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Amazon.co.uk Review
Coupling Season 4: feel free to insert your own "four-play" joke, or for that matter, your own "insert" joke. Sex is still topic 1 for the intertwined group of "exes and best friends", but in this pivotal season there are momentous "relationship issues" that will upend all their lives (insert your own "upend" joke while you're at it).
Susan is pregnant, inspiring in Steve nightmares about his own execution and unflattering comparisons of the birth process to John Hurt's iconic gut-busting scene in Alien. Missing in action is the Kramer-esque Jeff (although he makes something of a return in the season finale). Joining the ensemble is Oliver, who is more in the Chandler mode as a lovable loser with the ladies. These inevitable comparisons to "Sein-Friends" are no doubt heresy to Coupling's most devoted viewers. Indeed, this series does benefit from creator and sole writer Steven Moffat's comic voice and vision. He provides his ever-game cast some witty, funny-‘cause-it's-true dialogue, as in Oliver's observation that "Tea isn't compatible with porn". This Britcom is also less inhibited in language and sexual situations than its American counterparts. In the cleverly-constructed opening episode, in which the same "9-1/2 Minutes" are witnessed from three different perspectives, Sally and Jane can do what was left to the imagination when Monica and Rachel offered to make out in front of Joey and Chandler. The birth of Susan and Steven's baby ends the six-episode season on a satisfying and surprisingly moving grace note. A bonus disc takes viewers behind the scenes with segments devoted to bloopers and interviews with cast and crew. --Donald Liebenson
Synopsis
The complete fourth series of the British attempt at a Friends-style sitcom. Susan and Steve are expecting, Patrick and Sally have finally found each other and Jane could be moving towards an actual relationship. This disc features the following episodes: "Nine And A Half Minutes", "Night Lines", "Bed Time", "Circus Of The Epidurals", "The Naked Living Room" and "Nine And A Half Months".
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Still funny.....but no matter what, it was always going to suffer,
By
This review is from: Coupling: Complete Series 4 [DVD] (DVD)
Imagine taking Joey out of Friends. Imagine taking the Cat out of Red Dwarf. Imagine removing Baldrick from Blackadder's side. What if there was no Barney in How I Met Your Mother, no GOB in Arrested Development or if Green Wing was lacking Dr. Alan Statham. Such occurances would by no means spell the end of a show (probably for commercial reasons), but they should. Ensemble comedy is exactly that. There are several cogs, and they are all integral. Yeah the show can go on, but it won't be quite as good.
The same can be said of Coupling Season 4. No Jeff means less laughs. Not necessarily because Oliver, try as he might, is any less technically funny, but because over three previous seasons we've grown to love and appreciate everything that Jeff did and said. Would the show be the same if Patrick or Steve had left? No, it would have suffered greatly. The same for the characters of Susan, Jane and Sally. The trouble with this season is that it's different. The emptiness left by Richard Coyle's departure is felt all the more keenly precisely because Oliver is basically superfluous. We already had a witty, nervous, wreck of a man in Steve,, and the sheer bizarre audacity of some of Jeff's comedy is sorely lacking. Moffat's writing is still sharp as ever, and the rest of the cast are on form as always. The feel is the same, the tone identical. But the dynamic has changed, and not for the better. Unavoidable perhaps, but lamentable all the same. Give it a try. There are still some very funny laugh-out-loud moments, and the character development of the old core five is excellent. But there is definitely something lacking. And his name is Jeff.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Luke warm,
By
This review is from: Coupling: Complete Series 4 [DVD] (DVD)
Series 4 of Coupling falls far short of the brilliance of the previous three series. It seems that Steve Moffat may just be getting tired and this reflects in the script which seems almost like a cut and paste job of each characters often formulaic reactions to the world around them. Steves melodramamatic tenancies where in previous series were very affective (cushion arguement/we are men speech) now seem pretty forced. Sally seems to be rehashing all her old lines from the previous series, and are certainly now starting to run a little thin. Jane seems to be a little less crazy and slightly more charming in this series which is great however it would seem like a pretty unbeleivable change in character has taken place since we saw her last.There are also no episodes that show great originality such as the one where Jeff spent a whole episode missunderstanding, and in turn being missunderstood by an attractive Hebrew speaking lady. On that note the absence of Jeff in this series is one of the bigger blows I felt, although his absence alone cannot be accountable for the shows shortcomings in general this time round. In the first few series you really got to know and care for the characters, but it seems series four does a good job of undoing these ties. A few good episodes aside, quite dissapointing, although if there are any veterans of the previous series I'm sure it will be a tempting buy if only to see what your old mates have been up to.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A sad anticlimax,
By will_de_beest (South Oxfordshire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Coupling: Complete Series 4 [DVD] (DVD)
The first three series of Coupling were exquisite. As others here have said, this one has its moments (although I'm trying hard to think of one as I write) but generally comes nowhere near the same standard. We miss Jeff, of course - he's as inspired a comic creation as Baldrick or Captain Mainwaring - but his absence is not the real problem. That is Oliver, who is an idiot and a badly-written idiot too. The early series work so well because we sense the mutual warmth and the shared history between the characters; Oliver has no part in that and we get no impression that the others feel anything for him at all, yet there he is, trying to join in as Jeff used to. Good comedy - think Dad's Army, Frasier, Steptoe - is all about characters and this character simply doesn't belong. He's the man with the accordion, trying to play along with a string quintet and it jars every time he appears. I hope there'll be no more Coupling, and nothing more to spoil the magic of the early series.
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