DVD Will, Simon, Jay and Neil return for another collection of sixth-form disasters as girlfriends, cars, camping trips and hormones ensure their final year at Rudge Park is anything but uneventful.
Details
Since leaving his fee-paying school, moving to a new area with his mother and enrolling at Rudge Park Comprehensive, Will McKenzie's time in state education hasn't exactly gone according to plan. With Head of Sixth Form Mr Gilbert seemingly taking great pleasure in making his life a total misery, it's lucky that Will has Simon Cooper, Neil Sutherland and Jay Cartwright as friends. Trouble is, they can hardly be classed as being on the same intellectual level as himself - and some would say that Neil is on a completely different planet. Oh, and after last year's disasters, Will is still trying to escape being known as the kid who shat himself during an exam.
Simon Cooper was Will's first, albeit initially reluctant, mate. Although you'd probably class him as the most "normal" member of the group, Simon is also one of the most anxious people you're likely to meet and the tiniest thing can send him into a complete panic. He's still hopelessly in love with childhood friend Carli D'Amato, although after so many failed attempts to woo her it's hardly a secret any more.
However, Simon may finally have found somebody else in the shape of Tara. The fact that one of them has managed to acquire a real girlfriend is something the others find difficult to accept but extremely easy to ridicule. Simon is going to need some advice as their relationship progresses, although he'd be wise to ignore practically everything Jay has to say on the subject.
Everyone has to have a friend like Jay Cartwright. He's the sort of friend who, in later life, you'll look back on and wonder why you were friends with him in the first place. Your typical hormone-filled teenager, and now equipped with a provisional licence to drive his mum's red Nissan Micra, Jay remains a potty-mouthed verbal bully whose continual lies about sexual conquests and daring exploits would embarrass every gigolo and daredevil going.
Despite there being a complete lack of evidence to back up any of his claims, Simon and Will rarely bother challenging Jay's fantasies - leaving Neil to hang on his every word. With access to a car, albeit hardly the chick magnet he'd probably like it to be, Jay now has even more opportunities to demonstrate his supposed expertise in practically everything.
Neil Sutherland remains the boy for whom the phrase "in a world of his own" could have been invented. Neil is generally about twenty seconds behind everyone else, but occasionally he manages to say something almost profound. He's also surprisingly successful with girls - considerably more successful than he seems to realise - and remains a rather good dancer.
Neil has also passed his driving test and owns a car. Unfortunately, it's a car without an engine, which rather limits its usefulness. Meanwhile, his divorced father continues to be the target of the other boys' seemingly endless speculation about his sexuality. With school rapidly drawing towards an end, the four friends still have plenty of opportunities left to embarrass themselves before they're finally released into the outside world.
Picture & Sound
Picture quality wise, as a television series broadcast in the United Kingdom, The Inbetweeners was never really going to set the world on fire. Lacking the budget of pretty much any American production, or even a British soap opera such as EastEnders or Coronation Street, the transfer nevertheless serves its purpose reasonably well.
Colours and flesh tones are generally convincing, black levels remain solid and there's a reasonable amount of detail on offer. It's hardly demonstration material, but everything is easy enough on the eye and there are no major compression problems to distract from the programme itself.
With the internet beginning to play an increasingly important role in "on demand" and "catch up" television, the production also has to survive being distributed through considerably more compressed formats than DVD. Fortunately, the disc doesn't suffer from the sort of over-compression that can plague online material and remains perfectly watchable throughout.
Sound wise, as with previous DVD outings from the Channel 4 comedy stable, there's very little here that's going to excite your surround-sound system. Still, the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is more than sufficient for the programme's needs and the all-important dialogue remains crisp and clear at all times, whilst the upbeat indie soundtrack complements things nicely.
It's certainly not going to win any awards for sound quality, but that's hardly the point. This is a dialogue-driven television comedy and the soundtrack does exactly what it needs to do.
Menu & Extras
The menu system is pleasantly animated using the opening titles from the show and accompanied by the well-known theme tune. Fans of the series are also going to be more than happy with the number of extras on offer. It's fairly unusual for a television series to come equipped with such a decent collection of supplementary material - especially on a UK release - so the Outtakes, Deleted Scenes, Video Diaries and Audio Commentaries ensure there's plenty more entertainment once the episodes are finished.
First up is the Behind the Scenes material. Made up of three sections and running for around twenty minutes in total, things begin with The Boys' Thoughts from a Spa. It's exactly as it sounds, with the boys talking about the third series from the comfort of a spa. I guess making a hit television series is simply far too much like hard work.
Next is the rather short The Squirrel, where we see what went on when Jay tries to run over a squirrel, followed by In the Car, where the boys discuss the monotony of filming the numerous driving sequences. This includes having to contend with members of the public - usually driving white vans - honking their horns as they pass the cameras.
The thirty minutes of Video Diaries see Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Greg Davies handed a camcorder to record the daily goings-on during filming. Some contributions are longer, and considerably more interesting, than others, but it's essentially what you've come to expect from this sort of feature: plenty of messing about, eating food and, if you're lucky, the occasional glimpse of what's actually happening on set.
