Vulture knows how hard it is to find new TV passions. You sense there has to be a little underhyped show out there somewhere that could be your new favorite, but who has the energy to dig through long stretches of cable listings to find it? Try as you might, you’ll inevitably collapse, tired and frustrated, in front of a rerun of Law & Order: You win, status quo. Now Vulture will occasionally step in to help, pointing out gems buried deep in your cable box that you should DVR forthwith and recommend to your friends, starting a craze only to then complain that the show is overhyped. Today’s suggestion? The British sitcom The In-Betweeners (premiering tonight at 9 on BBC America), which could be best described as the sitcom version of Skins.
The crassly spot-on high-school comedy centers on a kid nervously entering a new academy (“They do say, whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger … except polio”) as he bonds with a group of boys who aren’t quite popular and aren’t quite outcasts. In short, they’re everyboy: horny, awkward, desperate, sullen, and not nearly as sexually experienced as they claim to be. (Need credentials? It was created by Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, who wrote together on Flight of the Conchords. As a British TV exec, Morris oversaw Ricky Gervais’s first show, Da Ali G Show, and Peep Show.) Watch below as new boy Will makes an impression on his first day.
