{"id":2103706,"date":"2026-08-20T09:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T06:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2103706"},"modified":"2026-08-20T09:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T06:47:10","slug":"why-we-should-leave-the-inbetweeners-in-a-more-innocent-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2103706","title":{"rendered":"Why we should leave \u2018The Inbetweeners\u2019 in a more innocent era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HD7YRK.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"template-id-2947849\" class=\"post-2947849 tdb_templates type-tdb_templates status-publish post\">\n<div id=\"tdi_65\" class=\"tdc-zone\">\n<div class=\"tdc_zone tdi_66  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div id=\"tdi_67\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_68  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_70  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_breadcrumbs tdi_71 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-breadcrumbs \" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_71\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span>Features<\/span><span>TV Features<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_title tdi_72 tdb-single-title td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_72\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Why we should leave \u2018The Inbetweeners\u2019 in a more innocent era<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_73 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_73\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Netflix is reportedly bringing back the awkward foursome for a reunion movie \u2013 but do we really want to see Simon getting sucked into the manosphere? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_75 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_75\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span> Nick Levine<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_76 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_76\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2026-08-20T10:47:10+01:00\">20th August 2026<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_77\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_1400 td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_78  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_80  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_81 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_81\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"696\" height=\"442\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HD7YRK-696x442.jpg\" alt=\"&apos;The Inbetweeners&apos;\" title=\"&apos;The Inbetweeners&apos;\"><figcaption class=\"tdb-caption-text\">&#8216;The Inbetweeners&#8217;. CREDIT: Channel 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_82\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_83  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_85  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_86 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap big-read-dropcap\">I<\/strong>n 2026, no pop culture IP ever really dies \u2013 and nothing is as beloved as a classic sitcom. For this reason, it\u2019s entirely unsurprising that Netflix is reportedly bringing back <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em> for a reunion movie. And yet, according to the latest tabloid dispatch, a potential stumbling block is a rumoured feud between Emily Atack, who played Charlotte Hinchcliffe, and James Buckley, who portrayed potty mouth-in-chief Jay Cartwright.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> James Buckley says there\u2019s no special reason \u2018The Inbetweeners\u2019 is still popular: \u201cIt\u2019s just quite funny\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whatever the truth behind this report, it should act as a warning sign. No one wants to imagine that the cast of their favourite show didn\u2019t really get on, just as no one wants to picture them reuniting with gritted teeth for a career boost and a paycheque. <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em>, which originally aired on E4 between 2008 and 2010, wasn\u2019t exactly a cosy show \u2013 actually, it was a show that briefly popularised the word \u201cclunge\u201d and coined the strangely satisfying expression \u201cbus wanker\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad0 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<p>But we did always believe that mildly deluded Jay, sensible Will McKenzie (Simon Bird), uptight Simon Cooper (Joe Thomas) and gullible Neil Sutherland (Blake Harrison) were a rock-solid friendship group. And that the untenable girls they tried to flirt with, like Atack\u2019s Charlotte and Emily Head\u2019s Carli D\u2019Amato, saw them as childish and mildly irritating rather than a genuine menace. These characters could be coarse, crass and embarrassing. But deep down, they were pretty nice guys.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em> was such a huge hit that it spawned two successful spin-off films: the first set on a lads\u2019 trip to Malia, and the second on a rather more unlikely jaunt to Australia. It also yielded an inevitable US remake that, just as inevitably, didn\u2019t last very long. A large part of <em>The<\/em><em>Inbetweeners<\/em>\u2018 charm was the very British strain of adolescent awkwardness that it mined for laughs. In the UK, Jay and the crew are lovable (sometime) losers. Transpose them to the US and they become hopeless social pariahs.