The Inbetweeners (UK)

He's got a briefcase, a superhot mom, and three new buddies in social purgatory. Definite cult-show potential.

Little is off limits in terms of subject matter either; in two of the first three episodes people with disabilities are the focus of pivotal jokes. But it’s a mark of the show’s intelligence that in both cases it is Will who ends up humiliated.

It's occasionally randy and sophomoric, but there are also some smarts and heart mixed in.

It’s a coming of age comedy that’s raunchy and sophomoric, but, as is typical with Apatow products, it’s also character-based and at times kind of touching.

If there aren't a lot of surprises in The Inbetweeners' new season, that in itself is expected by its fans. Conceived as a down-to-earth antidote to the glossy sexcapades of Channel 4's other teen series, Skins, The Inbetweeners displays kids warts and all.

The show has already received considerable acclaim in the U.K. (including the 2008 British Comedy Award), a level of praise that seems a bit generous; still, in the long continuum of teen comedies, "Inbetweeners" does qualitatively register toward the high end of the scale.

Every cheap sexual innuedndo, obvious adolscent pun, and cliched puerile situation is exploited here. [Holiday 2009, p.86]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]