Coupling - who with whom?

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Television series
German title Coupling - who with whom?
Original title Coupling
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Year (s) 2000-2004
length 30 minutes
Episodes 28 in 4 seasons
genre Sitcom , comedy
idea Steven Moffat
music Simon Brint
First broadcast May 12, 2000 on BBC Two
German-language
first broadcast		 January 10, 2002 on ORF 1
occupation

Coupling - who with whom? is a British sitcom directed by Steven Moffat that premiered on BBC Two in December 2000 and was discontinued after four seasons in 2004. The series shows the bizarre everyday experiences of six friends in their mid-thirties. The thematic focus is on sexual topics: frequent motifs are dates, sexual adventures, gender roles, sexual obsessions or pornography. Author Steven Moffat based the plot of the series on his personal experiences: The characters Steve and Susan are based on him and his wife Sue Vertue , who also acts as the producer of the series.

In Germany, the TV station ProSieben broadcast seasons 1 to 3. In 2005, the private children's channel NICK took over the series (including the fourth season) under the name NICK Comedy and showed it in weekly rotation until spring 2006. From January 15, 2007, the series was repeated on Comedy Central until September 7, 2008 . Einsfestival has been broadcasting repeats of the series since June 28, 2016 .

Coupling received mostly positive reviews in the UK. The journalist Mark Lawson of The Guardian praised Moffat's script. He especially liked the episode "The Girl with Two Breasts" for its amazing originality . The Daily Record called the show straightforward and funny . The Independent praised the creativity and originality of the series.

The series was sold to Israel, Canada, Hungary, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, the Benelux countries, Kenya, Turkey and Latin America.

After a bad start, the following parts achieved acceptable audience ratings. A version of the series produced for the American market in 2003 was discontinued after four of eleven episodes. The verbatim copy of the British original was merely adapted to the requirements of the American advertising environment, which met with little enthusiasm from the public. The failure of coupling in the United States is also due to the fact that the series came under criticism from conservative forces, who opposed the making of sexual content on television, even before it was launched.

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps , sung by Mari Wilson , was used as the title melody .

Characters

main characters

Steve Taylor: He's Susan's boyfriend and Jane's ex-boyfriend. Steve is known for saying the wrong things at the wrong time. He always means well, but often loses control and ends up in the strangest situations. In addition, Steve can bite into a topic that is important to him and, for example, fervently talk for minutes about the meaning of toilet door locks or give a fiery speech about the female buttocks. His profession is not mentioned in the series, but in a DVD commentary, Steven Moffat implies that Steve is a writer .

Jeff Murdock: (Seasons 1-3) He's Steve's best friend and Susan's work colleague. Jeff is more theoretical about women and sexuality and is quite nervous when he actually speaks to women. His ongoing sexual frustration , hilarious and embarrassing stories, and thoughts about women and sex are a focus of the series. Because of his nervousness, he often tells idiot stories in order not to appear as an oddball, which often does exactly that. He meets his boss Julia, who is also very nervous. In the relationship he puts off his nervousness and comes out of himself, both lives from fetishes. He does not appear in the fourth season as he traveled euphorically to Lesbos after learning of the existence of an island with that name. Nevertheless, the rest of them talk to him on the phone and he appears to Steve in a dream in the last episode, but in a female body.

Patrick Maitland: He is Susan's ex-boyfriend and in season 4 with Sally, in the end it also turns out that he also had an affair with Jane for several weeks. Patrick only has one thing on his mind: sex with as many women as possible. When it comes to women, his mind breaks, but he still has no problem conquering her. Because of his penis size, Susan nicknamed him "Donkey" and "Tripod", which piqued Sally's interest when the two ended their affair. Despite his penis size, he is a bad lover, as Jane attests to him on a video. He likes to film sex with the women he's having an affair or relationship with and keeps these videos in his "closet of love". In season three, it turns out that he wasn't originally interested in Susan but Sally and the two get together after interest seems to have waned in season 1. At the end of the fourth season, he proposes to Sally.

Susan Walker: Susan is a work colleague of Jeff, the friend of Steve and had an affair with Patrick. She was very surprised when they wanted to break up because she didn't see it as a relationship and meets Steve shortly afterwards. She used to be out with Jeff, but his nervousness made them just friends. She had many relationships and affairs with men, especially during a stay in Australia. She speaks fluent French, which she also uses professionally, and is also friends with her boss Julia. The often stereotypical relationship problems between her and Steve are at the heart of the series' plot. At the end of the third season, it turns out that she is pregnant with Steve. Pregnancy is the focus of the last season, which ends with the birth of the child.

Sally Harper: Susan's best friend and Patrick's friend for the fourth season. Sally owns her own beauty salon and is obsessed with her own looks. She is often worried about aging, especially when she drinks alcohol. Her bum is her biggest enemy, and it looks like she's incapable of having a normal relationship because of her complexes. She is very jealous of women who are in a relationship.

