Commit to Coupling (Coupling)

Member Name: Terry Mcintyre

Product:	Coupling
Date:	03/06/01 (692 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cast, lines, Stories

Disadvantages: none

It seems that every other year someone has a moan about the state of British situation comedy and that it’s not up to the standard of Only Fools and Horses or Dad’s Army. The only show to emerge from all that seems to be The Royle Family that, while being original and funny, is a little overrated. Nobody seems to mention the marvellous Coupling though; one of the funniest sitcoms of recent years and it’s only had one series so far.

When I first tuned in I immediately thought ‘Friends clone’ which to be honest it is in a way but is perhaps more like Seinfeld in creating its own weird world but still strives to be different. For a start the main characters are not all friends and only get to know each other through the getting together of Steve (Jack Davenport from This Life) and Susan (Sarah Alexander from Smack the Pony). The others are: Jeff (Richard Coyle) Steve’s Welsh sex-mad best mate who works with Susan, Sally (Kate Issitt) Susan’s neurotic beautician best mate, Jane (Gina Bellman) Steve’s mad ex and Patrick (Ben Miles) Susan’s sex-mad ex. And most of the action takes place in a bar. Sounds familiar so far but that’s where the similarities end. The series concentrated on Steve and Susan’s blossoming relationship and used it as an excuse to put its own spin on the dating game. For example: the first phone call- in which Steve can’t think of anything to say ‘it’s like the pause becomes a third person in the conversation’ notes Jeff ‘only one that doesn’t say much’. It’s these Seinfeld-like pearls of wisdom that pepper the show and help it create it's own language and world therefore setting it apart from Friends and every other clone.

When the first show ('Flushed')opens, the action flits between Steve and Susan talking to their friends about breaking up, and they both enter and sit by opposite partners, taking no n
otice of each other and fooling the viewer, that you know this is something different. There are many great moments such as the men doing their Reservoir Dogs impression while dressed in black suits for a funeral, Patrick’s ‘Cupboard of Love’ containing videos of everyone he’s slept with, Steve trying to explain the plot of ‘Lesbian Smack Inferno’ without making it sound pervy. It also put a new spin on the old ‘pretend the audience is naked’ chestnut when Jeff, nervous about an interview, starts picturing everybody naked (‘I can’t switch off the naked people’) until he goes into the interview room and looks in a mirror. The same episode,'Sex, Death and Nudity', introduces the ‘giggle loop’ –the thing that makes you laugh in solemn situations. There are some great conversations such as Jeff claiming he and Steve are ‘porn buddies’ (if one should die then the other immediately clears his house of porn before his parents come round), Sally saying that ‘age brings you more to shave’, Jane dating a gay guy because she’s bisexual, Patrick spending an episode thinking up porn film names (‘The Girl with Two Breasts’) and a discussion about politics using Star Wars metaphors. The series is further enhanced by flashbacks during on going situations or similar visual devices that enhance the comedy rather than becoming it like ‘Teachers’.

Richard Coyle’s nervous, neurotic, helpful but dateless Jeff is the best character along with Gina Bellman’s nutty, clingy Jane (‘now the lesson we can learn from the Crippen’s…’). Jeff has possibly the best episode in which he attempts to chat up an Iranian girl. After the conversation has finished we hear the whole thing back in her language which then leads to a brilliant finale. The acting is good but there’s something about Sarah Alexander t
hat sets her apart, for the worst reasons, perhaps she’s playing it too straight, I don’t know. Another problem would be that the format isn’t that original and it’s a bit strange that Patrick and Jane manage to integrate themselves with their respective groups so quickly.

These are just silly quibbles though in what is overall a brilliant, hilarious and shamefully underrated production. I know it’s a cliché to say it but if you like Friends and Seinfeld then this is definitely for you. Luckily a second series is in production and I hope it will keep up to the quality of the first and that in itself is a rarity- a good first season that is critically acclaimed (except for the bloke in Time Out who must’ve been watching a different show). Relationships will never seem the same again. Now if only I could get a date…

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