Coupling: Complete Series 1 [DVD] [Import]
価格: ¥2,395
This witty, instantly addictive British series could also be called Chaps or Squelchy in the City. Coupling charts the tangled sex lives of a close-knit group comprising "exes and best friends": womanizer Jack, hapless nice guy Steve, "strange and disturbing" Jeff, uninhibited Susan, neurotic Sally, and manipulative Jane. Coupling may inspire feelings of d駛�-view. The obvious frame of reference is Friends (Steve and Susan are the Ross-Rachel equivalent), but this series also echoes Seinfeld in its coinage of catch-phrases (although it's doubtful that "the boyfriend zone" will replace "master of your domain") and plotlines (in episode one, Steve tries to dump Jane, who refuses to accept). But Coupling has its own fresh and provocative takes on relationships. At one point, a furious Susan discovers that Patrick not only had a videotape of the former couple having sex, but that he also taped over her. An American remake is reportedly in the works. Didn't the Fawlty Towers knockoffs, Amanda's and Payne, teach us anything? --Donald Liebenson