Tonight, in the second episode of Age of Love, NBC’s new Reality TV show, Mark Philippoussis, 30, will continue his quest for romance as he dates two different groups of women. The first group, Cougars, which we met last week are our “older women” with ages ranging from 39 to 48. The second group of women, Kittens, will be introduced to Mark and us and range from 21 to 27 years old. With Mark caught somewhere in between it’ll be an interesting season to see who he picks and if he can answer, “Does age matter?”

Wasting no time the show leaps right into Mark getting to finally meet the Kittens down by the poolside. What a perfect chance for them to show off their bikinis! Keep in mind the Cougars have no idea of what Mark is up to right now or that there is even a second group of younger women. So let’s run down our list Kittens: Lauren 27, Adelaide (really?) 26, Amanda 25, Mary 24, Tessa 23, and Megan 21. Here’s the Kittens’ chance to get to know Mark and they all come up a little empty. Well there are a few gems. Tessa explains that her personality is just like her dog’s. Mary shows off her ability to stutter when she gets nervous. Other than that it’s painfully boring with this crowd. None of the girls say anything and as Mark explains, he’s left wondering what the 40 year olds are doing. We’re of course treated quick scene of a raucous bunch of Cougars having a great time just before we’re whisked back to a boring bunch of Kittens sitting around not doing much more than looking pretty in bikinis.

Slowly the Kittens come out of their shell and Mark is able to get some information out of them. What he discovers is that none of these girls have a life plan. When Mark probes Lauren with questions about what she likes to do (he’s looking for hobbies, etc.) and she replies, “I like to eat. I like to travel.” Not all is lost though as Mark gets to spend some time with Adelaide and he explains that he really feels a physical attraction to her. Luckily for Adelaide she was also born in Australia which gives them a little in common. At the end of this segment Mark walked away thinking “I miss the older women.”

Speaking of the Cougars, it’s time for a date with them. Mark explains that he’s looking forward to seeing them because they’re more relaxed and he doesn’t have to work as hard to have fun. So what do they get up to? It’s a flashback roller skating party! All the Cougars change back into provided retro outfits and have a great time. Clearly these are a totally different set of women from what we saw earlier with the Kittens. There’s a quick limbo competition at the end which Angela wins and is rewarded with a brief one-on-one skating time. But don’t worry, this is quickly interrupted as the other Cougars come and jump in, of course! While we’re getting to enjoy this group date the cameras jump back to the 20th floor (that’s where the Kittens stay, of course) Mary is sobbing because she didn’t get to spend enough time with Mark. Gee, I thought it was because she realized she was unjustifiably overconfident. Ah well.

To balance things out it’s now time for the Kittens to have their own group date, but this one is a little more selective. Only three of the girls get to come upstairs to Mark’s suite. He calls down and invites up Megan, Adelaide, and Amanda. That of course leaves the other three Kittens downstairs to gripe and complain. This group date gave Mark a chance to see the Kittens in a more positive light. It also gave Mark and Adelaide a little more private time which continues with the theme from earlier that Mark is getting really interested in her. I think she’s likely the early leader from this group.

So now that the dates are done it’s time for the painfully drawn out elimination round. Woohoo! On top of the eliminations the Cougars will first discover the Kittens. It really doesn’t go too badly and actually leaves most of the Cougars laughing out loud at the Kittens, which definitely makes them nervous. Tonight Mark will have to send one Cougar home and one Kitten home. I made a couple of predictions for that and actually got both wrong! So who did he send home? Most of the comments he gave to the “safe” women aren’t too unique, but that’s okay as I’m sure I couldn’t come up with anything much better than, “I’d like you to stay so I can get to know you better.” Ultimately Mark has to tell Angela the Cougar and Lauren the Kitten that he doesn’t see things working out between them. I had guessed we had seen the last of Maria and Mary, so I was way off tonight. Mark explained to Angela that during their one-on-one skating he didn’t feel there could be a future between them. Lauren didn’t really get that same chance, so it’s hard to say what she could have done better or differently.

Next week on Age of Love, the Cougars are ready to take on the Kittens. The two groups will be merged and as the voice in the TV tells us, “it’s every woman for herself.” Well that sounds exciting!

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