Not an American sitcom

Series 4 of the BBC sitcom Coupling has just begun, and I'm excited. If you have never seen this show (the UK version, more below), find a way to get your hands on some episodes. Amazon, for instance.

First, an intro into Coupling, the UK way. Many have heard of the disaster that was Coupling the NBC sitcom, so let's just get it out of the way now: they are not the same. The UK Coupling is pure genius, the US Coupling was pure rubbish.

True they had the same creator, and in fact some of the episodes aired in the US had virtually identical scripts to UK episodes, but this could be a case study into how cultures differ in humor. Many fans of Coupling UK have faced this quandary before, after watching some of this show, you wonder how in the world it could possibly have failed. I must admit though, I was intrigued as to what the rest of the US Coupling season would have been. Seeing as how the first 3 seasons of Coupling UK give us a grand total of 22 episodes, and there were definite new scripts being written for the US series.

Coupling has been characterized as "Friends with more sex", kind of like a Friends/Sex and the City hybrid. I suppose that's a valid description, and some definite parallels can be drawn, but it's really a whole different animal. It's like comparing Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Zoolander.

Let's go to the show itself to see what they have to say.
Coupling 402, Steve to Jane: "Could you stop just wandering in through my front door!? Cause this is not, I repeat NOT, an American sitcom."

- totoro

TV role model

Okay, so I have a TV role model, or maybe something of an aspirational hero... Anyway, I want to be Summer on the OC. I'm not quite sure why I like her so much, but I like that she is a bit spacey, without being stupid. And she can use power tools! Have I mentioned how much I wish I was handy and had my own cordless drill and other power tools? I'll pass on the saws, and things that can cut off limbs, but I'd love to be able to do basic home improvement.

Granted, she can be shallow (which I do not aspire to), but she has a good heart and she has great clothes! But this plays into another dilemma. Let's have a little story time! Once upon a time, there was a girl who was a UI designer for a software company, working on a page layout product. She went out to lunch with two of her co-workers. They were talking about interviewing job candidates and the male co-worker mentioned that his favorite last question is 'What magazines do you subscribe to?' His favorite response to this was the woman who said she subscribed to Cat Fancy. So the girl in our story says that she's lucky she didn't interview with this guy because she doesn't think she would have passed that question, as she subscribes to Martha Stewart Weddings, InStyle, Esquire, Lucky the shopping magazine and that her "magazine choices probably make her look like a floozy." Female co-worker says (paraphrasing here), "Actually, you [the girl] have really been an object lesson to me in not being judgmental and going with first impressions because I thought you were a floozy, but you've shown me that someone like you can be smart and care about the job blah blah." Oh MY God. OBJECT LESSON. And then, the other co-worker agreed with her assessment. AAAAGGGGHHHH. Who really wants to be an object lesson? Basically, this sounds like "I totally hated you at first, but now you're not so bad." A number of people have mentioned that at least she changed her mind, but um, cold comfort, okay?

So this is telling me that maybe I should change my role model to someone more like, um, Kirsten on the OC? Gil Grissom? Oprah? The Olsen sisters? But can they use power tools?

- nyanko

Sex and the City

I just finished watching Part I of Season 6 of Sex and the City. I loved it, and as usual, I cried. Not sure when I became a total sap, though I think it was sometime in college. The two moments that have proved to me that I should never go to sappy movies (or even movies that blatantly manipulate your emotions even though they aren't good) with people I don't know well: 1)Armageddon - around junior year in college - I saw this at the theater with one of my guy friends and totally sobbed, in an embarrassing way, through at least half of the movie and 2) I watched 'i am sam' on the plane back from Europe and just bawled for over two hours. My seatmate obviously thought I was insane. I'm sure many people would stop being my friend after seeing me in a puddle during some horribly schmaltzy, obviously manipulative moment. Luckily, I don't watch too much that puts me on crying jags, although I have to admit the first season of Everwood was pretty rough for me. :P

Anyway, I recommend Season 6 of SaTC - the point in the storylines where that part of the seaons ends is a little awkward, and Mikhail Barishnikov's character weirds me out, but I still really enjoyed it. On June 15, TBS will start broadcasting SaTC on Saturday nights - they have to cut both time (most episodes run over 24 minutes and I think syndicated television shows usually don't have more than 22 minutes of content...) and content (since the ladies have sex!) and I'm curious if this will be a total disaster or not.

- nyanko

Shrek, the Return.

Shrek 2 opened this past Wednesday to rather glowing reviews (note the glowy tomato) and also proceeded to beat the crap out of everything else at the box office. With a weekend gross of over $100 million, I believe it even beat our beloved Nemo.

Perhaps the continued success of such films will result in an epic Dreamworks/Pixar rivalry. I think we could all benefit from a flood of quality animation that would result from such a rivalry. Until the day they figure they might as well join forces and buy Disney instead to make one giant animation conglomerate that will then proceed to put out movies like Shrek 15 and Shrek vs. Toy Story: Grudge Match.

If you are one of the dozen people left in the country who has not yet seen the movie, let me just say that beyond the animation and modeling/surfacing which make up the great visual aspects of the film, the scriptwriters should consider a career in renting out their services (perhaps to Saturday Night Live). The film is so full of one-liners, sight gags, and running jokes that you forget there's actually some plot involving fairy godmothers, pretty boys, and in-laws.

Antonio Banderas and Eddie Murphy steal the show.

I think Antonio needs his own sitcom.

- totoro

Law & Order, on demand

Oh my god, there's a rumor that NBC is considering offering Law & Order on demand. Granted, it's the New York Post, which is a hilariously shameless "newspaper" which I have to buy whenever I'm in New York. But anyway, as a recovered Law & Order addict, I fear for others lives if this comes through because there will be no L&O daily limits, such as the fact that only x episodes are broadcast per day... You could watch ALL DAY. Please note, the only thing that actually kicked my habit was the fact that I watched basically every episode before Elisabeth Rohm started on the show. Oh, I guess that means that Elisabeth Rohm also helped me kick the habit...

By the way, I haven't been able to get the New York Post anywhere outside New York, but I was walking down the street in LA about two months ago and lo and behold, I found a newspaper vending machine that had the New York Post. It figures that LA would have it, since it's renowned for celebrity gossip/total fabrications (my favorite!).

- nyanko

I lack the gene for fear

Speaking of Rachael Leigh Cooke, what would it be like to lack the gene for fear? Or rather, what would it be like to not be able to fear things? Ignoring the implications of the idea that there is a single gene that enables us to feel fear, it beats me, I think you'd probably die really fast.
With that show failing to even make it to the WB schedule, Mr. Bruckheimer has no doubt returned to reporting the activities of CSIs in even more cities around our nation.

Now that I'm thinking about it, where is the line between doing something fearless or just plain stupid? The infamous Darwin Awards are a good example. Were I to be totally fearless, I would rush out to the theater immediately and watch Van Helsing. And in my dying throes I would curse the studios that own my soul.

- totoro

Not my fault

I would like to blame totoro for this blog. It's all his fault.

All the networks will give their upfront presentations next week, where they unveil their television schedules for the next year. Sadly, the Rachael Leigh Cook show about the girl who lacked the gene for fear never made it to prime time - and you'd have thought it would have a decent chance of making it since it was by Jerry Bruckhemier (pure genius!). I think there are some more tragedies in store for next fall, but will they approach the trauma that was Dark Angel? We'll have to wait and see! If you really want the dirt on tv, go to the futon critic. I used to need all my brainspace for learning/retaining facts that I needed for school (and also for way too much Britney trivia), but apparently, I have now dedicated the excess brainwaves to minutiae about current television shows.

- nyanko