Men of a Certain Age

TV Series Review

They say you’re only as old as you feel.

That’s terrible news for Joe, Owen and Terry. Having logged 40-some years worth of mileage on their rapidly wrinkling selves, the longtime friends feel nothing but old.

Joe, a divorced business owner, is a recovering gambling addict who’s toying with joining the Senior Professional Golfing circuit—while parenting two teens, one of whom is prone to serious panic attacks.

While Joe’s wondering whether he can give up his business to swing a club, Owen’s considering taking a club to his business—a prosperous car dealership built by his father. With pops out of the picture, Owen must figure out how to steer the ship on his own, and it’s not always smooth sailing.

Rounding out the trio of best buds is Terry, a one-time actor who now works at Owen’s dealership. He seems the happiest of the bunch, but only because he’s desperately denying mortality through health food, a Gen-X slacker act and the occasional twentysomething girlfriend.

Based on the idea that maturity is an illusion—that we’re all still growing up even as we grow old—Men of a Certain Age is a quirky, often disarming show that, being a fortysomething man myself, I have some sympathy for. It’s not particularly easy for anyone to grow older, balancing work and spouses and kids and friends. Middle age is sometimes about compromise—when we reluctantly peel back youth’s oversized dreams. Turns out, mortgage payment trumps Corvette every time. So even though Joe’s, Owen’s and Terry’s lives and experiences are far different from my own, they make me feel as if I understand them a bit—that we’re all in this together.

That said, their choices are often very different from those I’d like to think I’d make if I had lived their lives.

Joe and Owen are not always the best of family men, and Terry’s constantly looking for a new—younger—woman to sleep with. All three can be prone to ogle and objectify females. And their language is loaded with (unbleeped) s-words.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

Episode Reviews

Dec. 13, 2010 – S2, E2: “Same as the Old Boss”

Owen struggles with business issues while his wife considers returning to work. “I don’t want to be the woman who fills her day worrying about the kids eating magnets,” she says. Owen worries that he doesn’t have much time to take care of the kids, either, but finally encourages her to search for a job.

Terry’s co-workers rib him over an online clip of an old commercial of his … until he convinces them that he and his attractive commercial co-star have hooked up. Joe coaxes his son, Albert—prone to panic attacks—to go to a school dance, from which Albert promptly disappears. He winds up at a wild, unsupervised teen party, where he drinks and takes pictures of his sister making out. He later throws up in the front seat of Joe’s SUV. Joe, learning of the deception, grounds the boy for a week—but he’s secretly proud of him, too, for overcoming his social paranoia.

The men ogle a jogger, and Terry plants a passionate kiss on a woman. (We also see him shirtless in the old commercial.) They utter about 10 s-words, along with several other profanities (“b‑‑ch,” “a‑‑,” “h‑‑‑” “d‑‑k”). God’s name is misused.

Dec. 7, 2009 – S1, E1: “Pilot”

Terry tries out for a show he thinks is beneath him. Joe frets over a host of quasi-ethical issues—from the “mercy killing” of a surprisingly resilient possum to whether he should pay his bookie. Owen, trying to impress his tyrannical dad/boss by getting into better shape, skips breakfast and goes on a strenuous hike with Joe and Terry—only to collapse in diabetic shock.

Ogling a woman causes the guys to inadvertently injure Owen. (He breaks his nose on the car’s dashboard.) We hear Joe’s kids talk about dildos, Joe talk about how he lost two pounds peeing, and the thump-thump sound of Joe’s truck as he runs over a possum three times. There’s lots of foul language, including multiple uses of the s-word.