Four high school friends are not cool or popular, but not total dorks, either.Four high school friends are not cool or popular, but not total dorks, either.Four high school friends are not cool or popular, but not total dorks, either.
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Many reviews and rating have pretty much all together decided - quite rightly - that the USA Remake of The Inbetweeners is a bit s**t. However many reviewers have failed to specify exactly why.
The answer is that this remake is just too fake. The original show had something truly tangible to work with, you got the feeling that the writers were really drawing on their own teen experiences and it made the show very familiar and as a result ten times funnier. Everyone knows a friends like Jay - always talking crap; Neil - the big idiot; Will the nerdy one and Simon the love sick puppy. The chemistry between the actors was fantastic and the banter is truly accurate to how good friends talk to each other.
But most of all The Inbetweeners was real. The houses weren't mansions and there were no "jocks" or "spring break" it was realistic and down to earth, showing what High School is really like, not looking at it through rose tinted glasses. Every time a character got hung up about something in school it made it all the more funnier because the show and audience know that it really isn't a big deal in reality. There was a kind of running theme of things being quite pathetic which is what gave it it's charm.
The remake misses this point completely. Everything looks like it's shot at magic hour, there's constant obnoxious music and the characters are no longer real. Will is...handsome and not awkward in the slightest. The only thing that makes him appear odd is his blazer and suit case but even then it looks fine. Neil, rather than being a little slow and goofy has become almost brain dead. Jay has just become too obnoxious, sure he was that way in the original but you got the sense that everyone knew how sad he truly was which made him endearing. And finally Simon is every other teen romance protagonist ever.
Another reason it doesn't work is the pacing, the timing of each scene. The verbal jokes in the original worked because they were quick, sharp, something about the dialogue just popped and honestly some things just sound funnier in a British accent. Entire pieces of dialogue are given to the American actors and it just doesn't seem as genuine. But another problem is that it has simply been watered down. The original four said the most obscene things to each other, linking dozens of swear words together in the same sentence and talking about extremely personal subjects. The reason this worked is because that's exactly how teenage friends talk to one another and real slang is used in the show. In the US version everything becomes more PG. In the original we have Jay talking about anal sex, fingering and toe f****ng while also making gay jokes about someone's Dad. Then in the US version Jay calls Will a "renob" because it's boner written backwards (seriously?) No teenager talks that way.
What makes it worse is that as well as verbal jokes not working the visual, physical gags fall flat as well. A joke lifted from the original is Will throwing a Frisbee which ends up hitting a disabled/mentally handicapped person in a wheelchair. In the remake it's a football hitting someone on crutches. Almost the same joke but just toned down a lot. Each time these things happened in the original there was a sense of "oh s**t they didn't just do that..." but in this remake the jokes are made extremely obvious.
What the makers of the US version should've done is not try to copy and paste dialogue and gags from the original, but instead get an American writer to draw on his own experiences to create new jokes and new gags. Someone like David Sedaris or Seth MacFarlane manage to infuse their work with wit and personality. The writers on this show, however, seem to be more concerned with how to adapt an already successful joke written by someone else.
Overall the show itself is not badly made but it's just not funny and for a comedy show that's the worst offence it can give.
The answer is that this remake is just too fake. The original show had something truly tangible to work with, you got the feeling that the writers were really drawing on their own teen experiences and it made the show very familiar and as a result ten times funnier. Everyone knows a friends like Jay - always talking crap; Neil - the big idiot; Will the nerdy one and Simon the love sick puppy. The chemistry between the actors was fantastic and the banter is truly accurate to how good friends talk to each other.
But most of all The Inbetweeners was real. The houses weren't mansions and there were no "jocks" or "spring break" it was realistic and down to earth, showing what High School is really like, not looking at it through rose tinted glasses. Every time a character got hung up about something in school it made it all the more funnier because the show and audience know that it really isn't a big deal in reality. There was a kind of running theme of things being quite pathetic which is what gave it it's charm.
The remake misses this point completely. Everything looks like it's shot at magic hour, there's constant obnoxious music and the characters are no longer real. Will is...handsome and not awkward in the slightest. The only thing that makes him appear odd is his blazer and suit case but even then it looks fine. Neil, rather than being a little slow and goofy has become almost brain dead. Jay has just become too obnoxious, sure he was that way in the original but you got the sense that everyone knew how sad he truly was which made him endearing. And finally Simon is every other teen romance protagonist ever.
