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