A fairly dire Friends rip-off. Smirk-inducing at the very best, absolutely awful at its worst.
Coupling Page 2
Quote: Millsy @ December 30 2010, 1:19 PM GMTA fairly dire Friends rip-off.
Coupling resembled Friends about as much as Early Doors resembled Cheers.
Spaced was a reaction to shows like Coupling. They wanted to show a group of 20 somthings who where not all successfull high flyers. Who where just as confused as they were in their teens.
Quote: Millsy @ December 30 2010, 1:19 PM GMTA fairly dire Friends rip-off.
The similarities between the two shows are superficial at best. They're completely different beasts.
Quote: Badhead @ December 30 2010, 11:15 PM GMTSpaced was a reaction to shows like Coupling. They wanted to show a group of 20 somthings who where not all successfull high flyers. Who where just as confused as they were in their teens.
The characters in Coupling may have been doing well materially but in their own ways they were just as confused as the ones in Spaced.
I think what they actually said was that, when they came to write a show, they wanted to write something that felt more realistic to their own experiences than a show like Coupling.
Anyway, both good shows.
Although Pegg and Wright were both quite sniffy about the Coupling Resevoir Dogs reference at the start of the funeral episode.
Quote: chipolata @ December 30 2010, 11:50 PM GMTAlthough Pegg and Wright were both quite sniffy about the Coupling Resevoir Dogs reference at the start of the funeral episode.
'Although' suggests we're disagreeing about something, say it ain't so.
Quote: Aaron @ December 30 2010, 11:51 PM GMTBut as Coupling is wonderful and Spaced is f**king dire, it would make sense.
They're both good shows.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ December 30 2010, 11:54 PM GMT'Although' suggests we're disagreeing about something, say it ain't so.
That's right, pick me up on my use of language when there are over 20,000 Sooty posts to choose from.
I never twigged that the woman who played Alison in Is It Legal? was also in Coupling.
Quote: Millsy @ December 30 2010, 1:19 PM GMTA fairly dire Friends rip-off. Smirk-inducing at the very best, absolutely awful at its worst.
How can anything be more dire than Friends? At least Coupling was (English) funny.
Quote: Aaron @ December 30 2010, 1:14 PM GMTI love Coupling, and never had a problem with Jack Davenport.
Do we really wish to know that?
Quote: Chappers @ December 31 2010, 1:12 AM GMTDo we really wish to know that?
You care enough to comment.
I had this curious pseudo sitcom on as background some evenings. I refused to watch it properly because I was put off from the outset by its apparent similarity to Friends, so even if the content of the show wasn't similar, the core structure or the look of it clearly was!
Why openly invite accusations of copying by putting three couples in their 20s together like er, Friends did? And all talking crap and posturing all the time and hugging each other and being nauseatingly nice and over friendly and groupy and cliquey and incredibly self involved like 20 somethings are?
It did indeed seek to benefit from the apparent similarity to ludicrously popular endless US 20/40 something sitcom Friends. It seemed like blatant profiteering. I would confidently call it a Friends rip off, yes, even if the content did differ. I couldn't get past the superficial blatant similarity of it to care about its own unique content.
Coupling is one of the most annoying shows ever made.
Aside from the sublime Richard Coyle the cast is made up of some of the most limited actors ever to reach a TV screen (Gina Bellman, Katie Isitt, the bloke from This Life and the freakish Sarah Alexander)
The plots consist of a succession of harrowingly contrived and utterly unfunny events that read like chapter headings from the FHM guide to 'Doing It With a Lady'.
People who think it wasn't pitched as a UK 'Friends' can't understand much about TV. That's exactly what it was.