Be an inbetweener (The Inbetweeners - Series 2 (DVD))

Member Name: bailey_kipper_uk

Product:	The Inbetweeners - Series 2 (DVD)
Date:	09/05/09 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great show, best new comedy on TV at the moment

Disadvantages: Lots of swearing and rude words that i can't write in a dooyoo review

This is a review of the excellent Series 2 of The Inbetweeners, who are a group of 4 lads who basically are just not cool, but equally aren't nerds either, they are inbetween. They are currently at their comprehensive school 6th form and spend much of their time trying to either improve their social standing or trying to get with girls. The show is very juvenile but I'm 30 (very soon) and me and all my mates love it.

As there is a separate category for the show I'll briefly introduce the characters.

Will (arguably the main character) has had to switch schools over the summer from a private school to an ordinary comprehensive. He is the most nerdy of the lads and gets frustrated easily at their regular lack of seriousness.

Simon is the next in order of sensibleness. He spends much of his time chasing after his childhood sweetheart Carli, usually with little luck. He also is the only one to drive but has a rubbish yellow Fiat Cinquecento.

Jay is constantly talking about sex and how he is always getting some. However this is far from the truth and he is just as rubbish with women as the others. He loves using the word clunge (feel free to look it up on the urban dictionary), and always insults the others in some way.

Neal is basically the stupid one and is usually blissfully innocent of much that goes on around him.

Series 2 begins at the start of the 2nd term of the year and sees the lads going on a field trip. Will gets to sit next to a new, attractive girl (Lauren) on the coach to Swanage, and gets on well with her, however by the time they are having lunch it becomes clear that Will's impressions of Yoda have put her off and she now fancies Simon... Simon however gets the chance to meet up with Carli and so Will takes the chance to take Lauren out on a boat ride. The lads however want to go for a ride first and chaos soon ensues. By the end neither lad has got to have a date and Simon has become a laughing stock.

I really liked this episode as loads happens during the course of it and there are lots of funny parts to it. Especially amusing is that Neal doesn't do any of the field trip subjects and is only going along to 'help' one of the teachers who the others suspect of being a paedophile. Neal is oblivious to this and goes skinny dipping with him and then gets a massage in bed.

The next episode is about Work Experience and sees the boys (ironically they have a real life combined age of almost 100) going out into the wide world. Neal and Will get their jobs mixed up and Neal goes to a newspaper whilst Will has to endure working in a garage, whilst Jay and Simon work at Jay's dad's plant hire firm. All apart from Neal hate their work and are glad to find out Will has a date with a bartender at an underage disco. The lads go along and Simon meets a girl that gave him a Valentines day card, however she decides to masturbate him in public. Whilst this is going on a young lad who Simon insulted earlier in the episode sees him and kicks him in the cock. This sends Simon to the ground and the girl he was with runs off. The child goes and sees his older brother who is part of a hard gang so the lads run off to the toilet to hide. Will ends up phoning his mum to come and get them, which is announced over the PA system, again embarrassing the boys.

This was the first episode I saw and I had heard good things about this series and wasn't disappointed. It is hilarious and the situations the lads get into are surprisingly believable, which adds to the hilarity. The humour is quite rude and it is rated 18, which is funny as the lads aren't supposed to be 18.

Episode 3 sees the arrival of Patrice who is a French foreign exchange student who mainly just smokes. Will is having a sophisticated party but this clashes with a clunge fest (sexy party) being held at a girls house. The lads agree to go to Will's party but arrange for a stripper to come (which they will pay on the night, apparently). However, the dinner party lacks women so they go out looking for some. They come across some 11/12 year olds and get accused of being paedophiles, one girls threatens to get her brother. They then try to ditch Patrice and go to the party, this fails and in fact Patrice is the only one to get in. The others get in by climbing over a fence and as usual everything goes wrong, as Will finds his date (from episode 2) upstairs with Patrice.

This was another great episode with almost everything that could go wrong happening, at the end the lads are chased from the party by the young girl's brother with a cricket bat.

In the 4th episode the lads go clubbing in London realising that this will definitely improve their social standing. However as usual things go from bad to worse. Neal volunteers to drive but when the time comes it becomes apparent that his car doesn't have an engine... so the lads go in Simon's Cinquecento. They hope to meet up with Carli and a friend of hers so are concerned when they can't find anywhere to park and also when they almost get beaten up for swearing at some guys at a bus stop. Simon needs to swap shoes with a homeless guy as he has worn trainers and the homeless guy has shoes although they are full of wee. Anyway the lads eventually get in, but the girls have both found other guys, and Neal has to go to the toilet as earlier he had cut his penis whilst trying to wee into a can. Jay tries to help him out, but they both get thrown out as people have complained to the bouncers that it appears Neal is pleasuring himself in the toilets, he was actually in pain. The lads all leave and then realise their parking spot wasn't the best.

Whilst slightly extreme yet again the story being told is quite believable such as parking illegally, turning up without the correct shoes and trying to find someone to swap with, expecting to meet a girl but to find out she actually wants nothing to do with you. This I think is what makes it so funny, the fact that the lads really do try but just constantly make the wrong choices.

The 5th episode again involves Will thinking he has a chance with a girl, and volunteering the other lads to help out at an old peoples home as part of their Duke of Edinburgh. Neal (the thick one) wonders if Prince Phillip will be there (once they explain to Neal who he is). There are 2 main stories during this episode, with the main one revolving around Will's date. He ends up knackered after covering a shift for the girl he likes (who used to be his babysitter) and the other lads pour cream down his pants whilst he is asleep which cause all his hair to fall out. He ends up using a wig to pretend he still has pubic hair, but this goes wrong when he does actually get lucky. The other main story is around Jay constantly getting bored and sneaking off to masturbate in one of the old people's room's. Bored of using OK magazine he finds a photo of one of the ladies when she was younger, and instead uses that, again with disastrous consequences.

Personally I found this the least funny episode, I think maybe because it was often only about one or 2 of the lads at a time, I feel they are funnier as a group because of the mixture of their personalities.

The last episode is the final week of term and sees the lads taking their exams. All get distracted and don't focus on their revision as much as they should. Will ends up drinking too much energy drink and taking too many pro-plus that he is very ill in his exam. Neal is doing PE but spends his time playing on sports computer games and then forgets his kit. Simon is helping Carli with her Geography (which he doesn't do) after he found out she had split with her boyfriend. Lastly Jay spends his time stalking a girl he is going out with (the first real one).

The best joke in this is early on when Jay suggests the lads bring their wellies, so much so that I received 3 texts within a couple of minutes of it. The rest of the episode is ok but not as funny as the earlier ones in the series.

Summary

It is a great show and I now want to get Series 1 as apparently that was better. The humour is very juvenile and they are often rude. The lads are just sex mad (starved) sixth formers and really do act like such, it reminds me of my first year at university, when me and mates of mine often ended up socialising with the sports teams and teachers when we were Maths students.

The episodes are half an hour long and are usually on at around 10pm on E4, this is mainly due to the swearing.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes childish humour and enjoyed looking up rude words in the dictionary when they were younger.

Summary: Watch this if you find the word clunge funny but have no idea why.