Jane Christie: Jane was with Steve for 4 years, but he ended the relationship in the first episode. She works for a local radio station and does the traffic reporting. Jane is very selfish and often struggles with men when they don't share her interest. Although she approaches the objects of her desire very briskly and uninhibited, she did not have a long-term relationship after Steve. She sharply rejects men who are not interested in her, which has a negative effect on them and others. Sometimes she drives her friends crazy with her madness. Jane pretends to be bisexual even though she has never been with a woman. In front of the rest, she pretends that her former therapist is her lesbian friend. Susan thinks this is just trying to impress the men. In any case, Jane is very open about her sexuality. Still, she doesn't really seem over the relationship with Steve and even has pictures of him in her apartment in the last episode.

Oliver Morris: (Season 4) Oliver joins in Season 4 and goes out with Jane. He works in a sci-fi shop called Hellmouth and hasn't had a relationship for several months. He meets Jane through a personal ad and meets the rest of the friends on the date. He doesn't seem to be over his ex-girlfriend Tamsin yet. Oliver's character is a bit similar to Jeff's, he has problems addressing women and is afraid of making himself a complete idiot.

Supporting characters

Julia Davis: Julia ( Lou Gish ) is a character in seasons 2 and 3. She works in an executive position at Jeff and Susan's company. In her private life she is quite insecure and starts a relationship with Jeff, even though she is his boss. An ex-boyfriend of hers suddenly turns up and she leaves Jeff to clarify her feelings for her ex.

Tamsin: Tamsin (Olivia Caffrey) is Oliver's ex-girlfriend. She had ended the relationship with Oliver after there had been no sex in this one. Since she becomes pregnant by a future boyfriend, she meets Susan in a childbirth class. It turns out she used to have an affair with Patrick too.

James: James (Lloyd Owen) is a character who appears in 3 episodes of season 3. He hosts a radio show for modern Christians and is very religious himself. Despite the huge differences, he and Jane begin a relationship. Jane finds it appalling that he doesn't want sex before marriage. He stayed in Germany for a long time, during which time Jane met several other men. Unfortunately, she loudly mentions these sexual relationships when James stands behind her on his return.

Jill: Jill (Elizabeth Marmur) appears in 2 episodes of the series. She is Jane's - relatively unsuccessful - former therapist. Jane does not see the end of this therapy and is of the opinion that she is also treating Jill. Jane invites Jill to a party with her friends and pretends that she is her lesbian friend. She thinks Patrick is homosexual, but develops an interest in him and they both leave the meal together. She has her second appearance in the 4th season, as she takes over the antenatal class at short notice, in which Susan and Tamsin participate.

Mariella Frostrup : is a real journalist and presenter who plays herself three times in the series. Steve has a crush on the presenter and thinks of her a lot during sex. Sally and Jane meet her by chance and swap their cell phones to get in touch with her, unfortunately they plug Steve's cell phone and not Sally's, so Susan thinks Steve is having an affair with her when she is on TV Phone works.

occupation

role actor Voice actor Seasons
Jane Christie Gina Bellman Judith Brandt 1, 2, 3, 4
Jeff Murdock Richard Coyle Andreas Fröhlich 1, 2, 3
Patrick Maitland Ben Miles David Nathan 1, 2, 3, 4
Sally Harper Kate Isitt Silvia Missbach 1, 2, 3, 4
Steve Taylor Jack Davenport Peter Flechtner 1, 2, 3, 4
Susan Walker Sarah Alexander Debora refuses 1, 2, 3, 4
Oliver Morris Richard Mylan Oliver Mink 4th

Artistic implementation

Coupling makes use of unconventional, formal narrative techniques: various episodes are designed in a non-linear structure, use means such as split-screen technology or depict events from the perspective of different people. There are also many allusions to Doctor Who and other science fiction films and series. However, this happened before Steven Moffat worked on the series Doctor Who, whose showrunner he later became.

DVD

After the first season had been available in English since 2001, the German version was finally released on October 14, 2005. The second season in German and English was released in December 2005, the third season on February 16, 2006. On January 18, 2007, the fourth season was also released on DVD. The publisher is the company "Epix". Since May 15, 2009, all four seasons have also been available in one complete edition.

Awards

  • Nominated
    • 2001: British Comedy Award, Category: Best TV Comedy (Best TV Comedy)
    • 2004: RTS Television Award, Category: Best Lighting, Photography and Camera - Lighting for Multicamera for Martin Kempton
  • Award winners
    • 2001: Silver Rose, Category: Sitcom, UK
    • 2003: British Comedy Award, Category: Best TV Comedy (Best TV Comedy)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Making the Opposite of Sex Tick; 'Coupling' BBC 2, 9.30PMT . In: Daily Record , May 13, 2000, p. 43. 
  2. ^ Mark Thompson : The battle for Auntie's heart and soul . In: The Independent , June 20, 2000, p. 10.