies in their 40s, however, I’m surprised I even gave it any thought at all.
Yawn…when does Big Brother start…?
I haven’t watched it yet but plan to.
I’m 30 and just married a 39 year old “cougar” at the end of May. The cliches will be too fun to ignore and I feel a swell of inside jokes that might spur from this series. So long as it’s not “so bad it went past so bad it’s good and went back to bad again”, my “cougar” and I will be watching.
It is so annoying and disgusting to me that the term “cougars” is everywhere. It’s basically just a nice way to say old p***y.
Ep Sato: Man, good for you! And congratulations to you both. I love a man who is not afraid to be with someone older. You love who you love.
Why isn’t he with Alexis anymore?! Dear god, she blows all these women out of the water.
Enough already.
Oh my, Chris, the “grand slam” is winning all four major tennis tournaments. The “grand slam in love” then is obviously having sex with four women during the reality show. I don’t think even Flavor Flav achieved that mark…
I know this doesn’t have anything to do with “Age Of Love” but I thought might love to see Hillary Clinton’s parody of “The Sopranos” Finale. Trust me, it is as awful you imagine it would be.
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2007/06/19/icymi-hillary-clinton-drags-presidential-campaign-further-down-the-youtubes/
I should’ve wrote: “Trust me, it’s as awful you could imagine” at the end. Sorry about the bad grammar. Too much weed, I suppose?
beyond pathetic–NBC and all involved should be ashamed. And Mark Consuelos with those ridiculously white teeth matches perfectly with his wife and her ridiculous fake tan. They hands down win the most airbrushed looking couple award. Pretty scary.
This guy was not a top rated tennis player. He was no samprass or agassi. A top rated tennis player atleast has got to win one slam this dude has not. Most of this carrer was plauged with injuries that is why he is so desperate for money to appear on this show. It is similar to like what Dancing with the stars does examle saying that Vivica Fox is a movie star or making up some title to call Paul Macartney’s ex wife.
I’m still waiting for these dating shows like this and “beauty and the geek” to flip the script and let the women do the picking. Oh, that’s right, no handsome man would look past a woman’s age or nerdyness to see her inner beauty.
I thought it’d make more sense with women in their 30’s than 40’s. The guys says he’s looking for a wife and mother of his children. I don’t think he means, “my wife and my 21-year-old step son.” He wants a breeder!
The show was alright. It’s just like other reality dating shows. I didn’t like how the show portrayed the 20-something women. They were fake “mean girls”, but I did agree with the blonde girl who said that it was kind of sad that 40-something women are competing on a show like this. This show reminds me too much of Average Joe. They probably have the same producers or something. Just how they introduced the older women first and made us sympathize with them like with the average Joes. Then the younger women come by surprise and acted all cocky just like the “hunks” on that show are very similar. They could have changed that a bit.
who in their right mind would fight for this fug???
I am shocked and appalled.
This show really proves how people allow their brains to turn into mush. Stupid, Stupid, stupid! Reality Televison sucks big time. Pick up a book morons!
Ok when did the term cougar suddenly turn up EVERYWHERE? I mean two months ago I had never heard the word, now it is on the cutting edge of pop culture?
Actually Emily, Philippoussis *was* a top-ranked tennis player. He was up to no. 8 in the world and finished runner-up in two grand slams – the US Open and Wimbledon. One year he was drubbing the almighty Sampras at Wimbledon fair and square before going down with a really nasty knee injury. Sure, he had a questionable work ethic and was injury-prone but the guy has quite a few trophies in his cabinet (not referring to the women he’s bagged either – Tara Reid, ew). But back in the late ’90s, he was a pretty big star on the tour.
I’m pretty sure “cougar” is a Barney-ism from a “How I Met Your Mother” episode last year. I hadn’t heard it before that. Now I’m hearing it almost daily.
Cougar has been around LONG since before “How I Met Your Mother.” People have been using it for years.
i liked the show, and your reference to R. Kelly is hilarious!!!
I love when people like True hop on their high horse and decry reality television only to take the time to read the review and post their intellectual superiority on comment boards. (While including grammatical mistakes when spouting said superiority)
everyone knows ‘beauty and the geek’ is the ultimate social experiment! liars!
this show is really, really terrible… and i gave it a season pass. damnable summer tv!
We know who he is going to pick…he wants to have kids…women in their 40′2 can’t typically (I said typically, no yelling at me) can’t have kids. this is a good excuse for him not to pick a woman in her 40’s. He looked horrified form the get go!
Carri,
I think you mean women in the 40s typically don’t not typically can’t, and that sentiment would probably be wrong as well.
OK not having seen a minute of this insipidly-premised show, I have to say that the cougars don’t look like they’re in their 40’s because they probably aren’t–no self-respecting woman in her 40’s would submit herself to chomping for a man like a dog on a bone show. The only way that would be true is if the original Bacherlorettes have hyper-aged but that show hasn’t been on long enough, IT ONLY SEEMS THAT WAY…
“Ergo, he is not really in the middle. QED! If NBC cared about scientific methodologies, the younger girls would be around 15, the show would be called “Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number,” and the bachelor would be R. Kelly (probably a much better show).” HILARIOUS.
This show is complete trash…which means I’ll probably tune in at some point. But, Chris, you’re right about the age difference. The most he’d be older than one of the twentysomething’s is 10 years. The most he’d be younger than one of the fortysomethings is TWENTY years. Kind of a big difference for a guy who’s thirty. I said this just the other day with incredulity, then I remembered what I was wasting my time with analyzing and punched myself in the face.
Comments on comments: women in their 40’s have babies all the time, I know several.
I first heard couger in I think Wedding Crashers as reference to Jane Seymor’s character..I sure it was a guy term long before that though…