The Inbetweeners

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Will (Simon Bird) is a privately educated, well spoken young man who for reasons beyond his own control is moved to a state comprehensive school, where his middle class mannerisms and appearance gain him a less than warm welcome from the other pupils. However, he soon makes some new 'friends' in the shape of Jay (James Buckley) a rather unpleasant young man with a disturbing obsession with all things sexual, Neil (Blake Harrison) a gormless looking young man whose father displays unfortunate homosexual tendencies and Simon (Joe Thomas) the most well rounded of the trio and their only means of getting around with his 'sh!tty little yellow car', the uncoolest yellow vehicle in a British sitcom since Del Boy's Reliant Robbin. We follow this comically mismatched group around as they stumble from one misadventure to another with hilarious consequences.

It's interesting to note the path British sitcoms have taken in the last thirty years or so, from being the sort of stuff you could comfortably show repeats of on daytime telly nowadays to the alternative comedy that tends to find it's slot late at night on Channel 4. Art imitates life, though, not the other way round, and so this is really just a reflection on changing social attitudes and society in general more than anything. And so we have The Inbetweeners, which hits you like a hammer with it's sheer excessiveness, which, shockingly just makes it even funnier.

It's actually quite a high concept idea of a posh looking/speaking young man and placing him with ordinary looking teenagers of today, and even more subversive to make everything so gratuitous. But clever writing makes this show as much as anything else, coming mainly from Bird's continuous voice overs each episode, where he runs over the pratfalls of everything the group have found themselves in with a great condescending tone. A running trade mark of the show is for him to let rip at the end at how ridiculous or unfair something he has got caught up in is (apart from one where he launches some drunken homophobic abuse at Neil's dad!) as well as to have a recap at the end of each episode on the events that have just gone past where the most hilarious line ('inconsiderate arseholes', 'bumder!', 'will you stop staring at my t!ts?') somehow hits home all the harder.

A relentless onslaught of foul language, crude sexual referencing, cynical cruelty and outrageous indecency, The Inbetweeners is a thoroughly depressing, but well written and very funny, reflection of young people today. Well, some...****

i watched this for the first time with low expectations despite seeing the adverts for it on e4 i thought that it couldn't be as funny as it looked.

How wrong i was this is a hilarious take on growing up as a teenager no matter where your from everyone can relate to the story. Everyone has a mate who over exaggerates on their sexual exploits! Not to give too much away but i would definitely recommend that you give this a go!

I think if this is seen on a mainstream channel this could be a serious hit!

I challenge someone to watch this and try not to laugh, i failed after about 2minutes!

The story revolves around Will, a 6th year student who changes school, and tries to 'fit in' with a bunch of equally geeky types. This series made me laugh out loud several times per episode, which is a rare thing for me. It recaptures all the embarrassing awkwardness of late-teen school, where boys are just preoccupied with self-image, and getting laid. This series is very cleverly written, with lots of painful observations, and excellent characters, brilliantly played. I gave it ten out of ten, as nothing has come close to beating it this year. I would've given it 11, it's THAT good. We eagerly await a second series, and it can't come quick enough.

I watched this show by accident, thought it was something else. I was immediately hooked and wanted more. Unfortunately, out here in America we only get an edited cut down version, so I had to start searching online for complete original UK versions. It was not easy to find but was well worth the effort. Now I understand they have begun to make an American version; No way in "hell" will it be able to stand up to the original UK series. The show has non stop laughs and situations that almost anyone can relate to. Hopefully the American version doesn't hurt the good name "The Inbetweeners". Also wish channel4.com would allow streaming on demand in for us fans in the US. BEWARE if you watch one episode, you'll be an instant fan. Great job channel 4!!!

The Inbetweeners is a breath of fresh air to comedy programs, not over the top stupidity, nor do you have to be at all intellectual to find it funny, the plot revolves around 4 young students entering sixth form and follows there days as your average teenager, its the great mix of characters which makes this worth your time in watching as i'm sure most people can relate to one of the 4, based in the UK the "average" group of friends find them selves in all sorts of awkward, embarrassing and often hilarious moments which all of us would have probably encountered sometime or another in our teen years,I hope to see more of these new actors in the future, this series is just what we needed, a comedy of the new generation.