>Although this show is on the whole bad, it does have it's moments. What do other people think???
>
Didn't see tonight's, but I think the scripts are (on the whole) better than the acting and production values. Steven Moffat should not be written off. (Press Gang and Joking Apart were well worth owning a TV for.)

But I still haven't really laughed, I must confess.

I agree, the program is wobbling on the edge of a comedy ledge, as it were. I mean, just remember the fantasic chalk (only joking). But i can see some similarities with this show - the way he builds up many stories or ideas to interact in 'surprising' ways, with supposedly comical consequences.

5/5 for effort
2/5 for content

>I agree, the program is wobbling on the edge of a comedy ledge, as it were. I mean, just remember the fantasic chalk (only joking).

Even Chalk wasn't appalling - it just became another example of a sitcom being hyped to death even before it hit the screen.

But i can see some similarities with this show - the way he builds up many stories or ideas to interact in 'surprising' ways, with supposedly comical consequences.
>
There were some brilliant farcical scenes in Press Gang, actually. When are they going to repeat it?

>5/5 for effort
>2/5 for content

I'll give Moffat this - he works hard on his material. Bit too hard sometimes, but if more people did the groundwork the way he does....

Couping is terrible, apart from a cameo from Angus Deaton and Mariella Frostrup the other week, where they fell in love and Angus splashed his fizzy drink everywhere.

Well, I found it amusing.

Couping is terrible, apart from a cameo from Angus Deaton and Mariella Frostrup the other week, where they fell in love and Angus splashed his fizzy drink everywhere.

Well, I found it amusing.

Like Friends but different eh?

The key difference being that Friends, even at its weakest points, has funny dialogue.

Actually, the best thing about Friends, which all these pallid UK imitations (Game On, Babes in the Wood, Coupling) miss out is the way it deals with gender stereotypes. In Friends we are regularly presented with male and female characters doing 'boy' things and 'girl' things but as the story unfolds we see how similar the characters desires and motivations really are. In Britcoms all the blokes like beer and big tits, and all the women are sanctimonious and smug about it (yet strangely, still go out with the blokes.)

I actually laughed three times at this week's episode. Not big laughs, I grant you, and only three. But not bad considering I was watching it on my own.

It's miles better than Game On or Babes In The Wood, even if at least three of the actors aren't up to it. I stand by my opinion that the writing is the best thing about it. One day, Moffat might try writing a comic novel, and I suspect it'll be quite good.

>In Britcoms all the blokes like beer and big tits,

There's nothing wrong with liking beer and big tits (does anybody *not* like them?). I like them both very much (and I am a girly, by the way). The problem arises when you don't actually like anything else...or even *talk* about anything else...

Re my comments on blokes in Britcoms liking beer and big tits - yes I'm not averse either. The point you make is what I meant - the male characters in these sitcoms (especially post Men Behaving Badly which has become excruciatingly bad) are completely one dimensional

>Re my comments on blokes in Britcoms liking beer and big tits - yes I'm not averse either. The point you make is what I meant - the male characters in these sitcoms (especially post Men Behaving Badly which has become excruciatingly bad) are completely one dimensional

Which is why I think Couping is better than that - the characters arguably need more dimensions, but the situations Moffat creates are sometimes very intricate and smart. Even at its best (about series 4) Men Behaving Badly was an exercise in sporadically hilarious one-liners surrounded by a lot of nothing much.

And don't get me started on Game On...

How about a sitcom about characters who really are multi-dimensional - ie. they exist in other dimensions, can travel in time at will, etc. Think of the hilarious comic misunderstandings that could arise when 4 of them (2 boys 2 girls) share a flat!

What the world's waiting for - the pilot details for that multi-dimensional flatshare sitcom!

4 characters: Jeremy, Mark, Tara, Katie. Live together in flat. Can travel about in space and time, strange powers, but not unlimited... silly rules discovered as we go along.

Jeremy is a lager-swilling rugby fan, 'Loaded' reader, etc. Loads of money due to winning bets on sporting results far in the future. Usually materialising at the pub, inside the bathroom when the girls are in, etc.

Mark: nerdy, anoraky sci-fi buff. Room filled with Dr Who memorabilia, including a life-size replica of the TARDIS, that's a real replica, with the inside bigger etc. Has all the missing episodes, in fact they're missing because he went back in time and nicked them.

