Cookery Club and Car Lifting

The Inbetweeners
2012

4 Stars

I’ll admit, like most fans of the British comedy phenomena that is The Inbetweeners, I was devastated to hear that an American remake was on its way. How on Earth could the Americans bastardise a show so crass, so hilarious and, at heart, so intensely British as The Inbetweeners? It seemed an impossibility, and after the so many failed attempts in the past (Red Dwarf, The IT Crowd, et al.), one had to question why they were even bothering.

But the truth is, it isn’t the toilet humour and foul-mouthedness that made The Inbetweeners as good as it was; quite simply, it’s the show’s heart. Centring around four secondary school losers, it’s so easy to see our own former selves in at least one of the group. We all knew a Jay, a Neil or a Simon, and I will freely admit to having been the Will McKenzie of Durham school. Teenagers are all the same, and THAT is what makes the show so very poignant.

With that in mind, why couldn’t an American translation work? Are American teens really all that different from those of the UK?

Simply put, no, they aren’t.

It’s true that a lot of the material is similar, and there are a few quips that were hilarious in the British version that rather fall flat in the Americanisation, but perhaps that is simply because we have all over-watched the show and already know the punch-line well before it has come.  Four episodes in, however, and writer Brad Copeland (of Arrested Development fame) looks like he’s beginning to take risks, having this week given us an episode of entirely original material which would easily have stood up against some of the best episodes of the original. Will starts a cookery club to impress Charlotte whilst Jay gives up “sex” in order to give himself a wet dream.  It just works wonderfully.

Of course, it’s the boys themselves that make the show what it is, and although Joey Pollari is quite weird enough as Will, his supporting classmates really do make up for it. Bubba Lewis’ portrayal of Simon is as awkward and prattish as Joe Thomas, with Alex Frnka a much more believable and compassionate Carli than Emily Head ever was.

The stars of the show, however, have always been Jay and Neil, and at first glance, I’ll admit that I was concerned; Zack Pearlman’s Jay is a rotund and greasy looking chap who one would never believe to be the stallion he claims to be, but it is immediately made clear that this is part of the joke. Bouncing around like a young Jack Black, he brings a new twist to the character that really does work. His mascara-topped outfit in the Night Out episode is, quite simply, priceless. Mark L. Young as a long haired wannabe-rocker Neil is a scatterbrain rather than the outright idiot of his predecessor, and it’s clear in both of these characters that they are different people altogether instead of attempting to be clones of their British counterparts.

If the first four episodes are anything to go by, this could end up being a great show, and it’s rather a shame that it has such large shoes to fill. That said, The Office became great in its own right, and I truly believe that this could too, just so long as it’s given the chance.

So, y’know what people of Britain? Stop moaning and give it a go, ‘cause after all, weren’t we all inbetween at some point?