Warning: Adult Content

David and Katie: the couple who don't have sex to avoid problems

This one really made me feel sad, but they're the couple who oddly have the best chance of survival, if they can just drag both their asses out of their deep, desperate funk. They're early 40-something parents who are great teammates when they're out in the world, buffered by the shared demands of their kids or their house or their daily bread. They clearly think they lucked out and married the world's best dad and vice versa. It's when they creep near the bed, slipping into their pajamas as if they were trying to stay naked in front of each other for the least possible amount of time, that the marriage reveals itself to be in trouble. He waited till he thought she was in the shower to jerk off like a guilty teenager under the covers. She had her feelings hurt, in a mortifying, beautifully done moment by actress Ally Walker, when she caught him through the slightly opened bathroom door. He's only comfortable telling her how much he loves her when there's absolutely no danger of it turning sexual. Katie is scared of sex. Walker is terrifically flooded with feeling. Katie's sense of embarrassment and shame is always at the surface, and her first solo appointment with the therapist was exquisite. Tim Dekay, as David, is a great mix of suburban geniality and simmering rage. When Katie first floated the suggestion of therapy, he stared at her in disbelief, shocked by the perceived betrayal. ''You really want to do that — turn us into a couple with problems?'' he said angrily, which about perfectly sums up the sense of rigid wariness most people feel about the thought of talking to a professional about their private lives.

So, friends, the sex isn't going to shatter our TV screens in the end, is it? But I'm pleased by the sense of momentum already built up in this one episode. Plus, there's more to discover about our mysterious therapist.

And now, until next week, a few more questions. Which couple do you find most intriguing? Am I being too hard on young Jamie and Hugo? Do you suspect that, despite the hype going in, you might end up fast-forwarding through the sex scenes to get to the good stuff? And what do you think they were talking about when Katie told the therapist, ''I was 16,'' and the therapist replied, ''Very young''?

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