Product Description
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Coupling: The Collection (DVD)
More SEX please, we're British! For lovers who want a complete
comedy experience this Valentine's Day, BBC Video will provide it
with Coupling: The Complete Seasons 1-4. Containing every episode
of BBC's naughty, outrageously funny comedy sensation, this
7-disc box set will provide so much hilarity, people will forget
they meant to pop the question. Individual seasons are also
available separately.
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This witty, instantly addictive British series could
also be called Chaps or Squelchy in the City. Coupling charts the
tangled sex lives of a close-knit group comprising "exes and best
friends": womanizer Jack, hess nice guy Steve, "strange and
disturbing" Jeff, uninhibited Susan, neurotic Sally, and
manipulative Jane. Coupling may inspire feelings of déjà-view.
The obvious frame of reference is Friends (Steve and Susan are
the Ross-Rachel equivalent), but this series also echoes Seinfeld
in its coinage of catch-phrases (although it's doubtful that "the
boyfriend zone" will replace "master of your domain") and
plotlines (in episode one, Steve tries to dump Jane, who refuses
to accept). But Coupling has its own fresh and provocative takes
on relationships. At one point, a furious Susan discovers that
Patrick not only had a videotape of the former couple having sex,
but that he also taped over her.
Steven Mof's second season is a brilliant consolidation of
all those neuroses, small deceits, obsessions, and personality
tics that struck such a resonant chord when Steve, Susan, and
their four friends were first unleashed on us. Comparisons with
Friends itself are tiresome and lazy: Coupling is an
intrinsically British comedy that picks apart the trivial and the
mundane in everyday relationships and takes them on surreal
journeys, leaving the participants hilariously bemused and rarely
any wiser. Its success is due to the magical combination of
Mof's very funny scripts and the talents of six extremely
likable actors, including Jack Davenport (Steve) and Sarah
Alexander (Susan). But it's Richard Coyle's Jeff whose sexual
fantasies exert a compelling fascination that will really keep
you watching in disbelief. s, bottoms and pants are the
basis for most of the conversational analysis when these friends
get together as a group, as couples, as girlfriends, or as mates,
invariably becoming metaphors for the state of a relationship or
situation. Individual viewpoints and terrors are explored through
respective memories of the same event and what-if scenarios.
Chain reactions inevitably ensue, fuelling comedy that is based
almost entirely on misunderstanding.
The third series of Coupling, first aired in 2002, takes fans
into new realms of engaging surrealism. The men are constantly in
pursuit of a basic grasp of the "emotional things" that make
women behave the way they do. The women analyze everything to
death. But thanks to Steve Mof's scripts, tighter and quirkier
than ever, these characters are living, breathing human beings
rather than cynical ciphers for comedy stereotypes. The
performances are as strong as you'd expect from an established
team, with actors such as Jack Davenport, Ben Miles
(unreconstructed chauvinist Patrick), Sarah Alexander, and Kate
Isitt (neurotic Sally) wearing their roles like second skins. But
in the surreal stakes, it's Richard Coyle as Jeff, wondering
aloud what happens to jelly after women have finished wrestling
in it, and Gina Bellman as Jane, musing on the importance of a
first snog in identifying what men like to eat, who really raise
the laughter levels. All things considered, this is superior
comedy for all thirtysomethings--genuine and putative.
Series 4: Feel free to insert your own "four-play" joke, or for
that matter, your own "insert" joke. Sex is still topic 1 for the
intertwined group of "exes and best friends," but in this pivotal
season there are momentous "relationship issues" that will upend
all their lives (insert your own "upend" joke while you're at
it). Susan is pregnant, inspiring in Steve nightmares about his
own execution and unflattering comparisons of the birth process
to John Hurt's iconic gut-busting scene in Alien. Missing in
action is the Kramer-esque Jeff (although he makes something of a
return in the season finale). Joining the ensemble is Oliver, who
is more in the Chandler mode as a lovable loser with the ladies.
These inevitable comparisons to "Sein-Friends" are no doubt
heresy to Coupling's most devoted viewers. Indeed, this series
does benefit from creator and sole writer Steven Mof's comic
voice and vision. He provides his ever-game cast some witty,
funny-'cause-it's-true dialogue, as in Oliver's observation that
"Tea isn't compatible with porn." This Britcom is also less
inhibited in language and sexual situations than its American
counterparts. In the cleverly-constructed opening episode, in
which the same "9-1/2 Minutes" are witnessed from three different
perspectives, Sally and Jane can do what was left to the
imagination when Monica and Rachel offered to make out in front
of Joey and Chandler. The birth of Susan and Steven's baby ends
the six-episode season on a satisfying and surprisingly moving
grace note. A bonus disc takes viewers behind the scenes with
segments devoted to bloopers and interviews with cast and crew.