Six best friends talk about all aspects of sex and relationships on their never-ending quest to find true love.Six best friends talk about all aspects of sex and relationships on their never-ending quest to find true love.Six best friends talk about all aspects of sex and relationships on their never-ending quest to find true love.
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On average, men and women think about sex every six seconds. Shorten that to every second, and you've got Coupling. It's more than just a one night stand! When a couple gets together, it's never just the two of them - they also bring baggage - and Susan and Steve are no exception. Their baggage is a crowd of best friends and exes who talk about all aspects of sex and relationships on their never-ending quest to find true love. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps... Susan Walker is a beautiful go-getter with an uninhibited attitude who used to date Patrick Maitland, the sextet's charismatic, cocky player, London's king of conquests - a guy who's just too cool to worry about being smart. Attractive Sally Harper is a beauty therapist who is Susan's unashamedly vain best friend, who aggressively battles aging with heavy doses of moisturizer and men - including Patrick. Meanwhile, Steve Taylor, while getting together with Susan, can't seem to shake loose from his vivacious and slightly vacuous ex-girlfriend Jane Christie, a woman supremely confident in her ability to seduce anyone of either sex, and who refuses to be dumped unless she's the one doing the dumping. Jeff Murdoch is Steve's "porn buddy" who is, in equal parts, obsessed and bewildered by actual sex; charming in his way, but with an uncanny ability to say the wrong thing at the worst possible time. He works in the same office as Susan, with whom he had a disastrous and unsuccessful one-night fling. Coupling has been honoured with the prestigious Silver Rose of Montreux, Best TV Comedy Award, and is recent winner at the 2003 British Comedy Awards. With a new guy on the scene, a baby on the way, commitment in the air, and love on the horizon, the dynamics of the six friends are definitely changing. At the end of last season Susan and Steve discovered they were pregnant (well, mostly Susan), confirmed bachelor Patrick and Sally finally admitted their true feelings for each other, and poor Jane was left on her own, once again. But it's not all doom and gloom for Jane. As the new season opens, things are looking up. There's this guy called Oliver, who has his eye on her. Is it possible that lifetime loser in love Oliver might just get somewhere with lifetime loser in love Jane? Trouble is, his apartment is a little "un-edited" and his living room has lost the battle with magazine nudity... Susan and Steve are now well and truly an item. So why is he dreaming about being executed by a fetus with an axe? Meanwhile Sally and Patrick are settling into their new relationship. But since the dawn of time, men and women have been falling in love - and men have been trying to get home straight afterwards. Can fallen playboy Patrick ever find his way back from the enchanted glade of his one true love and get a decent night's sleep? —I'm_So_Sexy
Top review
The UK trumps the Yanks in the sitcom dept.
I'm an American who just saw Season 1 of "Coupling" on DVD for the first time. Based on those first six episodes, I think the BBC's "Coupling" -- along with a new US series over here called "Arrested Development" -- is possibly the sharpest, funniest, and best-written situation comedy since the golden days of Norman Lear and MJM Productions.
The cast chemistry is amazing. The archetypes are extremely identifiable, even over here, which is why the series translates so well. In comedies the subject of sex is often treated adolescently, and it's true that the characters in "Coupling" have some childish, "American Pie" reactions to sexual politics, but they're still, clearly, adults. As with "American Pie," there's a big heart behind the hormones and phermones. But the gags in "Coupling" are brilliantly written and executed. The writers don't take the easy way out; the bawdiness of their humor is cut with intelligence and a really, REALLY great sense of left-field punch lines. Maybe naysayers have to wander through the bereft nature of many American sitcoms to understand why "Coupling" is so appreciated by a cult American audience, but it's the real deal.
Episode 4 of Season 1, called "Inferno," contains an extended monologue in which an embarrassed male character attempts to outline the plot of a lesbian porn film. He is forced to defend his affection for the stuff by being asked to give a cogent plot summary. He's squirming under this challenge -- he's got to defend his proclivities, maintain a balance between self-defense and self-effacement, and STILL intellectualize the plot of the film enough to prove he's smart enough to rise above it. This whole sequence is, possibly, the best-written and funniest 5-minute quasi-monologue ever to be televised.
"Coupling" takes a traditionally pubescent subject matter, the puerile male fascination with sex, opposes it with the progress of rational thought, and is extremely funny in the process. Lots of US sitcoms (and some UK ones) are lucky if they get one horse laugh from the viewer every three minutes. "Coupling's" ratio is more like one horselaugh every thirty seconds. It's that good.
(I never saw the NBC version of this show, incidentally, and have no interest -- apparently it sucked. I can understand why someone would want to use the BBC version as source material, though.)
The cast chemistry is amazing. The archetypes are extremely identifiable, even over here, which is why the series translates so well. In comedies the subject of sex is often treated adolescently, and it's true that the characters in "Coupling" have some childish, "American Pie" reactions to sexual politics, but they're still, clearly, adults. As with "American Pie," there's a big heart behind the hormones and phermones. But the gags in "Coupling" are brilliantly written and executed. The writers don't take the easy way out; the bawdiness of their humor is cut with intelligence and a really, REALLY great sense of left-field punch lines. Maybe naysayers have to wander through the bereft nature of many American sitcoms to understand why "Coupling" is so appreciated by a cult American audience, but it's the real deal.
Episode 4 of Season 1, called "Inferno," contains an extended monologue in which an embarrassed male character attempts to outline the plot of a lesbian porn film. He is forced to defend his affection for the stuff by being asked to give a cogent plot summary. He's squirming under this challenge -- he's got to defend his proclivities, maintain a balance between self-defense and self-effacement, and STILL intellectualize the plot of the film enough to prove he's smart enough to rise above it. This whole sequence is, possibly, the best-written and funniest 5-minute quasi-monologue ever to be televised.
"Coupling" takes a traditionally pubescent subject matter, the puerile male fascination with sex, opposes it with the progress of rational thought, and is extremely funny in the process. Lots of US sitcoms (and some UK ones) are lucky if they get one horse laugh from the viewer every three minutes. "Coupling's" ratio is more like one horselaugh every thirty seconds. It's that good.
(I never saw the NBC version of this show, incidentally, and have no interest -- apparently it sucked. I can understand why someone would want to use the BBC version as source material, though.)
helpful•6610
- shrugfestival
- Feb 24, 2004
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