Monsters of Television

“I hear you, cherished partner.“

So I recapped the preview of Perfect Couples that aired back in December and found a great deal to dislike in the episode. I was going to skip viewing the pilot, but Matt begged me to check it out just for his own amusement. Adding to this review happening is that the folks who got screener copies of this episode and the second episode said that these episodes were somewhat better than the preview episode.

They’re not wrong, but Perfect Couples remains an obnoxious show that I have no desire to ever revisit again. (Sorry, Matt.)

While watching the episode (and having seen the ninth episode), I struggled to figure out where this show went wrong. It’s a very broad show, with characters moving through motivations and jokes at all to fast of a clip, and yet watching the episode feels like a slog. So where’s the problem?

The issue, I think, rests with the format. Perfect Couples is a series that would be better served by being a 3- or 4-camera format as opposed to the single cam, and with laughter (audience, canned, whatever). One of the problems I run into is that the show doesn’t let any of its jokes land, give me time to laugh. The cuts are too quick and instead of being a gag machine, it feels like Chase from Community trying to make fun of a movie and thus isn’t funny. The standards of the traditional sitcom would allow some time for those jokes to land as a pause is needed for laughter. Jokes could land better, and the show’s pacing could improve considerably.

However, if Perfect Couples were a traditional sitcom, it would only help convince the networks that the multi-cam sitcom is a horrible thing and shouldn’t be on TV. While the format change would certainly help, there would have to be a significant writing changes as well. The show would have to be funnier than it is right now, doing more inventive things with a premise than they do.

For instance: while I did kind of like the cold open as each of the husbands tackling with the spouse taking up the entire bed. And while not as funny as it could’ve been, it does help establish each of the couples and their relationships. Couple A tries to be unobtrusive and considerate, and prone to little white lies. Couple B engages in pseudo-new age-y relationship jargon that is supposed to facilitate communication. Couple C is impulsive and self-destructive but will probably last longer than Couple B.

But there’s not much humor to be found elsewhere that moves beyond those traits, making these characters interesting. They’re too one-note, too broadly drawn. In fact, if Perfect Couples went to a multi-cam set up, it would be a grown-up version of Disney show. …And I think I would actually like that more.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• There were good lines: “You Seacrested me!” “Don’t list normal things like they’re bad.” “You have a ‘If [Husband A’s name] betrays me’ playlist?!”
• I predict that Couple B is dead by the end of the season in a murder-suicide. It won’t matter which spouse does what.