Coupling Series 4 Starts Tomorrow 5/10/04
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Coupling Series 4 Starts Tomorrow 5/10/04
Accoding to BBC's website, Series 4 starts tomorrow on BBC3.
Here's hoping it wont take long to follow to BBCAmerica for us Yanks.
Here's hoping it wont take long to follow to BBCAmerica for us Yanks.
Last edited by bothanspy; 05-09-04 at 10:23 PM.
#3
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Wow, that's great news! I had no idea it was starting so soon.
According to TVTome, Season 4 will begin airing on BBCAmerica on June 6th, just after Season 3 comes out on DVD on June 1st. They'll be airing all seven Season 3 eps on May 30th. I've really missed this show; I can't wait until Season 4 starts.
Rob
According to TVTome, Season 4 will begin airing on BBCAmerica on June 6th, just after Season 3 comes out on DVD on June 1st. They'll be airing all seven Season 3 eps on May 30th. I've really missed this show; I can't wait until Season 4 starts.
Rob
#4
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Wow, this is fantastic news. I can watch Season 3 on DVD and then catch Season 4 on BBC America soon after. Freaking awesome!
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Jeff is gone?
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Looking forward to the DVD (and seeing the Spider-Man dance all I want). Awesome that BBCAmerica will show the episodes relatively soon after the UK release. Thanks for the source, RobCA; surprisingly, www.bbcamerica.com isn't prominently advertising an air date for series four, but is promoting the marathon.
An article in the Sunday Times about the new season:
And a picture of the Series Four cast:
An article in the Sunday Times about the new season:
The One to Watch
Coupling, Monday, BBC3, 10.30 pm
Coupling has always been a show about real life repeated as farce. Right from the beginning, the writer, Steven Moffat, shamelessly based the characters of Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander) on himself and his wife and, if she minds, it is too late to object now.
This is the fourth series, and the revelations are getting ever more intimate. Susan is pregnant, and the birth (in the final) episode is lifted directly from life. "The scene is verbatim. It's what I said and what she said, word for word, just for the hell of it," says Moffat. Similarly, Steve's nightmares about the baby were also Moffat's. "If you take most men aside when their wives are pregnant, most of them are pretty frightened and worried and faintly disgusted by the whole experience." Indeed, Steve's level of anxiety is so high, he is expecting the birth to resemble the John Hurt moment from Alien.
Coupling returns on good form. It has lost Richard Coyle, who played Jeff, but acquired Richard Mylan as the new doofus character, Oliver. There still lots of cheap jokes - "My phone is on vibrate. It's no substitute" - but the show has a spring in its step, as if anxious to prove that the Americans were wrong.
Last year, the network NBC acquired the rights to Coupling and subjected it to that peculiar form of hype that almost guarantees a show will crash to earth. Failing to survive its own publicity, it lasted just a few weeks. Moffat is maintaining a dignified distance. Contrary to reports, he says he did not have that much input into the version that got on the air. "I've got a T-shirt made to that effect." He says he had been hoping to make an awful lot of money, so not doing so was disappointing, especially the way the series was subjected to a double whammy. "The critics who like it and wanted to think they were in the know said it wasn't as good as the English version, and everybody else said it wasn't as good as Friends." Both, it seems, were right.
It has left Moffat predictably cynical about American television. "It's all about advertising space. You have got people interfering at every level, and these are people you wouldn't trust with light shopping. They are seriously idiots. I know we complain about our executives in Britain, but we really don't have idiots running TV here, and in America, actually, yep, they do. Complete twits. It's mind-boggling. And there are so many of them. You could toss a hand grenade into the middle of the room and not take out anybody who matters."
Not that Moffat need worry about returning to America for work. He has other projects to keep him busy, like working on Doctor Who, for instance. He says it will be much like it as always was but with more laughs and less shaky walls. "There's no point in doing it if it isn't the same, so it will be the way you remember it when you were 11 - though I'm not sure if Bacofoil will take over the world," says Moffat. As it happens, he had written a Dalek into episode two of Coupling before he was offered the Doctor Who job (Oliver, runs a sci-fi book shop) which just goes to show how busy the time lords are even now.
Coupling, Monday, BBC3, 10.30 pm
Coupling has always been a show about real life repeated as farce. Right from the beginning, the writer, Steven Moffat, shamelessly based the characters of Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander) on himself and his wife and, if she minds, it is too late to object now.
This is the fourth series, and the revelations are getting ever more intimate. Susan is pregnant, and the birth (in the final) episode is lifted directly from life. "The scene is verbatim. It's what I said and what she said, word for word, just for the hell of it," says Moffat. Similarly, Steve's nightmares about the baby were also Moffat's. "If you take most men aside when their wives are pregnant, most of them are pretty frightened and worried and faintly disgusted by the whole experience." Indeed, Steve's level of anxiety is so high, he is expecting the birth to resemble the John Hurt moment from Alien.
Coupling returns on good form. It has lost Richard Coyle, who played Jeff, but acquired Richard Mylan as the new doofus character, Oliver. There still lots of cheap jokes - "My phone is on vibrate. It's no substitute" - but the show has a spring in its step, as if anxious to prove that the Americans were wrong.
Last year, the network NBC acquired the rights to Coupling and subjected it to that peculiar form of hype that almost guarantees a show will crash to earth. Failing to survive its own publicity, it lasted just a few weeks. Moffat is maintaining a dignified distance. Contrary to reports, he says he did not have that much input into the version that got on the air. "I've got a T-shirt made to that effect." He says he had been hoping to make an awful lot of money, so not doing so was disappointing, especially the way the series was subjected to a double whammy. "The critics who like it and wanted to think they were in the know said it wasn't as good as the English version, and everybody else said it wasn't as good as Friends." Both, it seems, were right.
It has left Moffat predictably cynical about American television. "It's all about advertising space. You have got people interfering at every level, and these are people you wouldn't trust with light shopping. They are seriously idiots. I know we complain about our executives in Britain, but we really don't have idiots running TV here, and in America, actually, yep, they do. Complete twits. It's mind-boggling. And there are so many of them. You could toss a hand grenade into the middle of the room and not take out anybody who matters."
Not that Moffat need worry about returning to America for work. He has other projects to keep him busy, like working on Doctor Who, for instance. He says it will be much like it as always was but with more laughs and less shaky walls. "There's no point in doing it if it isn't the same, so it will be the way you remember it when you were 11 - though I'm not sure if Bacofoil will take over the world," says Moffat. As it happens, he had written a Dalek into episode two of Coupling before he was offered the Doctor Who job (Oliver, runs a sci-fi book shop) which just goes to show how busy the time lords are even now.
Last edited by RKillgore; 05-10-04 at 12:13 PM.
#12
DVD Talk Legend
I didn't think that it was too great. too much like other episodes in seasons past. I am not sure about Oliver yet either.
Are they going to give a reason for Jeff's departure, other than just acknowledging the fact that he is not there anymore, like they did this ep?
Are they going to give a reason for Jeff's departure, other than just acknowledging the fact that he is not there anymore, like they did this ep?
#15
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I thought this episode was pretty good. It was a bit too much like the others the way they tied everything together, but I liked the way they did it. I'm not sure about Oliver yet either, I wonder how they'll work him into the main cast more as the season goes on? I agree about Susan, she should be rescued more often.
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Compare the Susan/Jane 'recue' vs the over hyped Rachel/Wynona 'meeting' and you immediatley see why Coupling is way way better than Friends.
I keep thinking that the gimmick show formats will get old, but it's always funny and fits together nearly perfectly. Having the same joke be funny in two totally different ways is genius.
D
I keep thinking that the gimmick show formats will get old, but it's always funny and fits together nearly perfectly. Having the same joke be funny in two totally different ways is genius.
D
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Originally posted by Original Desmond
this show does the alternate angle replay thing better than any other i've seen
Been some classics in the past, the foreign girl episode especially
this show does the alternate angle replay thing better than any other i've seen
Been some classics in the past, the foreign girl episode especially
#24
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Out of curiosity, how are Americans seeing the whole thing? Do you have British friends who ship you videotapes? Are there satellite services that carry BBC? Is it available already on R2 DVD?
I'm watching on BBC America, so I'm only up to week 2. Pretty funny -- the group phone call was classic Coupling.
I'm watching on BBC America, so I'm only up to week 2. Pretty funny -- the group phone call was classic Coupling.
#25
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The season is over already? Holy Cripes! I didn't realize that. I thought that there was at least one more episode left. I am crushed. Just as I was starting to get used to Oliver!