Search - Coupling - The Complete Third Season on DVD

A Masterpiece!

Heather Baldwin | Minneapolis, MN | 04/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Coupling is one of my very favorite shows for several reasons: the terrific actors, the solid scripts, and it simply makes me laugh more than most other sitcoms. This season features a lot of farce and new Jeffisms (such as "porn jelly" and "secret listeners"), but there is also more of an emotional depth given to all of the characters. I can't review the DVD itself yet, but if the special features and presentation are anything like they were on the second season DVD, that would be fabulous. Here is a recap of the seven episodes of this season:1.) Split - Picking up where season two left off, we follow Steve and Susan (in a split-screen format) after their breakup. The men and the women head to their own versions of the "Temple of Woman", before Steve and Susan reunite again.2.) Faithless - Jane falls for a handsome co-worker at her radio station, James, the host of a Christian program. Meanwhile, Jeff tries to figure out whether his pretty co-worker Wilma likes him as a friend or as something more.3.) Unconditional Sex - Wilma admits her sexual attraction to Jeff, despite her having a boyfriend and him being involved with Julia. Jeff tries to find a way to stay faithful to Julia without offending Wilma, and confusion ensues.4.) Remember This - Patrick shows up at Sally's apartment at 3am, believing Sally had called him to get rid of a spider. It turns out that he had dreamed about the phone call, and he interrups her night with another man. This later prompts Sally and Patrick to reminisce about their first meeting. They describe two very different versions of what happened to their friends.5.) The Freckle, The Key, and The Couple Who Weren't - Jeff and Julia's kinky evening is interrupted by the sudden return of Julia's ex-boyfriend Joe; Steve and Susan discuss "nether freckling"; Jane is dismayed when she learns surprising details about her new boyfriend, James.6.) The Girl With One Heart - Much to Steve's horror, Susan removes the lock on their bathroom door. Later, Patrick brings his new girfriend to Susan and Steve's dinner party, which leads to a misunderstanding between her and Sally.7.) Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - Sally thinks she's pregnant, so she asks Susan and Jane to take pregnancy tests together with her. The tests get mixed up, but one of them is positive, meaning that one of them is pregnant. Meanwhile, Jane and Jeff bond over their failed relationships with James and Julia, respectively, and Patrick and Sally finally address their feelings for each other.If you haven't seen the first two seasons, I urge you rush out and buy them. But this season is even better, and I can't wait for this DVD to be released."

Their Funniest Season Yet!

Heather Baldwin | 03/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Frankly,I would prefer to watch Coupling any day of the week and would gladly stop watching Friends. Why? Because this cast tests the boundaries of comedy and the whole half hour is hilarious! My favorite episode is the season finale when jeff starts dancing to the spider man theme song in a spidey costume! and finally patrick and sally admit their feelings to each other! all i have to say is that jeff (richard coyle) made this season the best...with the episode in which he has 8000 names for breasts or him and Porn Jelly. yes there are only 7 episodes, but you will be laughing the whole way through. go out and buy it...and i guarantee you it will be bloody brilliant!"

The surprise of Series 3 is the sympathetic Sally Harper

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 11/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are only seven episodes for the third series of "Coupling," which is a disappointment, and the focus actually shifts from Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander) to Sally (Kate Isitt) and Patrick (Ben Miles), which is actually pretty interesting. Meanwhile Jeff (Richard Coyle) tries to make the worst of his relationship with Julia (Lou Gish) and Jane (Gina Bellman) starts dating the celibate James (Lloyd Owen) from the radio station.

