A Man. And His Blog.

Feel free to insert your own “four-play” joke, or for that matter, your own “insert” joke. Sex is still topic number one for the intertwined group of “exes and best friends,” but in this pivotal series there are momentous “relationship issues” that will upend all their lives. Susan (Sarah Alexander) is pregnant, inspiring in Steve (Jack Davenport) nightmares about his own execution and unflattering comparisons of the birth process to John Hurt’s iconic gut-busting scene in Alien. Sally (Kate Isitt) and Patrick (Ben Miles) are having some sort of a relationship, giving both moments to be scared and to hope that there is a light at the end of the love tunnel. Missing in action is the Kramer-esque Jeff (although he makes something of a return in the season finale). Joining the ensemble is Oliver (Richard Mylan), who is more in the Chandler mode as a lovable loser with the ladies, especially Jane (Gina Bellman), who develops interest in the guy, who tries to deal with his pregnant ex-girlfriend.

Episode 01: 9 1/2 Minutes
A good episode, but it didn’t feel like a real season premiere, instead it was just a normal episode. Okay, the other season premieres weren’t really season premieres as well, but this episode was kinda highlightless and not even the introduction of Oliver could save the episode way above the Coupling average. On the same note: Oliver as a character is really awkward and I notice that Moffat really wanted to replace Jeff, but he completely failed with this one. I even had the feeling that Jeff was more intelligent and common, when Steve was talking to him over the phone, while Oliver failed of getting a woman to shank with this night.
The three stories were alright. Sally and Patrick finally date, which means that Patrick won’t have any more stories about him sleeping with women, which means that a source of humor is missing, but character development is included now. The John Hurt thing between Susan and Steve was rather boring, I didn’t really get it and the humor was over the top, while Moffat wanted the viewers to love Oliver during his first episode, which is why he included him so heavily in this episode.
The lesbian kiss between Jane and Susan was the only highlight in this episode – consider yourself rescued, episode! 7/10

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The third series of Coupling takes fans of the BBC’s comedy of sex, manners and modern relationships into new realms of engaging surrealism, leaving those irritating comparisons with “Friends” trailing in its wake. The men are constantly in pursuit of a basic grasp of the “emotional things” that make women behave the way they do. The women analyse everything to death. But thanks to Steven Moffat‘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 (the ever-perplexed Steve), Ben Miles (unreconstructed chauvinist Patrick), Sarah Alexander (dryly intelligent Susan) 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.

Episode 01: Split
Very interesting episode, which brings more focus on the story, instead of bringing one laughter after another, and I pretty much liked it. It even was genius of the producers to keep the split screen on until the end of the episode, which made it not only special for Coupling, but for a TV series in general. You practically saw here two episodes in one, and you don’t get that all day. And the story was just perfect to bring the split screen into the episode.
Other than that, a few moments were a bit ridiculous and to roll eyes with, especially when Jeff found his high school crush in the strip club again. The short talk they had was rather awkward tha funny. And I think the writers could have done more with the girls in the saloon – I didn’t even watch to the right or lower side of the picture, because I didn’t have one single second of interest in watching the girls making themselves beautiful.
Anyway, good season opener… 8/10

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Steven Moffat’s second series of Coupling’s success is due to the magical combination of Moffat’s very funny scripts and the talents of six extremely likable actors, including Jack Davenport and Sarah Alexander. But it’s Richard Coyle‘s Jeff, whose sexual fantasies and putting-your-his-in-it propensities exert a compelling fascination, who really keeps you watching through your fingers as you hold your hands to your face in disbelief.
Breasts, 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.

Episode 01: The Man With Two Legs
It was a good episode, but a bit lame for a season opener. And this time the writers didn’t manage to put awesomeness in both stories. Jeff’s failure in talking to women was hilarious as usual, but Sally’s (Kate Isitt) new boyfriend Liam (Simon Chadwick) and her lying about his job was boring and absolutely nothing to laugh about.
Alison King might be a hot MILF, but she wasn’t really that sexy, though understandably being found hot by Jeff. That she was considering a threesome for Jeff was just hilarious (“You are going to be lucky tonight”), but a bit over the top. That Jeff is losing this battle against honesty again, was obvious as well (since it is part of his character), but totally hilarious, when he was about to break down, when he saw the opportunity of a threesome. But sometimes I can’t think of any reason, why a man is such an awkward guy to talk that much and lie about a leg. When Jeff was talking to Chrissy in the train, I was just thinking ‘Shut the fuck up, dude, you make a fool of yourself, don’t you notice?’, but he didn’t stop talking (and she was surprisingly interested in what he had to say).
The other characters could have been involved a bit more. With the exception of Sally, all of them had very less amounts of screentime. 7,5/10

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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!
The BBC comedy series Coupling is essentially set around the successes and failure of six character’s sex lives, such as Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander), who meet in the first episode and soon begin to date. But not without bringing their baggage into the relationship. For Steve in form of his friends Jeff (Richard Coyle) and Patrick (Ben Miles); for Susan in form of her girlfriends Sally (Kate Isitt) and Jane (Gina Bellman).
During the first series, a few new concepts get introduced to us viewers … such as the “Giggle Loop” (the harder you try not to laugh, the more you want to), “Porn Buddies” (a friend who, on hearing of your death, will clear the porn out of your house, before your parents get round), and “Unflushable” ex-girlfriends. Men will learn how women talk about them, woman will finally learn the truth about the existence of porn movies.

Episode 01: Flushed
A great opener into the series. We have two separate groups of friends, and both reunite with the flashing of a right breast.
Steve’s and Jane’s break-up was not as funny as Patrick’s and Susan’s, but only because Susan took it with way too much humor, especially when she mentioned the honesty thing and she said “oops” – totally hilarious. The Zone was hilarious as well; Steve is the new master of The Zone, and it must hate him, when Jane even comes to Steve’s and Susan’s first date. The fact that Steve was about to have sex with Jane, when he asked Susan out, is so hilarious, I could laugh about it all day long
The humor is great. There were moments I really had to laugh out loud, and the characters have a great chemistry together. It couldn’t be better, when there weren’t some boring moments throughout the episode. 8/10

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