Coupling: Sexier British Friends

I first saw Coupling over a decade ago. PBS was randomly airing the series on Friday night (as is PBS's wont) and I instantly became hooked to this quirky British sitcom (as is my wont). As a huge Friends fan, Coupling was guaranteed to appeal to me, since it followed a group of six friends in London. However, thanks to the liberality of British television and the genius of creator Steven Moffat, these friends are infinitely more bizarre, witty and sex-crazed than the ones you've seen on American TV.

Steve and Susan (modeled after Steven Moffat and his wife Sue Vertue) are the central couple of the group. The pilot features their first date and we subsequently follow their relationship along four seasons. Steve (Jack Davenport) is a relatively sensible but typically insecure man, flummoxed by women and prone to hilarious rants about the feminine fascination for cushions or shoes. Susan (Sarah Alexander) is incredibly sensible and prone to frustration with her indecisive beau, so she struggles to patiently guide him along their relationship. Steve's best friend is Jeff (Richard Coyle), a bizarre Welshman who is obsessed with women yet terrified to talk to them and gets into the most unimaginably horrific and hilarious scrapes. Susan's best friend is Sally (Kate Isitt), a beautician who is terrified of growing old, being single, and bottom spreadage. Rounding out the cast are Jane (Gina Bellman) and Patrick (Ben Miles), Steve and Susan's promiscuous exes who manage to become entrenched in the group and get entangled in their various machinations. 

Like with Happy Endings, don't get hung up on the premise and instead focus on the execution. In the case of Coupling, the fact that Steven Moffat wrote every episode should be more than enough of a recommendation. Double entendres are flying, insanely complicated misunderstandings abound, and each episode is so densely packed with jokes and revelations that you can't believe they are just 30 minutes long. The show also has some particularly innovative episodes where they replay a situation from the point of view of multiple characters, or toggle back and forth between the men and the women to highlight the ridiculous gender dynamics at play. It is smart and silly, subtle and outrageous, and always a delight.

I recently re-watched the entire series on Netflix and found it endlessly fascinating. Despite having seen each episode multiple times in the past, I still picked up new jokes I had missed, or new innuendos that I didn't quite understand as a teen. Being a British show, there are just 28 episodes to enjoy, but each one is a gem, even the six episodes of the fourth season where Jeff was abruptly replaced by a wacky man called Oliver (Richard Mylan) since Richard Coyle left the show. Coupling didn't go past four series because Moffat got busy with Doctor Who, but to my joy, I just discovered that he wrote on a message board in 2006, to offer fans of the show some resolution as to what happened to all the characters. So load up your Netflix queue and get cracking. You are not complete until Jeff teaches you about the "Giggle Loop" and Steve has explained what the women of the world have been doing with their stockings.