“Size Matters”

Coupling season 1, episode 2
Original air date: October 02, 2003

Steve calls Susan up to initiate a date, and she invites him over for dinner. He debates with Jeff and Patrick whether she's really inviting him over for sex, while Jane and Sally muse with Susan about whether Steve will get the impression that she's invited him over for sex. Susan and Steve each insist that she was just talking about dinner, although it doesn't help their nerves on the first date.

Patrick asks Sally to go to a car show with him, but she declines, knowing that he's really cruising for a date-date. She rejects him, but then when Susan clarifies that her nickname for Patrick while they were dating was not "Donkeybrains," as Sally had remembered it, but "the Donkey," implying that he's a "tripod," Sally rethinks Patrick's offer. She tries to get Jeff to accompany Patrick to the men's room to check him out, which Jeff just finds weird.

Jeff tries to escape Sally by joining Jane and her "date," who is actually openly gay. Jane insists that because she's bisexual, they're perfect for each other. To prove the point that people don't have to be narrow-minded about who they're attracted to, she encourages Jeff to join Patrick in the men's room for a little snuggle. Jeff's further weirded out when Steve calls from Susan's apartment to ask Jeff to give him details on Patrick's ... prowess by accompanying Patrick to the men's room.

It seems that over dinner, Susan and Steve have discussed the pressure of first dates. Steve is quite firm that it's more stressful for guys than girls, because the girl always already knows whether the evening will end in sex or not. Susan agrees and tells Steve that their evening will end in sex. Unfortunately, Steve's now feeling insecure, because he's also learned about Patrick's size, hence the call to Jeff. He's also intimidated by the fact that none of her remotes have batteries in them. She had to dig the batteries out of her vibrator to replace the stereo remote batteries, so that Steve could listen to music while she took a shower before dinner.

Susan has a cure for Steve's nervousness, though — diving right into sex. Works like a charm, although when Steve hears buzzing coming from the bathroom afterwards, he panics for a moment. Fortunately, it's just Susan's electric toothbrush.

Differences:
It's nearly shot-for-shot the same episode. However, again, it's been shortened in the American version, eliminating Jeff's irrelevant, uncomfortable references to the Blob and his expounding on why celebrity marriages occur (everyone else is already fantasizing about celebrities during sex, so naturally celebrities get together). I fear that Jeff's goofiness will be sacrificed for the sake of American advertisements, which is really a loss.