Love and Improv

"Significant Others", a new improvisational comedy series premiering this month on Bravo Cable Network, places the viewer in a therapist's chair as it asks four couples, "What do you hope to get out of couples' counseling?"

Their bitingly sarcastic responses set the tone for a series that promises a happy medium between overcooked reality television and blandly scripted sitcoms.

"What bugs me is the total lack of consideration here," confesses Connie (Jane Edith Wilson), who has been married to Bill (Fred Goss) for fifteen years. He quickly replies, "That's funny because what bugs me is that you've pretty much crushed my will."

The glory of the show is that its funniest interactions could never have been scripted because they wouldn't be amusing on paper. The improvisation, however, is genius. Their candid, laugh-out-loud quality is a major improvement over most of the current major network sitcoms.

Instead of warm, fuzzy exchanges of love, there is brisk, witty banter that delights in its own dysfunction. The show quickly cuts back and forth as it listens in on couples' confessional-style therapy sessions and then trails the couples as they go about their days. However, as so often happens with improv, "Significant Others" fluctuates between the absolutely hilarious to the incredibly annoying. The humor of the characters' interactions is entirely dependent upon their given situation.

Bill and Connie, who are experiencing a dull spell after many years of marriage, communicate through yellow post it notes placed on their refrigerator. Their relationship is summed up in the awkward kisses that Bill repeatedly plants on Connie's right eye, accompanied by her deadpan response: "That feels deeply intimate to me."

Ethan (Herschel Bleefeld) and Eleanor (Faith Salie), who have been married for eighteen months and are expecting a baby, are usually annoying when not interacting with other characters. Ethan, an immature rock-star-wannabe is experiencing pre-baby anxiety and must be dragged along to the first gynecologist appointment. Ethan's perpetual childishness invokes constant outbursts from Eleanor such as, "'Pull my finger' is not the correct answer to 'Do you love me?'" As the actors develop these individual character quirks, their partners' reactions become much more amusing, translating into an even better range of improvisation.

Although some of the couples on the show have great chemistry, both with the audience and one another, others are more irritating. Chelsea (Andrea Savage) and James (Brian Palermo), who have been married for three months after a short courtship, are incredibly grating in the first episode. Their plotline centers on Chelsea's confession that she has slept with about 200 men and has had "around ten soul mates." James' subsequent obsession with Chelsea's many partners gets old very quickly. Watching a couple scream at each other and make a scene in a public place is not funny, it's uncomfortable.

Their second interaction is much more natural and humorous, as Chelsea and James focus on the realistic arguments that come with a new marriage. These arguments range from Chelsea's complaint that James always parks too close to another car on her side while leaving himself "four feet" every time, to his choice of male wording while talking to his friends. "That's how guys talk," James says, and Chelsea reminds him, "First of all, you're not a guy anymore, you're married."

These interactions are the perfect example of why in improvisation, less is more. Marital caricatures are much funnier when they focus on the smaller shifts in getting used to one another than enormous and unbelievable plot lines. "Significant Others" shines when the actors allow themselves subtle episode themes.

As the actors become more comfortable and knowledgeable in the characters they are scripting, the show can only get better. Let's hope that "Significant Others" sixth-month engagement decides to make a longer commitment for a match made in comedic heaven.