Twitter’s not always a place to hear reason and caution preached, well-suited as it is to enjoyably sarky jokes and shared apoplexy, but that’s the gist of what co-creator of The Inbetweeners, Iain Morris, has written today on the subject of the US remake.
The largely negative early response to MTV’s remake of The Inbetweeners, due to air in the US next month, prompted Morris to send his followers a few messages outlining his views (we’ve lumped the Tweets together into this inelegant bundle for ease of reading):
“I’m not going to comment on the American Inbetweeners a lot because I have to use Twitter for more interesting things like complaining but / the pilot director, Taika Waititi, has made consistently funny TV shows and one of my favourite films of all time in Boy. / Brad, the showrunner, is a very funny man who has worked on Arrested Development and My Name Is Earl, two shows I love. / Damon [Beesley, co-creator] and I didn’t have a lot to do with it because we wanted it to be different and American, and I think it is in a positive way. / My wife is American, and she is as funny and clever as anyone I’ve ever met, so I don’t like or appreciate the anti-American stuff. / Anyway, you might like it, you might hate it, but don’t pre-judge it. And the original will always exist. Always. Never going away. Thanks. / Lastly, I know people are only angry about the US Inbetweeners ’cos they love the UK one, which is amazing really, and honestly appreciated.”
Morris went on to say that he expected the show to have “…teething troubles”, but that “…hopefully it’ll make sense on its own terms”. A number of his followers cited the US The Office remake as a blueprint for a successful UK-to-US transition. He’s certainly not wrong about the pilot director’s credentials, which include 2007 indie comedy Eagle Vs Shark, or those of the showrunner Brad Copeland.
At a time when a minority of overprotective film fans are behaving online in a way that can generously be described as a bit potty, perhaps a ‘simmer down’ message of restraint isn’t such a bad idea?