The female characters pose problems, since any women with such powers would not acknowledge the existence of Mark or Jeremy. Suggest that we have a premise that they all have to stick together near the flat for most of the time, to avoid being annihilated or something. Or maybe they're exiled to earth, like the 3rd Dr Who, except that they have to live in a flat together, instead of having lots of mad adventures. Whatever. Tara is the detached, sloaney charcter, can't stand the 2 men. Katie isn't.

All the characters have to have 'jobs' for some reason: Mark works in a SF comic store. 2 students keep coming round to make fun of him as 'someone who believes DW is true' (irony: it is). Jeremy hangs around sports club, trying to be a lad, although the ordinary mortals think he's a weirdo. we never see where Tara goes, it's a mystery. Katie is an incompetent secretary, who relives the same disaster-filled day each working day (with different disasters), but before she can ever be dimissed, she sends the office back in a 'Groundhog Day' style timeloop...

Obviously Jeremy secretly fancies Tara, tries to find out her job, fears the worst, constantly makes light of it whilst gently bullying Mark... etc, etc.

Will this do?

Get that pilot written, Jon! (Do you know what the ratings were like for its first episode yet?)

Justin, would you like to help me with developing 'Tomorrow Went Too Soon' for TV?

>Justin, would you like to help me with developing 'Tomorrow Went Too Soon' for TV?

Don't know if this was a serious suggestion, but I certainly wouldn't mind! I thought it was a very simple idea which hasn't really been done in comedy before (alright, Goodnight Sweetheart, I suppose)...but I loved your character studies.

I'm moving house in the next month, so any serious work will have to wait for a bit, but I shall keep thinking if you're not in a hurry....

Thanks Jon!

Re: "Tomorrow Went Too Soon"

Originally, it was just a piss-take of the desperately serious discussion of "dimensions" in flatshare comedy. However, I can now see that I have inadvertently created a genuine sitcom idea in its own right.

I hate 20-something professional flatshire dramas. In fact, I hate all 20-something professionals. Including myself. Bet you were expecting me to say that, eh?

[I notice "This Life" is already getting a full re-run, as a "classic". Fuck off..]

Sorry Justin, I got a bit dark and depressed back there. Yeah, alright, let's write it, then.

Well I like Coupling. Sorry.

I have only seen a bit of Coupling - I didn't like what I saw but maybe I should give it another chance. This Life on the other hand... Jon - I'd ask you to marry me... if I wasn't already married, and I wasn't a chap, and if I'd actually met you etc etc. I'm *so* glad it's not just me who feels this way about its ludicrous repackaging as a 90s 'classic'. IT IS THE WORST THING EVER SCREENED ON TELEVISION. (Obviously not counting things that nobody ever claimed were any good in the first place - Triangle, Duty Free etc)

>Sorry Justin, I got a bit dark and depressed back there. Yeah, alright, let's write it, then.

Jon, looking at the material, do the characters know that they're all multi-dimensional?

This Life on the other hand... IT IS THE WORST THING EVER SCREENED ON TELEVISION. (Obviously not counting things that nobody ever claimed were any good in the first place - Triangle, Duty Free etc)

Didn't see enough of it first time round*, but if it's anything like Hearts & Bones (liked the song by Paul Simon but the show...phew), and Metropolis, I'm bailing out.


*Or was it more than enough?

This week's "Coupling" had a disastrously dull first five minutes, but if you made it past that....

Really brave idea: Welsh bloke fancies Israeli woman, and they have no common language (though she has an interpreter for a time). We're then shown the same five-minute scene twice, first with her speaking Hebrew and him English, then with her speaking English and him Portuguese (or a similar Mediterranean language). It was so brilliantly clever, and eventually, very funny too. If only this had been the pilot (mind you, then - people would have been delighted when it went crap after the second or third week...)

I appreciate that by now I'm on my own with Coupling, but trust me. This was excellent.

I agree with you. It was a complex plan that moffat managed to pull off (just). Although i noticed that he had to use another language apart from hebrew for jeff, as this would have revealed the breasts joke at the end. As soon as this happened, you could tell there was something afoot...

Everyone involved with this series should be put on a bonfire.

>Everyone involved with this series should be put on a bonfire.

