Starring Jack Davenport, Gina Bellman, Richard Coyle, Ben Miles, Sarah Alexander, Kate Isitt
Written By: Steven Moffat
Directed By: Martin Dennis
Studio: BBC Video/ Warner Brothers
Buy on Amazon.com

I’ve gone from not knowing about this show to becoming a HUGE fan. I pretty much watch the Coupling DVDs every month or so, now I have another one to watch. I try to spread the word on the show and get all my friends and family hooked on it. That’s how I found out about this, hearing from my friends how funny this show is.
“Ok time to drink up, Jeff has the same
jacket as me.”
2004 BBC Home Video. All Rights Reserved.

If you don’t know anything about Coupling, here’s a rundown of the show. The show focuses on 6 people. There’s Steve (Pirates of the Caribbean’s Jack Davenport), who is the main character of the show and you don’t actually know what he does for living {haha}. There’s Patrick (Ben Miles), who’s the “Mimbo” of the group and is a pretty boy businessman. Then there’s Jeff, played brilliantly by Richard Coyle. Pretty much ANYTHING the man says is laugh out loud funny. He’s definitely the scene stealer of the series. For the girls, there’s Susan (Sarah Alexander), Steve’s girlfriend. There’s Susan’s best friend Sally (Kate Isitt) who’s always afraid of looking old. Then Steve’s ex-girlfriend, Jane (Gina Bellman) hung around the group and became friends with the girls. Jane is the Jeff character among the girls group. She’s WAY out there, annoying and dumb at times, but she’s “the one with the breasts.” I still debate with friends, which one of the girls is the hottest. I’m torn between all of them but these days I like Jane and Sally haha.

All of them have had relationships with each other. Well the guys and girls, not guys and guys. haha. Patrick dated Susan, Jeff liked Susan, since they worked together, Steve dated Jane for 4 years, Sally and Patrick tried the dating thing, and like each other but haven’t made that step yet. But at the start of Season 3, Susan and Steve are broken up..again, Jeff found a girlfriend (his boss at work) and is enjoying all the nakedness. Jane still works at the radio station and falls for a no sex religious guy, and Sally and Patrick are going into the spending too much time together phase.

Each episode is guaranteed to make you crack up. Some people might compare it to Friends, which I kind of do sometimes but it’s something more than that. It’s more raunchier and funnier than Friends. Friends is funny but some of the stuff on here is just too outrageous. I kind say to people that show is like Friends meets Seinfeld meets Dream On. You know, the HBO sex comedy (before that crap Sex and the City) with Brian BenBen and all the flashbacks to his childhood of watching TV. Anyway, I kind of feel that this show is like that in a way. The show’s style is so creative. For example, The first episode, “Split” shows different points of view from the 2 groups. Sometimes the other screen doesn’t have dialogue and then sometimes they both are interacting at the same time. It’s such a clever way of doing an episode that you have to see it for yourself. Almost every episode is done in a creative way, it might be the editing, or the writing or the way it’s shot. It’s just different and very good. The best thing is the writing of creator Steven Moffat though. Usually most episodes start off slow and build up to something nutty and funny as hell right at the end. There’s so many quotable lines in Coupling. That’s all my friends ever do these days is quote stuff from Coupling. “BREASTS, BREASTS BREASTS” “The giggle loop.” My favorite season is Season 2. There’s just so many great episodes in that one. There’s a lot of great episodes in season 3 as well, but they start to get more dramatic and serious. I don’t mind that, because you have to have a story in order to make jokes. You can’t just have a bunch of funny things and then no story. Wouldn’t work for this type of show. I honestly don’t know how British folks can handle 6 or 7 episodes a season and be happy with it. I get upset if a show is only 15 episodes haha. But I suppose it’s quality over quantity in England.

Another thing that sucks is Jeff is no longer on the show after this season. So enjoy this last DVD with him in it because he’s gone, on to do other things. I guess he didn’t want to be typecast as the goofy out there character. I respect his decision but I wish he reconsider. The man was born to do comedy. I haven’t seen him in any of his theater or drama stuff so I can’t picture him in other roles. He’s always gonna be Jeff to me but that’s probably why he got out when he did. And if was going to leave, I wish he would have filmed a goodbye episode. I managed to see some stuff from season 4 and the new guy, Oliver (played by Richard Mylan) isn’t that bad. He’s starting to fit in well and the combination of Steve and Patrick and the girls is making the show enjoyable to watch. Steve and Patrick seem a lot funnier and have picked up their game it seems.

The extras on here contain commentary tracks, which I haven’t listen to yet but I will. I wanted to watch the episodes more and then listen to it. There’s some funny outtakes, mostly seeing Jack Davenport, Richard Coyle and Sarah Alexander messing up their lines. There’s one outtake with Richard Coyle where he tries to open the door and the director or someone in the crew says outloud to the studio audience: “Richard Coyle ladies and gentlemen, brilliant actor, sucks at opening doors.” Or something along those lines. There’s also Behind the scenes gallery, bios on the cast and that’s about it.

Trust me, if you like British comedies like Fawlty Towers or the Office, and you like American shows like Friends, Seinfeld and Dream On, you’ll absolutely love this show. And if you think it’s like the bad Americanized version of Coupling, it’s not. Go out and buy the first 2 seasons, and then buy season 3. And then start watching on BBC America on June 6th, the 4th season.

Features:
n- Commentary
n- Outtakes
n- Behindn-then-Scenes Photo Gallery
n- Cast Bios

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC

Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Split; Faithless; Unconditional Sex; Remember This; The Freckle, The Key and The Couple That Weren’t; The Girl With One Heart; Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps…Yeah that’s every episode haha.
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 210 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: