Richard Coyle's "Best Half-Hour Actor" Award
Whenever we reflect on what's great about Coupling, the first thing that springs to mind is always the same: Jeff Murdock.
He's the consummate wacky sitcom buddy, unremittingly horny, always making inappropriate comments when the subject of those comments is standing directly behind him and doing profoundly ridiculous things to further the plot. And if you're thinking that this exact character was already pretty much played out by Larry on Three's Company twenty years ago and by about a dozen other sitcom characters since, we can understand your apprehension.
But you obviously haven't seen Richard Coyle play him.
Coyle chews into his role with such awe-inspiring gusto that he somehow manages to makes this highly implausible character plausible. Much of what the script requires Jeff to do is completely ludicrous; the typical wacky sitcom buddy stuff that no real person would ever actually do. That we come to believe Jeff would honestly do every last bit of it is a testament to Coyle's genius.
That genius is at its most obvious when Jeff is carrying out one of Coupling's Seinfeld-like attempts to inject new terms into the popular lexicon. Tasked with introducing such ridiculous concepts as the sock gap, the giggle loop, porn buddies, and the melty man, most actors would play it with a wink and a grin, as if to say, "I realize this is preposterous as hell, but here it is anyway." Not Coyle, though. He imbues these monologues with such total seriousness and almost religious fervor that one can't help but believe that Jeff really sees the world in such terms. Any man who can utter the sentence, "Under the sexual arena of earthly delight, there lurks a deadly pit of socks," and look like he really means it, is an acting force to be reckoned with.
The most impressive thing about Coyle's performance is that while making this peculiar little man seem genuine, he also manages to give him an extra layer of depth. With minimal assistance from the script, Coyle, through subtle body language and deft facial expression, reveals that the source of Jeff's weirdness is a deep-seated fear of women and a heaping helping of insecurity. And that gives Jeff such an air of human vulnerability that you can't help but root for him.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Take one of the most memorable Jeff episodes, "The Girl With Two Breasts," as an example. In one scene, Jeff tries to work up the courage to talk to a beautiful woman at the pub. Given that Jeff has a history of saying wildly inappropriate things about nipples during such encounters, you would expect him to be a bit timid about doing so. But the way Coyle plays it, Jeff looks absolutely petrified, as though he's about to throw up all over himself at any moment. True to form, when Jeff does finally talk to the woman, he launches into an embarrassing stream-of-consciousness soliloquy that somehow concludes with him announcing that he collects women's ears in a bucket. But just when it seems that all is lost, it is revealed that his companion doesn't speak English and has no idea what he has been saying. The sudden transformation of Jeff's demeanor from utter humiliation to joyful relief is fascinating to watch. And only then do you realize how petrified, humiliated, and relieved you've been right along with him.
Moments like these are the reason that the episodes featuring Jeff consistently rank as the most memorable of each season. (In the third series), Jeff was given the lion's share of a two-part episode and some more interesting subplots involving a steady girlfriend. His dealings with his girlfriend, and her eventual dumping of him for an ex, gave Coyle a chance to bring out more of the inherent sadness in Jeff's condition, and Coyle was more than up to the task, making us both laugh and... well, laugh, but at the same time feel really sorry for the guy.
***END SPOILERS***
Coyle is one of the best things about a show that's chock full of good things.
(Condensed from: TeeVee Awards '03: Best Half-Hour Actors)
He's the consummate wacky sitcom buddy, unremittingly horny, always making inappropriate comments when the subject of those comments is standing directly behind him and doing profoundly ridiculous things to further the plot. And if you're thinking that this exact character was already pretty much played out by Larry on Three's Company twenty years ago and by about a dozen other sitcom characters since, we can understand your apprehension.
But you obviously haven't seen Richard Coyle play him.
Coyle chews into his role with such awe-inspiring gusto that he somehow manages to makes this highly implausible character plausible. Much of what the script requires Jeff to do is completely ludicrous; the typical wacky sitcom buddy stuff that no real person would ever actually do. That we come to believe Jeff would honestly do every last bit of it is a testament to Coyle's genius.
That genius is at its most obvious when Jeff is carrying out one of Coupling's Seinfeld-like attempts to inject new terms into the popular lexicon. Tasked with introducing such ridiculous concepts as the sock gap, the giggle loop, porn buddies, and the melty man, most actors would play it with a wink and a grin, as if to say, "I realize this is preposterous as hell, but here it is anyway." Not Coyle, though. He imbues these monologues with such total seriousness and almost religious fervor that one can't help but believe that Jeff really sees the world in such terms. Any man who can utter the sentence, "Under the sexual arena of earthly delight, there lurks a deadly pit of socks," and look like he really means it, is an acting force to be reckoned with.
The most impressive thing about Coyle's performance is that while making this peculiar little man seem genuine, he also manages to give him an extra layer of depth. With minimal assistance from the script, Coyle, through subtle body language and deft facial expression, reveals that the source of Jeff's weirdness is a deep-seated fear of women and a heaping helping of insecurity. And that gives Jeff such an air of human vulnerability that you can't help but root for him.
***SPOILER ALERT***
Take one of the most memorable Jeff episodes, "The Girl With Two Breasts," as an example. In one scene, Jeff tries to work up the courage to talk to a beautiful woman at the pub. Given that Jeff has a history of saying wildly inappropriate things about nipples during such encounters, you would expect him to be a bit timid about doing so. But the way Coyle plays it, Jeff looks absolutely petrified, as though he's about to throw up all over himself at any moment. True to form, when Jeff does finally talk to the woman, he launches into an embarrassing stream-of-consciousness soliloquy that somehow concludes with him announcing that he collects women's ears in a bucket. But just when it seems that all is lost, it is revealed that his companion doesn't speak English and has no idea what he has been saying. The sudden transformation of Jeff's demeanor from utter humiliation to joyful relief is fascinating to watch. And only then do you realize how petrified, humiliated, and relieved you've been right along with him.
Moments like these are the reason that the episodes featuring Jeff consistently rank as the most memorable of each season. (In the third series), Jeff was given the lion's share of a two-part episode and some more interesting subplots involving a steady girlfriend. His dealings with his girlfriend, and her eventual dumping of him for an ex, gave Coyle a chance to bring out more of the inherent sadness in Jeff's condition, and Coyle was more than up to the task, making us both laugh and... well, laugh, but at the same time feel really sorry for the guy.
***END SPOILERS***
Coyle is one of the best things about a show that's chock full of good things.
(Condensed from: TeeVee Awards '03: Best Half-Hour Actors)
posted by JJ at 12:41 PM
