Here we go with round 2 of NBC’s Age of Love starring Mark Philippoussis, 30, as the daring bachelor who must face off between two groups of women: the Kittens in their 20s and the Cougars in their 40s. Week by week he’ll send one of the ladies home until he’s made his final decision to select from one group. Last week we saw Mark come to the realization that he was on no ordinary dating show (The Bachelor has already been done!) as he was introduced to 40+ year old women, one after another.

The episode from last week went pretty as Mark only had to deal with the 7 Cougars. Spending some time amongst them the first night he got a lot of backgrounds and stories out of the ladies and he actually seemed to enjoy it. I’ve still gotta think that as a 30 year old it’d feel like you were spending the evening with your parents’ friends when there are 46 and 48 year old women there.

There was only one chance at a date before the first “send off” down select. Mark was able to select three of the Cougars for this day trip, so he picked Jayanna, Maria, and Lynn. All of them enjoyed a pretty cool date of rappelling down the side of a building in the city, not a typical date I’d say, well unless you date Bruce Wayne. This date provided all the ladies a pretty good chance to show off their daring side, even when it comes with a lot of fear and nervousness like with Jayanna. Despite her fear of heights she was able to make the best of it and impress Mark with her willingness to try it anyway.

The first “send off” was played out by having Mark invite 4 of the 7 Cougars down to the poolside where he questioned each one of them. The questions were pretty weak and didn’t reveal too much of the ladies, so hopefully it’ll get better as the season goes for that part. The 4 Cougars Mark picked were Lynn, Jodie, Angela, and Jayanna. It was pretty obvious to me where he was going with this one and so I wasn’t surprised when he informed Jodie, 46, “I’m sorry, but I just don’t think it’ll work out.” The writers really need to give him a better farewell than that!

Following Jodie’s departure Mark was given the second big surprise of the show so far. The curtain dropped to reveal six Kittens (six Kittens, not sex Kittens! Damn your Freudian typing slip.) which put a big grin on Mark’s face as this was closer to what he had always expected. From what we’ve seen and heard from the Kittens so far isn’t too impressive. They are definitely being presented as shallow, snobby, and overall the exact opposite of the Cougars. I imagine we’ll get some see-sawing between the two groups as the season go on.

So tonight the Cougars will learn of the Kittens and we’ll see more a division between Mark’s time that the has to spend with the ladies of both groups. I’m very interested to see how he has to do the weekly “farewell”. Will he still bring 4 people, but instead choose 2 from each group? All we know is that he’ll have to send 1 home from each group, so that should keep things even from now on.

As much as I’m starting to give an early lead to the Cougars I have a deep feeling that we’re going to see Mark continue to lean towards the Kittens as that was his hope and intention when agreeing to the show in the first place. Maybe we’ll get surprised and see a turn from that. I guess that’s the whole point of the show though, huh?

Read tonight’s recap of Age of Love Episode 2: “Meet the Kittens”

Check out the rest of our Age of Love coverage.

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