Coupling: Now without subtitles!

Just caught an episode of the American version of Coupling. If you’re not familiar with the show, it’s a British sitcom, essentially a more raunchy and less dopey take on the same concept as Friends. Coupling, the original, is an exceptionally well-written and -acted show that occasionally manages to be laugh-out-loud funny. The “Inferno” episode is probably the funniest made-for-tv half-hour I’ve ever seen. Yup, it’s that good.

So the American version is mostly a line-for-line copy with less talented actors and the “difficult” British English terms translated to American. So instead of “Tories,” we have “Republicans”; instead of a “flat”, we have an “apartment,” etc. The big question, of course, is, Why in the name of all that is Holy did this have to be remade? Why? Why? Call me a tree-hugging hippie, but I do believe that the American public should be able to perform the difficult mental mapping necessary to translate between standard American and Standard British. So how about–and I know this is radical–just show the original! It will be cheaper and better. I’d love to see some TV executives show some cojones and actually trust people to not be utter morons.

Well, I’ll buy you a round when that happens, which will most likely coincide with the invasion of the Morloks.