I've decided to continue my British TV reviews after a 4 month hiatus. This week, i'll be reviewing a hidden gem called The Inbetweeners.



Now, the best way to describe this show is simple. I'll be using the Chef Wan formula: Take a pinch of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, add a small amount of Superbad, put some narration of Peep Show, sprinkle it with the characters from Coupling, stir with a seasoned cup of Grange Hill, add some sex jokes from American Pie, heat it in the BBC/Channel 4 Oven, and you'll get a delicious new teen drama called "The Inbetweeners".

Will is a new student at Rudge Park High. Having been alienated in the first day of school, he makes friend with an unlikeable group of friends. This group are called The Inbetweeners, because they're too cool to be dorky, and too dorky to be cool.

The group is led by Simon, an insecure lad who dream of losing his virginity to his childhood friend Carly, Jay, an oversex lad, and Neil, a blurry kid with positive outcomes. Will was rejected from the group at first, but when the gang founds out that he has a hot mom, he was quickly joined into group.

Each episode deals with British teen issues like social life, drinking, losing your virginity, getting a girl, and regrets. It is beautifully written, lacks cliches and stereotypes and it's more realistic than Skins. However, no matter what people say about this show and Skins, it is wrong to compare Skins with this underrated gem. Why? Because both shows are different. In Skins, the characters are in college and they are taking A-Levels, and it's more like Billy Elliott meets Gus van Sant. This show, however, is set in an upper high school, and the students are taking O-Levels(SPM), and it's more like Grange Hill meets Superbad.

You can check out this show at YouTube. Even if i'm nice, i won't be posting any video links since the moderators at LYN are corporate hacks(No offense though). It's still showing in CHannel 4, and the latest episode of THe Inbetweeners is Episode 5, with the last episode(episode 6) concluding next week.

Next week i'll be posting a review of Peep Show.

This post has been edited by TwoThirdsMajority: May 29 2008, 06:59 PM

thanks for the introducing this show to meh

will definitely check it out. sounded like skins at first.. but ahh, will give it a shot

This post has been edited by notanon: May 29 2008, 07:45 PM

How does this resemble to Skins? Absolutely love skins last time!

Well, idiots from the Isle love to use this show as a way to bash Skins. Both shows are great, but both are different, and most people who love The Inbetweeners will use this show to bash Skins, because some of them hated Skins.

Anyways, there's little to none resemblance at all. Except for the issues of teen sex & drug, and the vulgar language, there is exactly no resemblance whatsoever to Skins. However, The Inbetweeners is less depressing than Skins, and it's also more simple and more humble than Skins. And unlike the characters from Skins who resembles models from Topman, the characters in The Inbetweeners are just ordinary every-day British blokes wearing ordinary British clothes.

That's all.

skins is about beautiful, talented people, while inbetweeners are anything BUT. so on one hand u have the jocks, the cheerleaders and the artists of the school while on the other hand u have the jokers, nerds and losers of the school.

so u can see how some people might hate skins bcoz they belong in the other group. and simple enough how they'd use inbetweeners to bash skins

Agree 110%