That’s what I thought when I saw that picture.
The US Jane was played by Lindsay Price, who is also a major babe.
For all its problems, the US version scored very high on the eye-candy scale. And the writing came mostly from the UK version. Obviously, a good comedy requires at least one more ingredient to work.
Yeah, I have a major lust on for her. I even watched the terrible *Eastwick *for her (well her and Jaime Ray Newman who is also a major babe.)
Sorry, its an old joke. “Is she a good actress?” “She is very beautiful!”
-Joe
I loved all 4 seasons of Coupling and I thought it wrapped up really well. Patrick and Sally get engaged (we never saw her answer him but it was pretty obvious to me she was going to say yes once she got over the shock) which meant that Patrick being a man-whore wasn’t going to be an issue any longer and all of Sally’s insecurities about her looks and being single were essentially done with as she finally reached her ultimate goal of being married. Jane was outed as being a completely normal person (well, mostly) who did stupid/zany things for attention and finally found a man just strange enough to appreciate her weirdness and forward enough to call her on her bullshit. All it was missing was Jeff coming back from Lesbos and it would have wrapped everything up perfectly!
The entire creative team of the UK Coupling was Steven Moffat. He singlehandedly wrote every episode. While this gave great continuity and cohesion of character and vision, and good story arcs, it’s a realism that single-artist acts tend to burn out faster than collaborative acts. The loss of Jeff really hurt the show, and the end of the fourth series, where Steve is hallucinating Jeff’s presence, shows just how big a void this was in Moffat’s creative vision. Although the phone call to Jeff on the Isle of Lesbos in the middle of the fourth series was well done. The shout-out to the failure of the American version of Coupling in the fourth series just cracked me right up, as did the stickers some optimistic marketer had placed on my DVDs of the UK series that I ordered about the time the US version was launching. “The Original UK version of the SMASH NBC HIT!”
Moffat says in the commentary to the show that it had a very American feel to it because it was about beautiful people who generally liked each other and were at odds due to their circumstances and neuroses. Whereas British sitcoms generally tend to be “ugly people in the rain being nasty to each other.” There were several lines which stuck with me from the dvd commentaries. Moffat’s about Britcoms, one by Jack Davenport about his comic idol “Matt LeBlanc, he has what has to be the stupidest, shallowest character on television, and he keeps finding ways to make it fresh and interesting instead of just pathetic. And he’s done it for YEARS, that takes talent.” Then Gina Bellman, who played Jane, talking about how natural Ben Miles(Patrick) always seemed when he was handling props. She envied his ease and said she always looked like she was either toying with the props or being burned by them. Some of this may have had to do with the fact that Miles refused to use prop beer and insisted on real Guinness, so some of his laid-back attitude may have been influenced thereby. Ever since listening to that commentary I find myself paying more attention to how people handle props in films and tv. It’s surprising how unnatural some people look handling props.
Overall, if you liked the UK version of Coupling, I highly recommend the DVD commentaries, and I think that’s the only non-Mel Brooks production I can say that about. Mel Brooks commentaries are always worth it.
Enjoy,
Steven
Get back, you jackal; I saw her first!
She seems to be the female Alex O’Laughlin. She winds up in a new series every year; eventually one of them will catch on. (Did the new Hawaii 5-0 get picked up for next year?)
Funny. My wife doesn’t think Jane is attractive at all and thinks Susan is absolutely gorgeous. I’m mind of the opposite.
-Joe
US Jane is more attractive than UK Jane, but even though US Susan is hot, I like UK Susan better.
Wrong the first, right on the second!
-Joe
Not completely unedited. Besides removing/changing Jane’s reference to the Crippens from her and Steve’s breakup conversation, they also removed the best joke of the episode (and the one the original UK episode was named after) - “he’s got an unflushable”.
Those are just what I remember offhand, but there must have been other edits. As the original was a BBC show and therefore didn’t have commercials to contend with, it would have filled the full 29 minute slot, as opposed to American half hour shows which usually run around 22 minutes to make room for commercial breaks.
The two main problems were cast and Moffat’s overall plan.
The cast was interested in other projects and getting them all together to do even a Christmas reunion special would have been difficult, let alone a series. (Moffat used to blog about hoping to do a Christmas show.)
Also, the show was in part based on Moffat’s own personal “coupling” with producer Sue Vertue. He didn’t really have a clear plan of how to steer the story arc after Steve and Susan settled down. There just wasn’t a lot funny in his own relationship at that stage to draw on.
And when the phone rings in the TARDIS, you answer.