It's not my favourite section of the disc, but it's still worth investigating if only for the opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes when the cameras supposedly aren't rolling.
The Deleted Scenes and Outtakes are certainly worthy of a look. Whilst the deleted material doesn't really add anything essential to the episodes it was removed from, it's still good to see it included rather than simply disappearing into an archive somewhere.
Likewise for the Outtakes. I'm not generally a fan of watching actors spend hours falling about laughing because somebody fluffed a line, but the collection here is more entertaining than most. There are messed-up lines, assorted bits of on-set stupidity and the occasional battle with an uncooperative prop. Also tucked away in this section is the Series 3 Prequel, which was used to advertise the programme on Channel 4 and E4.
Things are rounded off nicely with a collection of Audio Commentaries, including two "yack tracks" for the series opener. Not all four lads are available for every episode, but they each manage to turn up for at least one, whilst Greg Davies and writers Iain Morris and Damon Beesley are also on hand to provide backup.
The general banter is good and there are plenty of anecdotes and snippets of behind-the-scenes information. However, things can become a little muddled when everybody attempts to speak at once and, if you're trying to follow the episode at the same time, it can occasionally become hard going. Still, it's difficult to complain about having commentaries on every episode when so many television DVD releases don't bother providing any at all.
Overall
The Inbetweeners has already landed an impressive array of awards, including a BAFTA - which cheekily appears in one of the extras - British Comedy Awards, an RTS award for writing, a Broadcast Award, TV Quick and TV Choice awards and even an NME Award. The DVD release of Series Two also achieved triple the sales of Series One during its week of release, whilst the programme currently has over 1.1 million friends on Facebook. Not bad for a comedy series that, when I reviewed Series One, I complained was being hidden away on E4.
It's not difficult to understand why the programme has become so popular. Although it's obviously aimed at a younger audience, it works equally well for those of us whose teenage years are disappearing increasingly far into the rear-view mirror. Watching Will, Simon, Jay and Neil has an unfortunate habit of reminding you about embarrassing moments from your own school days that you'd successfully managed to forget.
And let's not overlook the important cultural contribution the programme has made along the way. "Briefcase Wanker", "Bus Wankers", "Bumder" and "Clunge" have all become part of the show's vocabulary. Here's hoping the Oxford English Dictionary will be issuing a suitably revised edition shortly...
However, whilst Series Three is certainly a welcome addition to the previous two series, I can't help feeling that something is missing this time around. Initially I thought it was just me, but other people I've spoken to have made similar comments. The characters are still funny, the performances remain excellent and there are plenty of amusing situations, but somehow the overall hit rate isn't quite as high.
Previous series have produced moments where Will, Simon, Neil and Jay's latest disasters have had me in fits of laughter. Series Three certainly still has its share of funny moments and the occasional belly laugh, but there are more occasions where something that previously might have had me crying with laughter merely raises a chuckle.
Perhaps familiarity is partly responsible. By now we know that Jay's latest sexual conquest is almost certainly complete fiction, that Simon will turn into a nervous wreck whenever Carli appears, that Will will say something pompous at precisely the wrong moment and that Neil will completely misunderstand what's going on. Those character traits remain funny, but three series in they're no longer quite as surprising as they once were.
That's not to say the series has suddenly become poor. Far from it. The chemistry between Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison remains the programme's greatest asset and the four actors have become completely comfortable with their characters. Greg Davies also continues to be superb as Mr Gilbert, whose obvious contempt for Will seems to grow stronger every time the pair encounter one another.
There's also something appropriate about the feeling that we're approaching the end. These characters can't remain sixth-formers forever and part of the programme's appeal has always been its painfully recognisable depiction of that awkward period between childhood and adulthood. Keep them at Rudge Park indefinitely and eventually the whole thing would begin to feel rather artificial.
So perhaps the writers are right to suggest that the series has finally run its course. I'd rather The Inbetweeners finished whilst it was still funny than continued for another three or four series until everybody involved was simply going through the motions. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm particularly happy about saying goodbye to the four idiots.
Nevertheless, The Inbetweeners remains comedy gold and can comfortably be classed as one of the best comedy shows on British television. Yet again Channel 4 have come up trumps with a cracking cast and equally good writers, even if Series Three has gone slightly off the boil compared with its predecessors.
Considering one of those writers, Iain Morris, is a former Channel 4 comedy commissioning editor who script-edited Peep Show, perhaps that shouldn't be surprising. If you're a fan of Peep Show, Teachers or simply remember enough of your own teenage years to appreciate the horror, then this DVD remains an easy recommendation.
It may not have made me laugh quite as consistently as the first two series, but even slightly below its best The Inbetweeners remains considerably funnier than most of the competition. Highly recommended.
Special features
- Behind the Scenes
- Outtakes and Deleted Scenes
- Video Diaries: Diaries from Cast Members Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Greg Davies
- Audio Commentaries with Cast and Writers