Far and away the two best episodes of the third series are the first one and the last one. As we remember from the previous series, Steve had finally proposed to Sally while she was pretending to be married to Patrick, but then there was that unfortunately incident with the girls all pretending to be Giselle and Steve answering the phone in an Australian accent for Bruce's Bar & Grill because he has swapped phone numbers with a girl at the bar. So the one couple on "Coupling" that are actually coupled start off uncoupled in "Split." The effective gimmick here is when the split occurs we see it literally on the screen as the picture "tears" in two. We then have one camera following Steve and one with Susan for the rest of the episode. The screen is split various ways (left and right, top and bottom, big and small), which works well in the sequence where both the guys and the gals deal with the problem of checking to see who made the last call to Susan's phone.

We end up covering familiar ground with Jeff in "Faithless" and "Unconditional Sex" as Julia is out of town and one of the women at work Wilma Lettings (Emilia Fox), takes a fancy to Jeff. In a twist on "Cyrano de Bergerac," Jeff's conversation with Wilma at the bar is being listened to and commented on by the rest of the group courtesy of the headset he is wearing. I have to admit, it is not as funny to watch Jeff suffer when he is actually in what most people would consider a relationship. That is why "The Freckle, the Key and the Couple Who Weren't" where Jeff accidentally swallows something he needs to get back in a hurry is a lot funnier.

Remember This" gets our focus on the relationship between Sally and Patrick when he rushes over in the middle of the night to her flat thinking that she had phoned him. It turns out that she did not, but both of them end up wondering if maybe there is something worth pursuing between them. I liked how Sally became more human in series two and in series three she becomes a truly sympathetic figure. In "The Girl with One Heart" she is so jealous of Patrick's date Jennifer (Emma Pierson) at a group dinner that she accidentally comes on to the woman, who actually responds. Things are starting to get interesting by the end of this one.

What surprised me most about the finale, "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" is that the episode got me to tear up twice, both times because of Isitt's performance as Sally. The title, in addition to being lifted from the chorus of the show's title song, is wonderfully appropriate because it finds the girls all taking a pregnancy test. One of the sticks turns blue, but the sticks got mixed up so that which one of them is pregnant is not revealed until the final moment of the episode (although it will be obvious to most viewers who it has to be). But the idea that Sally could have one emotional moment, that turns out to be a set up for one of the biggest laughs of the series, and then come up with an even more emotional moment, wonderfully set up by Jane, is even more astounding. I can think of few moments in any sitcom on either side of the pond that matches the heart rending pathos of Sally's declaration: "I am Sally Harper. There is nothing in this world so good that I cannot screw up." I was thinking 4.5 stars for this one, and for what she does in the final two scenes of the final episode, I round up.

When I started watching "Coupling: The Complete Third Season" (their "series" is our "season"), I was thinking that although Jeff makes me laugh out loud the most that Susan was my favorite, not only because of Sarah Alexander's nice big eyes but because she was the only really sane member of the group. Jeff and Jane are definitely living in another universe with extensive visiting privileges, while Steve and Patrick are polar opposites in terms of male confidence. But Sally Harper becomes human in this third series and that is what I will remember the most. Fortunately the fourth series will be out soon and then I might have to consider getting one of those new fangled DVD players that can handle the encoding for any region so I can get to series five instead of having to wait. I have, for the time being, given up on American situation comedies (I watch "Gilmore Girls," "The O.C." and "Desperate Housewives" for my weekly requirement of laughs), and if it was not for "Coupling" and "Sex in the City" on DVD I would be avoiding half-hour show entirely.
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Not as good as season 2, but still darned good!

Scott Pointon | Crest Hill, IL United States | 12/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As is always the case, when a show this good gets to about the third season people stop comparing it to other shows and start comparing it to its own past seasons. As is the case with Coupling. This season 3 DVD is still funnier than anything you will currently find on American network TV. Period. I would not go so far as to say that it is better than Coupling Season 2, but it is at least in the same ball park!

If for no other reason, this DVD is worth buying because this is the final season for Jeff Murdock (the funniest character on the show).

If you are a fan of the show and have season 1 & 2 already, then you absolutely MUST buy this DVD. If you are not already a fan, wait and buy them one at a time in order so that you can decide if this is for you or not.

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