Coupling 

The mating ritual can get messy. Let's see if we have this straight... Steve's with Jane but he's suddenly hot for Susan who met Steve through Jeff whom Susan used to go out with though ... See full summary »

Creators:

Steven Moffat, Phoef Sutton

Stars:

Colin Ferguson, Jay Harrington, Lindsay Price

1 nomination.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Colin Ferguson	...	Patrick Maitland 11 episodes, 2003
Jay Harrington	...	Steve Taylor 11 episodes, 2003
Lindsay Price	...	Jane Honda 11 episodes, 2003
Christopher Moynihan	...	Jeff Clancy 10 episodes, 2003
Rena Sofer	...	Susan Freeman 10 episodes, 2003
Sonya Walger	...	Sally Harper 10 episodes, 2003

Storyline

The mating ritual can get messy. Let's see if we have this straight... Steve's with Jane but he's suddenly hot for Susan who met Steve through Jeff whom Susan used to go out with though she's just dumped Patrick despite the great sex so Patrick's asked Sally out which bugs Susan since Sally is her best friend... Based on the outrageous British hit series of the same name, Coupling concerns love and lust among six thirty- somethings who are either involved, formerly involved or looking to become intimately involved -- often with each other. The result, not surprisingly, is a very involving comedy filled with eye-popping situations and equally jaw-dropping one-liners. The comic possibilities for pairings appear as limitless as the characters' desires for Coupling. Wild comedy... Insatiable laughs.

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Plot Keywords:

friend | television flop | short lived | sexual relationships | apartment | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Coupling - Wer mit wem?

Filming Locations:

Stage 35, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

NBC Studios, Reveille Productions, Universal Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The show was canceled after four episodes.

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Quotes

Steve: The moment fire was invented we didn't say, 'Hey, let's cook!' we said, 'Great! now we can see naked women in the dark!'.

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Connections

Referenced in Ed: Happily Ever After (2004)

User Reviews

Can a show have negative stars?

For those of you unfamiliar with Coupling (it means you've been living under a rock) it is a show from the great isle of Britain which is basically Friends... who have sex.

The show is wildly popular in Britain and made a splash on BBC America, and thanks to DVD the show has been reaching a broader audience. And with anything successful in Britain, America feels that they can take it and remake it better.

So in the same vain as Three's Company, Faulty Towers, and American idol, Coupling has been shipped to America, given a generic wrapper and dropped into the laps of the unsuspecting American couch potato. With the success and intelligent writing of the British version the American version is bound to be a success... right?

WRONG.

Bollocks is what I say dog bollocks to be more precise. From the first moment of casting, by the way the casting director should be shot, I knew this show as doomed for failure. Now I know they want to differentiate themselves from the original, but part of the appeal of the original show is who was cast in it. Each character in the British version was cast in such a precise way that half of the success of the show is based on the actor who performs their part. And since episode one was practically a word for word re- shooting of the original British version (minus 15 minutes since British programs run 45 minutes instead of 30) the miscasting took jokes that could and should have been funny, and made them, not, so funny.

To make matters worse a laugh track is used to elicit laughter in areas that are, not, funny. Granted, a few times I was forced to laugh, I won't deny it, but not as much as I did when I saw the original.

So the cast, Jay Harrington plays "Steve", Steve is supposed to be a bit of a dork, a nice guy, but not all that clever as portrayed by Jack Davenport (recently seen in Pirates of the Caribbean). Jay Harrington is not dorky, not clever, and to be honest not that interesting. Part of the reason why Steve's lines work is because of how Davenport delivers them, I realize its a pilot but Harrington has a lot to make up for.

Jane, Steve's "ex"-girlfriend is played by Lindsay Price, a petite, attractive, squeaky voiced girl, who would make a great Susan, but is no Gina Bellman. Again part of what makes Jane great is Bellman's performance, Jane is one of my favorite characters and I can't see Price pull it off. Again, she would have made a great Susan, but not Jane.

Speaking of Susan, Rena Sofer from General Hospital fame plays the role originally performed by Sarah Alexander. Alexander makes the role what it is, Sofer would have been a better Jane then sally, its evident the producers tried to use Sofer's appeal to make the show work, well it didn't, she was very uncomfortable in the role, Susan, a woman who enjoys sex but is embarrassed by it at the same time. I honestly don't think anything would embarrass Sofer.

Christopher Moynihan plays Jeff, Jeff makes the British version what it is, Jeff is the pivotal role involved with the success of the show, cast a bad Jeff and the show will fail, well let me tell you, boy did they ever cast a wrong Jeff. Richard Coyle, who plays the original is fantastic, he's funny, and goofy and just so "Jeff", Moynihan is everything Jeff isn't, and most of all he isn't funny. Originally Breckin Meyer (of Clueless fame) was cast as Jeff, had he remained the show might have been more successful.

Sonya Walger plays Sally, the self-obsessed neurotic best friend of Susan. I have to admit, Sally's my least favorite character, played by Kate Isitt in the original. Not to say that Isitt is a bad actress, she just plays the character so well, I'm annoyed. The ironic aspect of this is Walger, last seen in The Mind of the Married Man on HBO, is English, has an English accent, but for some asinine reason, they had her adopt an American accent, and a bad one a that. Walger's performance of Sally was practically unnoticeable, as I believe that most of her lines were cut to a lot for the 15 minutes needed to be cut.

Colin Ferguson plays the well endowed "stud" Patrick, and I have to say, Ferguson is probably the only cast member correctly cast. While he has yet to pull of the obtuse confidence of the original Ben Miles, he shows some promise. There's nothing I can really say about Ferguson except if they recast the show, please keep him.

So will the American version of Coupling even catch a glimpse of the success the original did? I would have to say with its current cast, no. Considering the original's appeal was the mix of witty dialogue and brilliant acting, something the American version lacks, its a testament at exactly how important the right casting director is. The American version was well written, but the characters just lacked any kind of appeal, it just made me long for more of the original.

Speaking of the original, why Hollywood didn't just pump money into the original and produce more of those instead of this mess is beyond me, evidently Hollywood feels that the average American cannot bear a British accent, but then again, how did the original become so popular?