Another reason it doesn't work is the pacing, the timing of each scene. The verbal jokes in the original worked because they were quick, sharp, something about the dialogue just popped and honestly some things just sound funnier in a British accent. Entire pieces of dialogue are given to the American actors and it just doesn't seem as genuine. But another problem is that it has simply been watered down. The original four said the most obscene things to each other, linking dozens of swear words together in the same sentence and talking about extremely personal subjects. The reason this worked is because that's exactly how teenage friends talk to one another and real slang is used in the show. In the US version everything becomes more PG. In the original we have Jay talking about anal sex, fingering and toe f****ng while also making gay jokes about someone's Dad. Then in the US version Jay calls Will a "renob" because it's boner written backwards (seriously?) No teenager talks that way.
What makes it worse is that as well as verbal jokes not working the visual, physical gags fall flat as well. A joke lifted from the original is Will throwing a Frisbee which ends up hitting a disabled/mentally handicapped person in a wheelchair. In the remake it's a football hitting someone on crutches. Almost the same joke but just toned down a lot. Each time these things happened in the original there was a sense of "oh s**t they didn't just do that..." but in this remake the jokes are made extremely obvious.
What the makers of the US version should've done is not try to copy and paste dialogue and gags from the original, but instead get an American writer to draw on his own experiences to create new jokes and new gags. Someone like David Sedaris or Seth MacFarlane manage to infuse their work with wit and personality. The writers on this show, however, seem to be more concerned with how to adapt an already successful joke written by someone else.
Overall the show itself is not badly made but it's just not funny and for a comedy show that's the worst offence it can give.
I do not even know where to begin...let's just say i watched the first episode and in order to erase it from memory (tried but it was so bad that nothing good could do it) i watched all 3 seasons and the movie of the original... What on earth they were thinking before they made this! I mean OK fine let's make a US version but surely to copy the UK one at times line by line then make a total (in words of Simon) Sh*t, is beyond me.
I am hearing there might be a US movie version on the horizon but for the love of god, hope this does not happen!!!
Just to summarize, do not waste your time watching this, the first episode was so bad that i very much doubt this can possibly get better with more!
I am hearing there might be a US movie version on the horizon but for the love of god, hope this does not happen!!!
Just to summarize, do not waste your time watching this, the first episode was so bad that i very much doubt this can possibly get better with more!
I had only watched the first episode of the US version of 'The Inbetweeners' and i was already disappointed. The humour doesn't seem to work as a lot of the lines are just copied from the original UK version which i am a big fan of.
I watched an episode of this hoping that it would be equally as good as the original because 'Bwark Productions' have stopped making more episodes of the UK version. I didn't enjoy it at all but i would like to know what the American viewers thought of it as they may have a different opinion.
If you liked the original then i would recommend watching the first episode of the re-make and see what you think but it didn't appeal to me.
I watched an episode of this hoping that it would be equally as good as the original because 'Bwark Productions' have stopped making more episodes of the UK version. I didn't enjoy it at all but i would like to know what the American viewers thought of it as they may have a different opinion.
If you liked the original then i would recommend watching the first episode of the re-make and see what you think but it didn't appeal to me.
It's a absolute joke. Purely awful remake.... I don't know what was going through their heads to make this the worst thing on humanity.
How on this EARTH did this show get made? This is the problem with adapting British sitcoms for American audiences; for every one that succeeds-like the Office-there are flops such as this.
The British Inbetweeners succeeded because it felt real, the characters felt like real high school students and the setting felt real. Here, the four boys are just warped unrecognisable versions of themselves! Will is too handsome and uptight, Neil, who's nice but a bit daft, is turned into some brain-dead stoner, and sex pest Jay is basically a dollar store Seth Rogen!
Everything looks like it was shot at magic hour, and there's this annoying muzak that pulsates through the background. Yeah, they used music in the British version but they used it at appropriate moments and sparingly!
Worst of all, because of the American broadcasting laws, the swearing and sex references had to be toned down, which neutered the series.
All in all, I'm happy that this American travesty was cancelled! You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
The British Inbetweeners succeeded because it felt real, the characters felt like real high school students and the setting felt real. Here, the four boys are just warped unrecognisable versions of themselves! Will is too handsome and uptight, Neil, who's nice but a bit daft, is turned into some brain-dead stoner, and sex pest Jay is basically a dollar store Seth Rogen!
Everything looks like it was shot at magic hour, and there's this annoying muzak that pulsates through the background. Yeah, they used music in the British version but they used it at appropriate moments and sparingly!
Worst of all, because of the American broadcasting laws, the swearing and sex references had to be toned down, which neutered the series.
All in all, I'm happy that this American travesty was cancelled! You know what they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
Did you know
- TriviaIn 2018, Joe Thomas criticized the U.S. version for failing to recapture the charm of its British counterpart.
- ConnectionsFeatured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Worst American TV Remakes (2014)
- How many seasons does The Inbetweeners have?Powered by Alexa
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- Runtime23 minutes
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