Steve *is* the Moffat character

In the article above, Moffat identified himself with Patrick. That's what I was alluding to. I guess he sees himself in more than one, no rule against that. I just didn't know he did. Sorry.

In the article above, Moffat identified himself with Patrick. That's what I was alluding to. I guess he sees himself in more than one, no rule against that. I just didn't know he did. Sorry.

Yeah, that article is kind of a jumble compared to a lot of them. Steve and Susan's courtship and life is explicitly based on Steven and Sue's courtship and life (at times painfully so), though I don't know if he every accidentally gifted Beryl with an inappropriate gift.

What I'm surprised about is that of the six characters on Coupling, one was sane and adult, and it was a woman. There was a guy who could possibly achieve emotional adulthood, but it would definitely be because that one woman dragged him there. This is not the Moffat character, either. Moffat might dislike that kind of woman (articles make it sound so), but he wrote her well enough to fool me.

Well. Going by that quote, "if you live in a civilised country and you’re sort of educated and middle-class, because then you’re almost certainly junior in your relationship and in a state of permanent, crippled apology. Your preferences are routinely mocked. There’s a huge, unfortunate lack of respect for anything male." That describes Steve very well, really. (And Jeff, though that only starts to describe Jeff.)

He says that the most embarrassing personal experience he has included in the show is Susan finding Steve's girl-spanks-girl tape. ''When I wrote it, that had only just happened to us,'' he says. ''Sue found a similar tape in our VCR. I did add the spanking element, though. I didn't think the real tape was quite pervy enough.''

There’s a huge, unfortunate lack of respect for anything male.

But I don't think things are presented in such a way that we're supposed to think Susan is wrong and Steve is right, or am I just that biased?

But I don't think things are presented in such a way that we're supposed to think Susan is wrong and Steve is right, or am I just that biased?

Generally, I get the impression we're supposed to see Susan as right, and Steve as wrong.

I think that's true. Steve is full of great, hilarious monologues, but they're so full of bluster that I don't think we're meant to take them as truth. We're laughing at him, not with him.

I also got the impression that Susan was supposed to be right and Steve was wrong. Or at least he was always on the defensive. Susan was the sane adult one. Steve and Sally could be sane and adult, but they were often better at seeing when their friends were being insane and childish. The other three were so wrapped up in themselves that they couldn't even see how self-centered they were.

As far as the men went, I always saw Jeff as the 12- or 13-year-old who'd enter a number in his calculator so, when you turned the calculator upside down, it'd say "boobies." Patrick was slightly more mature than Jeff, say 15 or 16, but tended to approach women as little more than blow-up dolls made flesh. Steve was, oh, 18 or so, realized that relationships were complicated, but DAMMIT, WHY DID THEY HAVE TO BE SO COMPLICATED?

x-post from Natter: I have a question for someone Scottish, or someone who knows someone Scottish. A FOAF is writing a book set in Scotland and has a question about a turn of phrase.

Thanks!

I grew up in Scotland, amyth, and I'd be happy to take a look. Mae Scots is a wee bit rusty, though.