Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I absolutely love BBC shows. There is something about these shows in general that is so much more sophisticated and much more subtle than a lot of shows that are on TV at the moment. I do not know if it is the accent or if it is the manner in which the shows are done but there is something about BBC shows that I just find a bit more fascinating than a lot of other shows. I think of The Office and compare it to its American counterpart and the English version is simply funnier. Similarly, I see BBC's Coupling and compare it to the American remake and there is no comparison. Speaking of which, Coupling has quickly become one of my favourite shows and I decided to purchase season 1 on DVD and am very grateful that I have.

For those of you unsure as to what Coupling is about, this show is essentially about 6 people: 4 who are single and 2 who have only entered into a relationship. The 2 who are in the relationship are Steve (played by Jack Davenport) and Susan (played by Sarah Alexander). Steve is a very nervous and paranoid individual that enjoys lesbians (and tries to hide this from Susan). He also tends to go on very long monologues when enough pressure is applied on him. Susan, on the other hand, is a quietly confident and very attractive woman that many other women are jealous of. She also tends to use the word "apparently" when she is upset. Together, Susan and Steve form a relationship that is functional but that is also somewhat awkward particularly with regard to communication. Two of the single people are Steve's ex-girlfriend Jane (played by Gina Bellman) and Susan's ex-boyfriend Patrick (played by Ben Miles). Jane and Patrick are both particularly clueless about what is going on around them but both seem to be able to pick up members of the opposite sex at will. The final two members of the group are Steve's and Susan's best friends, Sally (played by Kate Isitt) and Jeff (played by Richard Coyle). Sally is an ultra-feminist and is constantly obsessed about her physical appearance and will do anything to stop aging. Jeff, on the other hand, is the Welsh sex-obsessed geek that has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And these are the people that make up Coupling.

The first season of Coupling has six episodes. The first episode is Flushed and this evolves around Steve's feeble attempts to break-up with Jane and Susan dropping the bomb on her relationship with Patrick before Steve and Susan bump into each other and meet for their first date. However Jane does not allow Steve to break up with her and this leads to some hilarious ramifications on Steve's date with Susan.

The second episode, Size Matters, is Steven and Susan's second date and it is soon discovered that Patrick is "big" down there. Steve is intimidated by this and is scared he will not live up to Susan's expectations. Sally, who is about to go on a date to a car show with Patrick, demands that Jeff go to the toilet with Patrick to find out how big he really is. We also learn about the fundamental difference between Sally and Patrick which is that Sally is a Liberal and Patrick is a Conservative. Jane is also on a date in this episode with Howard, who is gay and, much to Sally's disappointment, a supporter of Margaret Thatcher. Howard tries to tell Jane that he is gay but Jane insists she is bi-sexual and, on that basis, is both gay and straight. I will leave you to figure that one out. There is a really funny concluding scene with Angus Deayton and Mariela Frostrup at the end of this particular episode.

The third episode, Sex, Death and Nudity, begins with Jeff preparing for an interview and telling Steve and Patrick how he cannot stop thinking about female body parts and how he will accidentally blurt out the word "nipples" in an interview. Patrick suggests that Jeff should start imagining people naked as a way of overcoming his nerves. Although this initially works and excites Jeff, he soon finds out that this method of overcoming nerves comes back to bite him in the bum. Jane's aunt has passed away and needs Steve to come with her as she has not told any of her relatives that she is not in a relationship with him any more. But Steve will not go unless Susan comes and Susan will not come unless Patrick comes and....I think you get the idea. The gang of six end up coming to the funeral even though it was only Steve, Jane and Jeff who knew Jane's aunt. We also learn about Jeff's "giggle loop" which leads people to laugh at the most inappropriate of times.

Inferno, the fourth episode of the first season, is probably my favourite episode on the DVD simply due to the fact that it is the one episode that I can identify with. The episode starts off with Susan cleaning Steve's apartment and Steve soon discovers that Susan has found a tape by the name of "Lesbian Spank Inferno" in his video player. Steve does not actually know that Susan knows this but suspects that this is so and he expresses his fear to Jeff and Patrick that Susan thinks he is some kind of pervert. Meanwhile Susan tells Sally and Jane about the tape and her sudden urge to clean his house. In their conversation, it is also discovered that Steve tells Susan that he loves her, which is mainly due to Steve's shock about the situation regarding the tape, and this upsets Jane who has not entirely accepted the fact that she and Steve are now an item of the past. Jane visits her psychologist, Jill, and they end up joining the rest of the gang for a dinner party that goes very, very wrong. This episode is the first time Steve explodes into one of his long, drawn-out "men" monologues.

The Girl with Two Breasts starts off with Jeff's attraction with a girl at a bar. Although she is very beautiful and is seen as an intellectual due to the fact that she is reading a book, Jeff soon discovers that she is from Israel and does not speak a word of English. This, to Jeff, seems good at first since he can say whatever he likes but he soon discovers very quickly that this does not bode well for him. All the girls are also very surprised that Jeff can get a girl as beautiful as she is since they know very well that Jeff is incapable of talking to women. There is also an interesting discussion between Patrick and Steve about the perfect name for a pornographic film which is very funny. There is a sequence where the Israeli girl speaks English and Jeff speaks complete gibberish which is absolutely hilarious!