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"30 minutes of classic Inbetweeners\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XoDoyLqBs38?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Still, as durable as <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em> has proven, its appeal isn\u2019t a bottomless well. When the cast reunited for a non-scripted 10th anniversary reunion special in 2019, the response was so overwhelmingly negative that Buckley felt compelled to apologise for it on social media. And dragging Jay, Neil, Simon and Will into 2026 for a full-length scripted film looks like an even more thankless task.<\/p>\n<p>When Buckley spoke to NME in 2024, he summed up the show\u2019s enduring popularity pretty succinctly. \u201cI think it\u2019s just because it\u2019s quite funny \u2013 that\u2019s it really. It\u2019s not particularly big or clever; some of it\u2019s really silly,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole ethos was we just wanted to make people laugh. We had this rule where we tried our hardest to make sure that something funny happened every 30 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad1 id_ad_content-horiz-center\">\n<h5 class=\"taboola-mid-article-title\">Recommended<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cSilly\u201d as a prevailing vibe makes sense when you\u2019re dealing with teenage boys who are still figuring out who they are. It\u2019s less appealing when you\u2019re devising punchlines and pitfalls for grown men in their late 30s, as the Inbetweeners would be now. Frankly, the potential for this reunion movie to be cringe in the wrong way is huge. If the awkward foursome haven\u2019t matured since we last saw them in 2014\u2019s <em>The Inbetweeners 2<\/em>, it would be pretty sad. But if they have managed to shed all their adolescent chaos and confusion, they just won\u2019t be the characters we know and love.<\/p>\n<p>Put it this way \u2013 can you even picture Jay at 40? Do you want to see Will losing his well-paid office job to AI, or Simon getting sucked into the Manosphere, or Neil accidentally launching an OnlyFans, or Jay trying to go viral on TikTok? Actually, maybe that last one could be quite funny. But ultimately, it\u2019s hard to shake the feeling that some things are best left in a more innocent era. Like the word \u201cclunge\u201d \u2013 and four well-meaning teenage boys who were just trying to fit in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_tags tdi_87 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_87\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<ul class=\"tdb-tags\">\n<li><span>Related Topics<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Netflix<\/li>\n<li>The Inbetweeners<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_88\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_content td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_89  wpb_row td-pb-row tdc-element-style\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_91  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td-block td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-custom-spot tdi_92 td_block_template_2\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_93\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_94  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_96  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"vc_row_inner tdi_98  vc_row vc_inner wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column_inner tdi_100  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-inner-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"vc_column-inner\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_raw_html tdi_102 \">\n<div class=\"td-fix-index\">\n<h3>More Stories<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap td_flex_block_1 tdi_103 td-pb-border-top td_module_flex_1--card td_module_flex_1--card--highlight td_block_template_2 tdc-no-posts td_flex_block\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_103\">\n<div id=\"tdi_103\" class=\"td_block_inner td-mc1-wrap\">\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Every song on\u00a0\u2018The Mentalist\u2019\u00a0soundtrack<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Every\u00a0song\u00a0on the\u00a0\u2018Outer Banks\u2019\u00a0season five soundtrack<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">The ending of \u2018Outer Banks\u2019 explained: does the Blue Crown bring JJ back to life?<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Here\u2019s every song used in Ricky Gervais\u2019 \u2018Alley Cats\u2019 soundtrack<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">\u2018Stranger Things\u2019 star Noah Schnapp to make stage debut in London next month<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">David Fincher\u2019s \u2018Squid Game\u2019 sequel scrapped at Netflix<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_104\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_105  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_107  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_raw_html tdi_109 \">\n<div class=\"td-fix-index\">\n<h3>You May Also Like<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><\/article>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_86 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap big-read-dropcap\">I<\/strong>n 2026, no pop culture IP ever really dies \u2013 and nothing is as beloved as a classic sitcom. For this reason, it\u2019s entirely unsurprising that Netflix is reportedly bringing back <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em> for a reunion movie. And yet, according to the latest tabloid dispatch, a potential stumbling block is a rumoured feud between Emily Atack, who played Charlotte Hinchcliffe, and James Buckley, who portrayed potty mouth-in-chief Jay Cartwright.