MovieChat Forums > Coupling (2003) Discussion > Someone save us before it is to late

Someone save us before it is to late

posted 21 years ago by ClerksFan
3 replies | jump to latest

I am starting with this disclaimer. The BBC version of Coupling is currently my favorite show on television. I think it is the most orignal relationship based comedy from the past 20 years.

That being said, the American version follows in a long line of shows that the US market has taken from the UK with no success. This includes the horrible remakes of Fawlty Towers (Payne) and Absolutely Fabulous (I don't recall what this was called but it starred Charlene from Designing Women). Thank God the networks had the good sense not to follow through with the proposed creation of an American Red Dwarf where Cat was a woman!!

US Coupling has the benefit of great writing (since the stories have been copied from the original), but it fails to capture the chemistry that exists in the british cast.

I would also like to see if this show can thrive when it doesn't have the orignal storylines to follow. I don't see it being more than friends without the chemistry. The only episode to date that did not follow a BBC story did not have the same originality as the giggle-loop, nudity buffer, Lesbian Inferno or the cupboard of Patrick's love. Patrick "compensating" with a sports car and Steve and Susan starting their relationship off by pretending to like the same things is hardly worth a comparison to the BBC scripts.

I have not yet given up on the show because there is so little worth watching these days, but someday something else will be on at 9:30 and I will change the channel.

Any thoughts?

[–] shark-43 21 years ago

Well, dont know if you have read the other comments on this board but many people have brought up that yes, the Brit version is well done but jeez, Steve Moffat (the original creator) isgiven complete artistic freedom and has a full THIRTY minutes for his well-crafted scripts with NO commercials. Here in US they immediately chop away ALMOST TEN full minutes - that's a lot of materialel plus the breaks for tampon and car commercials. Last weeks episode (the first original U.S. one) was very well done and I enjoy this cast also. I think NBC should be patient but they probably won't. BUT, seriously, that's the main reason the best comedy on TV is coming out of the U.K. right now - they are given complete freedom to create while ALL U.S. television is noted to death by studio and network executives - who don't wont to be fired so they desperately give notes and they all try and make it safe and boring and alike everything else on TV.

[–] skyhawk0 21 years ago

FYI, there have been at least two or three attempts at US remakes of Fawlty Towers. Never saw Payne, but I vaguely remember Amanda's (think that was the title), starring Bea Arthur as the Americanized Basil Fawlty — no Sybil, though. The core problem with all of these is that there's no point in redoing Fawlty Towers.

The American Coupling has the same problem. Unlike Friends, Seinfeld, etc., how's it going to have any decent foreign sales when the UK series easily outstrips it? The US version will be dumbed-down and have less appeal outside the States. With that on the table, it can never bring in the additional foreign cash that other big series have for their producers. It'll probably last a while, but will be at best the bridge to NBC's next big Thursday-nighter.

The cast is good enough, but the chemistry isn't there yet. Friends and Seinfeld at least had that from the start. The scary part is if the network kills the good points in their retooling by burying the characters and acting in gimmickry. Then it'll be dead really soon.

[–] rachel_lb 21 years ago

The reason I believe the American Coupling fails is because of and only because of the cast. They are all BLAND!!! It does sort of pain me to say that (a little bit) because Jay Harrington is a cutie and a fellow Mass. native. (What can I say? Us MassHoles always want to see fellow MassHoles make it big!) Colin Ferguson makes a terrible Patrick!! It's like he's just reciting lines and not really acting. And Sonya Walger does not have the same neuroticism and prissiness as the original Sally. She's too perky for this role.

The last few original (that is, not the same scripts from the BBC version) episodes showed some potential. Steven Moffat is a great comedy writer, and one has to wonder if the lure of Hollywood and the flash and cash that comes with it has somehow tainted his talent...