The Inbetweeners (The Inbetweeners)

Member Name: daylelisahall

Product:	The Inbetweeners
Date:	14/05/09 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great characters, so funny, great storylines

Disadvantages: some people might find offensive

The second series of The Inbetweeners has just finished showing on E4 last week. It is normally shown on a Thursday night on E4 at 10pm and is then repeated on the various other Channel 4 channels. Series one and two will soon be available to buy in the shops on DVD, with series one already being available to buy.

About The Inbetweeners
The Inbetweeners follows the lives of four teenage boys and their journey through growing up. There are four main characters that appear throughout the series, Simon Bird who plays William McKenzie, Joe Thomas who plays Simon Cooper, James Buckley who plays Jay Cartwright and Blake Harrison who plays Neil Sutherland.
Basically Will is a posh young lad who has been forced to attend public school when his parents divorce. Will finds it very hard to fit in, and eventually manages to work his way into the group with the other lads mentioned above.
The programme is partly narrated by Will's character which I find works really well and adds an even bigger touch of humour to the already funny plots.
There are so many moments throughout the series which makes me think back to when I was at school and all the things you have to go through such as trying to get your first girlfriend/boyfriend, trying to get served, aged 17 and the other stresses such as school and the school bullies.

The Characters
Will (played by Simon Bird)
Will is a typical geeky lad - posh accent, wears glasses and used a briefcase to carry round his school books. All of this makes Will a perfect target for the school bullies and he gets labelled a 'briefcase wan**r!' on his first day. Will is chuffed that he manages to make some new friends, although it soon becomes apparent that they only seem to like him because they consider his Mum to be 'well fit!'

Simon (played by Joe Thomas)
Simon is definitely the shy and unconfident one of the group. He is deeply in love with Carly who he has fancied since they were 8 years old but is sadly way out of his league. Every time he comes across Cary he becomes nervous and ends up making himself look silly. Throughout the series he manages to end up completely naked on a fishing boat, get caught spraying graffiti onto Carly's driveway and he also vomits all over Carly's younger brother. Simon is the only one of the group that can drive although he is highly embarrassed by his bright yellow car.

Neil (played Blake Harrison)
Neil always comes across like he is slightly simple. Neil lives with his Dad and all his mates think that his Dad is gay (and lots of things lead you to believe that he is!). Neil's mates constantly take the micky out of him for it. Neil is tall and lanky and certainly acts very goofy.

Jay (played James Buckley)
Jay likes to think that he's top dog of the group and is always boasting about all the girls he has slept with and all the exciting things he gets up to. All the girls he talks about live miles away and oddly enough his friends have never met any of the girls either. Jay is quite mouthy and constantly talks about sex.

Series One
Series one obviously introduces each of the characters. In total, there are six episodes which I will briefly outline.

Episode 1
Episode one shows you Will joining his new school, and struggling to fit in while all the other kids laugh at him because of his posh case, his uniform i.e., the fact he wears his full blazer, the badge which he is given to show that he is a new student and the briefcase which he used as his school bag! Will manages to invite himself to the pub with Jay, Simon and Neil and find that they have managed to go to the wrong pub, and the barman won't serve them. The story continues and you see Will come up with a cunning plan on how to get served. Superb!

Episode 2
Episode two shows us the four main characters playing truant from school. They decide to stay at home and get drunk which Will gets really excited about because he has never done anything this naughty before. They lads soon realise that they haven't actually bunked school at all because they are sixth formers and don't legally have to be in school. The boys continue their day getting drunk and Simon managed to make himself look like a wally in front of the love of his life, Carly.

Episode 3
Episode three is set at Thorpe Park. This episode also shows Simon passing his driving test in a rather bizarre way! Once he has passed, the lads persuade him to drive them to Thorpe Park for the day. Everything seems to go wrong for the lads with Simon loosing his car door, will upsetting some other riders on one of the rides and Neil dancing around naked in front of his friends after being stung. There are some really laugh out loud moments in this episode.

Episode 4
Episode four shows us Will unexpectedly getting a date and follows him as he attempts to have sex for the first time which goes horribly wrong and makes for some extremely amusing viewing. Their school puts on a Blind Date context and Neil feels proud of himself for picking the right girl... that is until he sees her!

Episode 5
Episode five follows the four lads as they go to the caravan club. Jay's family go every summer and Jay has promised them all some action with the girls when they get there. Jay is known to exaggerate the truth and Will doubts that what he says in true. This episode follows the boys as they attend a disco at the caravan club and one by one, they all do something to embarrass themselves, although Neil ends the night with a smile on his face.

Episode 6
The final episode of series one shows the lads at their school prom which Will is organising. The boys all hire suits and are all set for a delightful evening. But does everything go to plan??


As I already mentioned, series two has just finished. Sometimes you find that the second series of a programme you love can be disappointing but I am pleased to say that this isn't the case with the second series of The Inbetweeners. The second series pretty much follows the lads on their quest to get drunk and get laid. Will decides to make it his mission to raise the social standing of himself and his friends to 'cool' but he certainly has his work cut out. Simon is still besotted with Carly and accepts any invite to spend time with her, even if it is to help her revise! There are some amazing cringe worthy moments such as when the lads help out in an old people's home and Jay finds himself in an extremely compromising position.


Summary
In summary, I would highly recommend The Inbetweeners to anyone who enjoys comedy. I think this series is realistic about life and growing up but puts a bit of humour into all the cringey situations that we have all been through while growing up. The characters are all lovable in their own little ways and I'm sure you'll find yourself relating to one of them.

Summary: Well worth watching