Inbetweeners

Dyer’s Utopian Pleasures model

• Some critics have argued that ‘Inbetweeners’ is not an accurate presentation of what youth culture is actually like; rather it is more of an idealistic representation.

• “the image of ‘something better’ to escape into, or something that we want deeply that our day-to-day loves don’t provide”

• Because Inbetweeners seems to err between the real and the ideal it is not necessarily the exact representation of an utopia instead it is:

“what utopia would feel like rather than how it would be organized.”

• Inbetweeners is interesting because much of what they get up to is relatable. However, it is relatable in a way that is contradictory to how it is

ultimately enjoyed. Joe Thomas, who plays Simon, says: “I look up to Ian (Morris) and Damon (Beesley, the show’s creators) because they have got sufficiently outside of themselves to accept that life is essentially full of things you did not succeed at ...and turn them into something people celebrate”

• It is through this that awkward and embarrassing moments in our lives are parodied. The hypodermic needle theory would suggest that this is done purposefully, the fact that so many teenagers name the series as ‘relatable’ would support this. However, the exception to this can be shown in the critical reception from some audiences; specifically older audiences. This independent rejection of the director’s desired effect can most likely be attributed to a difference in generational ideals of what is wrong and what is right.

A member of the Inbetweeners cast

• “There’s a heightened lad culture which really doesn’t represent the actual young men in this country”,

Skins