“Perfect Couples”: 'Til Series Death Do Us Part

By WICF Contributor Allison Haskins


I first heard of the new sitcom Perfect Couples via comedian Jen Kirkman’s Twitter account (@JenKirkman). She twitted that she was going to be a writer on this new show. I was intrigued enough to get off Twitter for a half hour to watch the premier.

"Perfect Couples"
Photo credit: NBC

The show is molded around three thirty-something couples. Dave (Kyle Bornheimer) and Julia (Christine Woods), are the cool and fairly laid back couple. They are both slightly neurotic and jealous, but hey, so am I. Of note, I actually proved this when I took the online quiz “Which Perfect Couple Are You?” and came up with Dave & Julia. Couple two is Vance (David Walton) and Amy (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), who are a make-up-to-break-up duo. They feed on drama, but you would still want to hang out with them because they are so entertaining and ridiculous. Couple three is the most “perfect” of the group. Rex (Hayes MacArthur) and Leigh (Olivia Munn) are the love-at-first-sight and make-everyone-else-sick-with-their-cuteness couple. Simple enough plot. Basically, these three viewer-identifiable pairs are all friends and their differences make them mesh in quirky and complicated ways.

I initially thought this show had the potential to be really predictable. Naming off a list of sitcoms about couples and their issues is about as hard as falling on a tile floor covered in Vaseline. However, as I watched the first episode, I was delighted when I nearly peed in my hot pink pajama pants. It would have been worth the mess for a decent new sitcom. Also, to my great delight, the episodes continued to be funny. In the first few weeks I saw plot lines involving puke, shovel-throwing a dead possum over a roof, and drunken party crashing! High five to that! At the very least, I knew I was going to be able to get a few laughs at the expense of these morons.

Now as Season 1 of “Perfect Couples” comes to an end, rumors have been confirmed that the NBC series will be cancelled as of April 7th to try a different style of show in its place. I feel pretty confidant that the show could have make me chuckle for another season, but it was good quality while it lasted.

Allison Haskins holds a Journalism degree and is a freelance comedy writer.  In her spare time, the Massachusetts native attends as many stand-up shows as possible and listens to every comedy podcast she can get her hands on. Follow Allison on Twitter at Twitter.com/Alliehaskins.