I think we can all agree The Inbetweeners is at its best when dealing with coming-of-age events its audience recognize. Last week's fashion show was quite a funny situation (I liked it more than most people), but I don't remember my school ever putting on a fashion show, so there wasn't a deeper level of recognition. In contrast, "The Gig & The Girlfriend" was focused on drugs and, even if you've never taken drugs, it's an area most people's school life touched on in some way.
Simon (Joe Thomas) met a new girl at school called Tara (Hannah Tointon), whom he somehow impressed enough to land a date with to a small gig in town. Inevitably, Will (Simon Bird), Neil (Blake Harrison) and Jay (James Buckley) decided to tag along, partly because Simon had told Tara he could get his hands on "puff" and Jay had claimed he could get his hands on weed. A perennial bullshitter, Jay had no such contact (lying he'd been sent to Afghanistan), so resorted to asking school bully Donovan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes) for drugs, only to be given a pouch of harmless tea leaves, which then forced him to approach a dealer at the club itself.The night out resulted in Jay having uncharacteristic success in scoring drugs for his friends, which made a drooling Neil robot-dance in slow-motion, Tara vomit all over Simon's shoes when she moved in for a kiss, and Will to get quietly freaked out ("time's going very slowly and everything's flat") before publicly requesting an ambulance using the stage's microphone.
This was a much funnier episode than the premiere, because the situation was something you could identify with, and it's just amusing to see these characters deal with drug-taking. If I have a criticism of The Inbetweeners it's that the main characters rarely evolve beyond their basic settings: Will's the sensible one often spoiling everyone's fun; Neil's a trusting human puppy, willing to go with the flow; Simon's the most normal one, whose friends are holding him back; and Jay's the sex-obsessed pathological liar.
There's nothing wrong with having characters stick to their core sources of comedy, but I do sometimes wish they were more three-dimensional, because their reactions to events sometimes don’t ring true. Would someone like Will, tripping on drugs or not, really take to the stage and ask to see his mummy? I understand things are exaggerated for comic effect, but considering how The Inbetweeners is at its best whenever it's dealing with a Peep Show-style level of realism, I wish that sense of plausibility was more consistent. Episodes often turns rather cartoonish towards the end, blunting the sharp edge they have until their climaxes.
Anyway, it's a very wise move to introduce a character like Tara. The female characters on the show have always been thin and dull, but Tara showed real spark and energy. Well, at least during her introduction scene and when sharing a "doobie" with the boys in an alley, before becoming just another gross-out punchline during the vomit-kiss sequence. Still, I have hope Tara will shake-up the foursome's dynamic, and prove to be more interesting than the extremely bland Carli (Emily Head) who Simon's been infatuated with. That never seemed to go anywhere. Tointon seems like a better actress than Head and Emily Atack, given a character who appears to be more interesting, too.Overall, "The Gig & The Girlfriend" wasn't a classic episode, but it came close in a few instances. I also enjoyed the brief scenes with Jay's dad (David Schaal) humiliating his son ("Jay showing you where he used to shag the cushions?"); and Will's mum (Belinda Stewart-Wilson) buoyantly emasculating her son for being too sensible to get into trouble where drugs are concerned. The adult characters are welcome injections of embarrassment and rather monstrous in their own way, wisely used sparingly.
Aside
- Hannah Tointon is the younger sister of Kara Tointon (most famous for her role as Dawn in EastEnders, currently participating in Strictly Come Dancing). She also starred in Hollyoaks.
WRITERS: Damon Beesley & Iain Morris
DIRECTOR: Ben Palmer
GUEST CAST: Emily Head, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Hannah Tointon, David Schaal & Belinda Stewart-Wilson
TRANSMISSION: 20 September 2010 - E4/HD, 10PM
