Brilliant! I can't wait for the next series! (Coupling)

Member Name: spiffo

Product:	Coupling
Date:	07/05/01 (767 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good character interaction., Fantastic scripts.

Disadvantages: Only 6 episodes made so far.

Six twentysomethings. 3 male and 3 female. Plotlines revolve around sex and relationships. Shown on a Friday night. I know what you're thinking, and yes, the show is a little bit like Friends.

In fact, the only weak point of Series 1 seemed to be that it was trying to be like other shows. In one episode, five of the characters are in a room and there's a knock at the door, leading to a sarcastic question of "I wonder who that could be" penned by writers who must have had Friends on their mind. In another episode, the writers have a go at being a bit more like the writers of Seinfeld by trying to have the characters articulate ideas that we all know of by giving them clever names. Thus, the term "giggle-loop" is coined for the way in which the more you know you shouldn't laugh, the more you do.

Both of those examples are handled masterfully, though. The giggle-loop concept worked so much better than most of Seinfield's phrases and the way in which six people with tenious links almost end up together is less irritating than the way the six "Friends" are always hanging around in one person's appartment.

There were only six episodes made, and the time taken over each script shows with the intensive scripts. One particularly good episode, "Lesbian spank inferno" managed to fit as many really good, laugh-out-loud jokes into half an hour as you'd get in about 5 or more episodes of most American sit-coms.

I'm hoping that the BBC are going to do another series of Coupling. If they're not, I hope they repeat Series 1... I only realised how good the show was after a couple of episodes, so I've only got half the season on tape!

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