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> James Buckley says there\u2019s no special reason \u2018The Inbetweeners\u2019 is still popular: \u201cIt\u2019s just quite funny\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whatever the truth behind this report, it should act as a warning sign. No one wants to imagine that the cast of their favourite show didn\u2019t really get on, just as no one wants to picture them reuniting with gritted teeth for a career boost and a paycheque. <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em>, which originally aired on E4 between 2008 and 2010, wasn\u2019t exactly a cosy show \u2013 actually, it was a show that briefly popularised the word \u201cclunge\u201d and coined the strangely satisfying expression \u201cbus wanker\u201d.<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad0 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<p>But we did always believe that mildly deluded Jay, sensible Will McKenzie (Simon Bird), uptight Simon Cooper (Joe Thomas) and gullible Neil Sutherland (Blake Harrison) were a rock-solid friendship group. And that the untenable girls they tried to flirt with, like Atack\u2019s Charlotte and Emily Head\u2019s Carli D\u2019Amato, saw them as childish and mildly irritating rather than a genuine menace. These characters could be coarse, crass and embarrassing. But deep down, they were pretty nice guys.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em> was such a huge hit that it spawned two successful spin-off films: the first set on a lads\u2019 trip to Malia, and the second on a rather more unlikely jaunt to Australia. It also yielded an inevitable US remake that, just as inevitably, didn\u2019t last very long. A large part of <em>The<\/em><em>Inbetweeners<\/em>\u2018 charm was the very British strain of adolescent awkwardness that it mined for laughs. In the UK, Jay and the crew are lovable (sometime) losers. Transpose them to the US and they become hopeless social pariahs.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"30 minutes of classic Inbetweeners\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XoDoyLqBs38?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Still, as durable as <em>The Inbetweeners<\/em> has proven, its appeal isn\u2019t a bottomless well. When the cast reunited for a non-scripted 10th anniversary reunion special in 2019, the response was so overwhelmingly negative that Buckley felt compelled to apologise for it on social media. And dragging Jay, Neil, Simon and Will into 2026 for a full-length scripted film looks like an even more thankless task.<\/p>\n<p>When Buckley spoke to NME in 2024, he summed up the show\u2019s enduring popularity pretty succinctly. \u201cI think it\u2019s just because it\u2019s quite funny \u2013 that\u2019s it really. It\u2019s not particularly big or clever; some of it\u2019s really silly,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole ethos was we just wanted to make people laugh. We had this rule where we tried our hardest to make sure that something funny happened every 30 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad1 id_ad_content-horiz-center\">\n<h5 class=\"taboola-mid-article-title\">Recommended<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cSilly\u201d as a prevailing vibe makes sense when you\u2019re dealing with teenage boys who are still figuring out who they are. It\u2019s less appealing when you\u2019re devising punchlines and pitfalls for grown men in their late 30s, as the Inbetweeners would be now. Frankly, the potential for this reunion movie to be cringe in the wrong way is huge. If the awkward foursome haven\u2019t matured since we last saw them in 2014\u2019s <em>The Inbetweeners 2<\/em>, it would be pretty sad. But if they have managed to shed all their adolescent chaos and confusion, they just won\u2019t be the characters we know and love.<\/p>\n<p>Put it this way \u2013 can you even picture Jay at 40? Do you want to see Will losing his well-paid office job to AI, or Simon getting sucked into the Manosphere, or Neil accidentally launching an OnlyFans, or Jay trying to go viral on TikTok? Actually, maybe that last one could be quite funny. But ultimately, it\u2019s hard to shake the feeling that some things are best left in a more innocent era. Like the word \u201cclunge\u201d \u2013 and four well-meaning teenage boys who were just trying to fit in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/features\/tv-features\/the-inbetweeners-netflix-reboot-film-3963694&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HD7YRK.jpg&#8221;] FeaturesTV Features Why we should leave \u2018The Inbetweeners\u2019 in a more innocent era Netflix is reportedly bringing back the awkward foursome for a reunion movie \u2013 but do we really want to see Simon getting sucked into the manosphere? By Nick Levine 20th August 2026 &#8216;The Inbetweeners&#8217;. CREDIT: Channel 4 In 2026, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,78],"class_list":["post-2103706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nme-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2103706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2103706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2103706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2103706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}