Coupling-Series 1 (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	174:37
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Martin Dennis
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Jack Davenport Gina Bellman Kate Isitt Sarah Alexander Ben Miles Richard Coyle
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Simon Brint

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, mild
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Coupling is the latest BBC sit-com to slide into my DVD player. It has a large fan base in the UK and was shown on Australian television earlier this year. In the USA, the series is being re-made for American audiences by NBC. It must therefore present some worthy viewing right?

    Coupling is set in the local bar and apartments of a group of six thirty-somethings, who are all seemingly obsessed with relationships and, more pointedly, sex. The scripts are quite daring by traditional BBC standards, and seem to be taking the sexual navel-gazing of Linda Green and Manchild one step closer to the bone. Whilst the series is quite funny in places, for me it fails to live up to the high standards of either of the aforementioned shows. The characters are caricatures and the humour is more lavatorial and less witty than that found in Linda Green. The series is the closest thing to Sex and The City yet produced by the Brits, with a dash of Friends thrown in for good measure.

    The six episodes from the first series all revolve heavily around relationships, the differences between men and women, pornography, sex and dating. The script is a bit of a one-trick pony and I found the joke wears a little thin if you watch all the episodes in quick succession. To best appreciate the humour, and occasional flash of comedic brilliance, I would recommend that you watch only one or two episodes per sitting.

    The six episodes from the first series are:

• Episode 1 (29:17): Flushed. The first episode introduces the characters to the viewer - and indeed to each other. Jeff provides Steve with advice on how to finally get rid of his "unflushable" girlfriend Jane. Every time he tries to chuck her, she does the unimaginable and offers him sex. Lesson to be learned: treasure your porn-buddy.



• Episode 2 (29:00): Size Matters. In this episode, Steve manages to progress his relationship with Susan, despite some frighteningly huge pregnant pauses in his telephone chat up technique. Jane refuses to let her new gay boyfriend off the hook - after all she is bisexual. Lesson to be learned : Do not fall through the sock gap.



• Episode 3 (29:09): Sex, Death and Nudity. Steve coaches Jeff in how to survive a job interview - simply imagine everyone on the panel is naked. Jane's Aunt dies and she insists that Steve accompanies her to the funeral. This episode includes an hilarious homage to Reservoir Dogs. Lesson to be learned: to know about the giggle loop is to become part of the giggle loop.



• Episode 4 (29:16): Inferno. In a very funny episode, Susan discovers Steve's "Lesbian Spank Inferno" video when she decides to tidy up his flat for him. Jane's psychotherapist is coerced into attending a dinner party with her. Lesson to be learned: if a woman thinks something is a turn-on it is erotica, but if a man does then it is porn.



• Episode 5 (28:49): The Girl with Two Breasts. Jeff discovers an Israeli beauty at the pub. In a very clever sequence, we get to see his chat-up from both the English and Hebrew side of the language barrier. Lesson to be learned: the first rule of playing it cool is only smile at her face.



• Episode 6 (29:06): The Cupboard of Patrick's Love. It transpires that Patrick has videotaped all of his sexual conquests - including his previous intimate relationship with Susan. Lesson to be learned: bottoms are the natural enemy of women - there is nothing higher than bottoms on the crisis scale.

    Coupling is a fairly good attempt at racy, frank humour based around the intricacies of modern sexual relationships. Unfortunately, the characters are fairly lightweight and with the exception of Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander), who retain some credibility, the others are obvious comedy caricatures (the self-obsessed Sally, the borderline psycho Jane, the surreal, sex-obsessed Welshman Jeff and the slightly vacant lothario Patrick). The series did improve after the first couple of episodes, but I would not consider it as unmissable. If you are a big fan of Men Behaving Badly and Sex and The City, this may hold some appeal. This show will not enrapture everyone and I would suggest that new viewers try before they buy.

Video

    The video quality of this transfer is very good for a television series.

    The series is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced. The video transfer is usually quite sharp with only a hint of softness. This is about the standard of Australian standard definition digital TV broadcast.

    Colours are well rendered with some nice primary colours cropping up through the series. There is no oversaturation or colour bleeding and skin tones look natural at all times. Blacks are nice and solid with no low level noise and shadow detail is just fine.

    The transfer is generally free from major MPEG artefacts. There is, however, some noticeable shimmer in the image - major aliasing never quite breaks out but it is always teetering on the verge. Edge enhancement is not a major issue, although it can be seen at various stages through the series as a minor halo around several characters. Telecine wobble is absent.

    The transfer is free from film (video) artefacts and this is a very clean transfer in that respect.

    Surprisingly there are no subtitles available on the disc.

    This is a dual layered disc but I could not spot a layer change, so I assume it has been sensibly located between episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The overall audio transfer is unremarkable and typical of a television comedy show.

    The sole English audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo encoded at 224 kbps. The surround flag is not enabled.

    Dialogue is always clear and there are no problems with audio sync. The laughter track on this show is extremely irritating and transparently canned. This almost spoils the show, and I hope that future efforts either use a studio laughter track, or even give it a miss altogether.

    The musical score is credited to Simon Brint, who has a long history of composing for television comedy shows. It is quite catchy. There is no significant musical presence during the episodes.

    As might be expected for a television comedy series, the surrounds are unused. Pro Logic decoding will direct some sound to the surround speakers, but the show sounds just fine in stereo.

    The subwoofer is unused throughout.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Nothing, zip, nada, zilch.

Menu

    The menu consists of a static photograph of the six characters, accompanied by a short loop of the theme song. It allows the meagre choice of episode selection or the option of playing all episodes in sequence. Each of the six episodes has a choice of five chapter stops.

    The Region 1 release of this series surprisingly gets extras which are found on neither the Region 4 nor the Region 2 release. They are as follows:

• Behind the Scenes Interviews - twenty minutes of discussion with the cast members and writers.
• The Photo Shoot - three minutes of promotional footage
• Cast Biographies - for the cast and the series creators
• Promotional Spots - trailers for five other BBC series

    The Region 1 disc would appear to be version of choice due to its slight (but present) extra features.

    Coupling is a series that may grow on you. I was unimpressed for the first couple of episodes, but by mid-way through the series I was much more in the groove. This is not brilliant comedy. It is, however, pretty good stuff - if you can accept the constant fixation on sex, and the one-dimensional characters. Fans of the series will enjoy this DVD for its very good video transfer. For those who have not seen the series before, I would recommend a rental before purchase.

    The video quality is very good overall, with a nice anamorphic transfer.

    The audio transfer is as would be expected for a television comedy series - serviceable and with no real defects.

    There are absolutely no extras on the disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall