crossposted to my journal and to Coupling.
So I watched the American version of Coupling this evening, and my first impression was that it was much funnier than the preceeding episode of Will and Grace.
Yes, I knew most of the lines, and I was interested to find how some things had been changed, but the thing that really got to me, I think, was the pace.
It was just too damn fast.
And I think the problem there is that, despite the extra running time and the amount of material that had been removed, they still tried to fit in as much as possible from the British script, and it just couldn’t fit. I think (hope) that in later episodes they’ll be able to spread things out a bit better, either by complete removal of sub-sections, or by better integration of original and re-written scripts.
Other than that, there are a few things that struck me. I found Patrick’s “condom line” to be quite clever, actually. Jane was particularly funny, if a bit over-squealy. And truthfully, there had to have been a better analogy to “The Boyfriend Zone” than “In and Out” of the club.
I’m not ready to condemn it yet. I’ve told loads of people to watch Coupling, and hopefully they did. I want to hear some reactions from people who never saw the original.