Wow! You're really 'outrageous'. Perhaps you should go and watch some more chris morris material and make some more notes...

>>Everyone involved with this series should be put on a bonfire.
>
>Wow! You're really 'outrageous'. Perhaps you should go and watch some more chris morris material and make some more notes...
>
Stop trying to start fights Joe - you are a bad man!

>>>Everyone involved with this series should be put on a bonfire.
>>
>>Wow! You're really 'outrageous'. Perhaps you should go and watch some more chris morris material and make some more notes...
>>
>Stop trying to start fights Joe - you are a bad man!
>

No, please, carry on, there's nothing funnier than a "coupling" fan trying to be hard! I can just see him flapping his hands like a vicious poof.

Surely there's no such thing as a coupling fan - i don't believe anyone would dare to be associated with the show.

But carry on - a fight's always good

I still say last week's was pretty good - haven't seen last night's yet, might watch the rpt tomorrow night.

It's more like a British version of "Sex and the City," not "Friends." Full of repulsive stuff about blokes and "dating," and the mistaken assumption that the characters are talking to us about things we give the slightest shit about.

And that blonde tart who clearly thinks she's extremely attractive, as if being plastered in make-up, pouting and sticking her tits out makes up for delivering her lines with the comic presence of a wardrobe... Christ help us, it's Samantha Janus all over again, but without the Eurovision flop as an anecdotal standby. The FHM cover beckons.

No Sex and the City Please, We're British. Ha ha!

>
>No Sex and the City Please, We're British. Ha ha!


You may be british, but this also means that you are a twat. I can see why you chose your 'comical' name now - the real ohanrahan was played by Marber - a complete arsehole, and you are also a complete arsehole.

No i'm not a coupling fan, no i'm not flappong my hands, but yes, i am homosexual, and that really offended me, that you used the term poof as an insult. Surley Gay is good and pure. You, like chris morris are sad and lonely, being 'offensive', your reason to live. (obviously you have no interest in human relationships, just being a twat. Ok, lets fight you bitch...

Message for PJ: Not really, of course.
Just want to make that clear in an ollie plimsols style.

Oh well in that case, I obviously totally throw myself on your mercy. As a homosexual, you and your opinions are entirely above any criticism. All the things you like must be in some way cool and kitsch and cliquey. Especially rimming.

Of course, you might just be pretending to be homosexual to win the argument. Who hasn't done that, at one time or another?

Tell you what, admit that "Coupling" is the work of diseased mutant semi-human maggot beasts from hades, and then I'll let you slap your big cock against my face.

Come on, let's not judge one another. We're bigger than this.

>
>
>Come on, let's not judge one another. We're bigger than this.

You're right. I was pretending to try and win. Coupling was shit. What was I thinking? Perhaps you're not such a bad person after all...still, you should use your real name.

By "real", you mean that name on my VISA card that you won't recognise and that you have no use for, yeah?

Coupling is brilliant. Especially the last two episodes. Think back over them ,better if you videoed them(if you videoed the last but one contact me and i'll pay you for it)and it really is genius. I's better than Friends - ouch thats gonna get a response and better than game on and babes in the wood both had their moments. I really did like it. "Yeah but Full backhole, leaves something to your imagination" Patrick
"and your crayons" Welsh Guy

>Coupling is brilliant. Especially the last two episodes. Think back over them ,better if you videoed them(if you videoed the last but one contact me and i'll pay you for it)and it really is genius.

Didn't video any of them, but it would be interesting to see if all the critics backpedal their opinions if the show reaches a third or fourth series and becomes hugely popular. Then we can remember how much flak it got in the early days. Some of Coupling's first series was awful, but the fifth show (the one with the Israeli woman) is one of the cleverest sitcom episodes I've seen for years.

There is a second series in the pipeline. We shall see.
like it. "Yeah but Full backhole, leaves something to your imagination" Patrick
>"and your crayons" Welsh Guy

Fair enough. After some of the comments on this thread I feel I may have too look at 'Coupling' again.

But let's not get carried away. I know it's become the thing to knock 'Friends' but what little I did see of 'Coupling' really wasn't in the same league. 'Friends' can be cutesy and soppy and safe, but it *is* extremely well written and performed, even on off days. And Babes in the Wood and especially Game On were always terrible - Game On is regularly repeated on UK Play if you don't believe me... It stinks.