Cold Feet: Pilot and Complete 1st Series

Somebody save us, please, from "hip," "sophisticated" dramas about over-privileged, self-absorbed yuppies whimpering about their miserable lives. Here, it's the Brits whining about how they're not having sex, or if they are having sex how they can't get pregnant, or if they have babies how they can't find a nanny, and would they all just please shut up? This ITV series has been inundated with awards--especially for supremely annoying stars James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale--but then so has the intolerable American series Friends, to which it is frequently likened, so go figure. The six episodes-plus-pilot included in this set (with "bonus" promotional-fluff extras) comprise an insufferable orgy of navel-gazing and crybabying, full of the kind of banal everyday minutiae that is bad enough in real life, let alone on TV. Arguing over who does the ironing? Over who cleans the pubic hair from the soap in the shower? Please. Still, this is wildly popular, so consider it a strong optional purchase (or more, if Friends is your cup of tea-vee). (M. Johanson)