MTV Tries Another One: The Inbetweeners

I have to give a lot of credit to MTV.  The network is not shy about trying out new shows and even a few remakes.  Let's forget about MTV's failed remake of Skins and focus on the present, which is all about the remake of Britain's famous foursome.   No, not those Beatles, but rather the kids on BBC's The Inbetweeners.  Will, Simon, Neil, and Jay never found a situation that they could not make worse.  After three seasons on British television, the team made a full length movie that did quite well (check out the trailer).

So what about MTV?  Tonight (August 20) the network tried its hand at turning these four twits into Americans, which really should not be all that hard.  The first episode of The Inbetweeners, most likely to be run endlessly on MTV, was actually pretty good (check out some of the highlights).  While the original was just fine, it is fun to see a new spin on these odd characters.  I would not mind watching both in this case; something I would not say about most of the remakes.

Variety get it right in its review of the new show:

Like most MTV fare, "Inbetweeners" won't win many plaudits from cultural scolds, depicting as it does teens completely preoccupied with sex, masturbation and saying impolite things about each other's families -- including Will's "hot mom."  Still, it all works -- or at least most of it does -- in no small part because everyone has known (or God forbid, has been) one of these kids, stupidly initiating school clubs to impress a girl (as Will does in a later episode) or being embarrassed by that horrible-looking starter car cheerfully purchased by dad.

These kids do not seem very dangerous, so I doubt that moms will be calling the Congress again to get it yanked off the air.  This may be the perfect program to sneak in under the radar and create new fans.  I hope so.