Stuck between a rock and a hard place not between a c*** and Will's mum's face! (The Inbetweeners)

Member Name: sparkymarky1973

Product:	The Inbetweeners
Date:	29/04/09 (188 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Juvenile and infantile humour that hits the mark but may cause offence.

Disadvantages: Is becoming a bit repetitive and in danger of being too crude!

Now on it's second series, The Inbetweeners is juvenile, smutty and infantile comedy at it's very best. It goes out on Thursday nights on E4 initially and is then repeated at various times on Channel 4's other digital channels. Miss it now and you won't have long to wait until it's shown on Channel 4; alternatively Series One is currently available on DVD priced at a very reasonable £6.98 from Amazon.

So what's it all about? Well, Will is a posh boy forced to attend Public School after his parent's divorce. His mother is relatively fit but that is about as much as he has going for him. On his first day, Will is ostracized and labelled a "briefcase w#####" by everyone around him. Almost by accident, he falls in with a likewise group of losers who are also excluded from the cool kids and, before long, united by a common cause, the group become reluctant friends. What follows, over the course of six episodes in Series One, is the various misfortunes that befall Will, Simon, Jay and Neil as they attempt to get laid, get off with the girls of their dreams and generally be accepted by the cruel and miserable society in which they are forced to attend. Often in bad taste, ever appealing to the lowest common denominator of humour but always funny, Series One became an almost overnight cult success developing a key, core audience mostly through word-of-mouth that would loyally tune-in for the show's much-anticipated and unsurprising return.

Key moments from Series One included Simon being sick over the head of a child his would-be-girlfriend was babysitting; Will throwing a frisbee in the park to impress only to end up smacking a disabled girl in the face and Will, again, going into a tirade at Thorpe Park because they had queued for ages to get front seats on a ride only to be told there was only one seat at the front left. Will goes off on one accussing the kids at the front of obviously pushing in only to discover that all the other front seats are taken up by Downs Syndrome kids. Cue a very uncomfortable roller-coaster ride which results in the Downs kids ultimately getting their revenge when The Inbetweeners return to Simon's car!!!

As you can see, the first series was not afraid to push boundaries whilst still managing to be cutting-edge funny. The show has been described as a cross between Peep Show and Grange Hill. One of the cast recently described it as "Skins was how you would like your teenage years to be, The Inbetweeners is the grim reality!" This sums it up in a nutshell!!

Series Two has been going for a few weeks now and whilst still being highly juvenile has unfortunately lost some of the first series' charm. It remains funny but the humour is more uncomfortable amusement now as Will and the boys continue in their quest to finally get laid. There are still some quality moments, Jay waving to some old bids on a bus whilst on a coach trip only to change his wave to the universal sign of someone masturbating before flipping them the bird; Neil being soft-core molested by a paedophile teacher in exchange for going on a geography trip when "you don't even do geography!" and Jay sticking his head out of Simon's car as they drive past a bus-stop to shout at the waiting queue "Bus W~~~~~s!" All just as juvenile, delinquent and as funny as before and yet, somehow, Series Two appears to have lost some of it's edge by becoming a tad too crude and by being often rude just for rudes sake. The language is far more choice than in the first series to my ears and, though I am no prude, has become a little excessive. Still The Inbetweeners still retains a touch of it's original sparkle and that is why I continue to watch it! One things for certain, I'm glad my teenage years weren't this bad! Or maybe they were and I just don't remember them so well!

This may not be British Comedy at it's absolute best but it IS a step in the right direction and is still funnier than Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps that, by now, is far past it's sell-by date with no sign of stopping! I only hope that E4 doesn't go the way of BBC3 and remembers that less sometimes really is more!

Summary: A group of smutty teens band together to beat the bullies and attempt to gain respect amidst peers