The Cupboard of Patrick's Love, the final episode of this season, starts off with the gang discovering that Patrick records all his sexual encounters on video and stores all the videos away in a cupboard in Patrick's flat. Steve is immediately intrigued by this since he wants to find out if Patrick has recorded his encounter with Susan before she went with Steve. Obviously, this is the case and the entire group watch the video at Patrick's place much to Susan's disappointment. However the even funnier thing is that the girl in the video they are watching is not Susan and this offends Susan even more. This is a great way to close the season and sets the scene for it second season.

The first thing I was immediately impressed with was the writing for the show. The show really captures the issues that many adult men and women face. From my own personal experiences, conversations with men does end up evolving around sex and the show captures this aspect of male communication brilliantly. I also liked how the men talk about women as creatures they struggle to understand which also comes up in many conversations I have with men. Obviously men in real life do not talk about sex and women as much as the male characters do on this show but the concept of sex is a part of every man's life and there are no attempts by the show's writers to conceal this from its audience.

I also really like how the characters are developed throughout the first series. Steve and Susan's relationship is very well developed and we really get to experience their ups and downs together. Despite the fact some of the communication in the relationship is very awkward, one can certainly feel the connection between the two. The reason I think this is such a strong part of the show is due to the fact that Steve and Susan are based on Steve Moffat, the show's writer, and Sue Vertue's, one of the show's producers, own relationship. It adds more of a personal edge to the relationship between Steve and Susan. Steve also has a funny relationship with Jane who still has not quite gotten over being rejected by Steve. She still is clinging on to some hope that he will come back to her when it is obvious he no longer has any interest in her. Its funny to watch but at the same time its sad that a larger-than-life character like Jane will not get Steve back. In terms of other relationships, I was also really impressed with the relationships with some of the other characters on the show, most notably Susan and Patrick's relationship. I point out their relationship because these are two people who have known each other for a long time and their chemistry is an interesting one because both find each other particularly attractive (both for different reasons but they physically like each other nonetheless). However its funny when one of them opens their mouth because they are so completely different. Jeff is, well, Jeff. He is the comic relief of the group and has a million and one different theories on interaction between men and women and life in general. The first theory he posits, the "unflushable", which is meant to describe a loved one that cannot be dumped, never fails to crack me up, along with his other theories. The fact that Jeff has all these theories but trembles at actually having to talk to someone of the opposite sex is of particular mention as this is a major source of a lot of the show's humour.

The fact that the actors perfectly suit the characters they play is another important factor as to why Coupling is as funny as it is. Jack Davenport, who has since played other characters such as Keira Knightley's future husband in Pirates of the Carribean, perfectly portrays Steve's lack of confidence. The facial expression of fear is so well expressed by him and I can only ever think of him as Steve (even whilst watching Pirates of the Carribean). Sarah Alexander portrays Susan with a calm and confident demeanor and this perfectly offsets Steve's lack of confidence in himself. But even through all the calmness, she still sometimes loses it with Steve and its funny when she does since it goes against the nature of her character. The supporting actors also play their characters very well and do well to bring out the quirks in each of the individual character. Richard Coyle, who plays Jeff, is an obvious standout. Although Steve Moffat has revealed that Jeff was not initially written to be a Welshman, there is something about Jeff being Welsh that makes his character really odd. This is well portrayed by Coyle and he captures Jeff's sense of paranoia brilliantly throughout the show. Kate Isitt is also a perfect fit as Sally. Even though Sally is meant to be a younger adult, it has to be said that she does look slightly older than the rest of the group and this is a topic of great concern for Sally who, as a beautician, tries anything to prevent herself from aging. The fear of not looking as good as the other girls in the group is well portrayed by Isitt. Ben Miles and Gina Bellman, who play Patrick and Jane, are fantastic in their roles as the clueless ones of their groups.

Like most BBC comedies, each of the shows are very well directed. There are more than enough gags to keep you laughing out loud and this maintains the interest of the audience throughout the show. Although there is a laugh track, this is not excessively used as it is in many American situational comedies (or sitcoms if you prefer). But I find it more impressive how the directors are able to use silence very effectively during the more serious moments of the show and using this after a series of gags throughout an episode has such an impact on the viewing audience as it leaves the audience in shock just as much as the characters on the show seem to be. The production values of the show are technically sound. The camera is not obtrusive and the editing serves its purpose throughout each episode on the show. The show's theme tune, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, which is taken from the Spanish tune, Quizas, Quizas, Quizas, is a very catchy tune that will quickly get stuck in your head.

I guess the only slight flaw of this DVD is the fact that there are no special features on the Region 4 version of the first season! No out-takes, no behind the scenes footage. Absolutely nothing. They do not even have the courtesy to put subtitles in for people that are hard of hearing (I did intend to put "i.e. myself" but I would be lying if I did). If you intend to look for special features on this, do not purchase the Region 4 version. Seek out another version such as the Region 1 version which at least has some special features.

Regardless, this is another fine slice out of BBC's world of comedy and I highly recommend all individuals to find this and watch, not only this season, but every season of Coupling. DVDs are available for the other seasons as well but you will have to start with Season 1 (i.e. this DVD) as this will set out the scene for you and allow you to understand each character in the show. But it should be noted that this show is targeted at a more mature audience. This show is definitely not suitable for kids to watch as a lot of adult themes, other than the main topic of sex, are touched upon. But if you think you are old enough (hey, if I am then you sure as hell are!) then, by all means, watch this show.

Thanks for reading the review.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD