Coupling

I raced through the 4 seasons of this BBC comedy in the space of just several days; this undoubtedly helped smooth through some of the weaker episodes, and give me an emotional attachment. The premise is horribly weak, but the show is consistently amusing, if not often uproarious. I accuse the premise of being horribly weak because it takes 6 people -- 3 men, 3 women -- and throws them together in the first episode; thereupon they become the only friends in each others' lives for the next 2 years (oh, also, many of the 6 are exes of others in the 6 -- that's bound to work out happily. Thankfully that happened in the background, so we weren't faced with Dawson's Creek style permutations of all possible matchups among the leads).

So, a comedy about the dating follies and amusing foibles of a group of friends. From this brave and innovative premise the British will stride into entirely new territories, giving a distinctive Euro take on events. Or ... not. It's slightly more explicit than Friends but not outrageously so... to its weakness. Particularly by the 3rd season, the cast was shying away from perfectly clear explanations in order to bring out tired innuendo. It has certainly never seemed to me practical that a group of women would shy around discussing what are essential biological facts involving, say, pregnancy -- but that's what the show would have you believe. And, of course, the show had a silly premise that involved the characters one and all deciding that any other friendships were irrelevant and could be tossed aside for these strangers they met in the pilot.

The 4th season was marred by one of the regulars leaving (the actor refused to come back, so the producers threw in a cousin oliver to try to fill his place on the show). The main relationship was wrapping up, as marriage proposal and a baby occur; the others begin to settle down. It was a good stopping point,but it probably should have come a season earlier. The first season or two are well-worth watching for relaxing when you don't want to think too much; but I recommend avoiding the 3rd and 4th.