Our Ideal Representation.

Teenagers in television teen dramas.

The Inbetweeners 2008-2010

I have researched into the target audience of 'The Inbetweeners.'

This is because this is the ideal target audience and representation we are aiming for in our final production.

Stereotypes are created when a ‘typical image’ of a social group is repeated so often in a variety of media types that they then become 'the norm.’ Teenagers almost entirely suffer from negative representations in all types of media; even when new programmes or reading material is created. These negative theories are continued because that is what is expected from teenagers because of what has been processed about them in the past. There are many stereotypical groups that certain types of teenagers could fall into such as ‘juvenile delinquents, superficial teens and disruptive students.’ Teenagers in the media at the moment have a particularly bad light, what with street attacks and underage binge drinking, but in saying this, there are also other groups of teenagers that keep to themselves. Yes, these other groups may be a disruption within their secluded environment, EG - school, but they are also to be considered. Its this group of “school renowned teenagers” that I will be concentrating on within my teen drama.

Its this idea of particular groups of teenagers that corresponds with my chosen teen drama. “The Inbetweeners” is a British sitcom that follows a teenage boy, Will, when he is forced to leave his private education and join a regular comprehensive school due to financial problems. He befriends three other teenage boys, Jay, Neil and Simon, and the programme then follows there hardships and troubles as they work there way through sixth form. The four boys would stereotypically be placed under ‘geeky teenagers’ on the social scale within this programme. The term ‘geeky’ doesn’t necessarily mean that they are smart and high academic achievers, it also means that they are simply not popular enough to be classed as ‘cool or superficial’ within the school society. However, the phrase ‘geeky’ is a collective term, as the four could only be classed as this when they are all together. Individually, each of the four boys have there own traits that could fall under other stereotypical groups.

“The Inbetweeners” was originally produced for digital terrestrial television channel E4, (Channel 4’s counterpart) and it is the various channel 4 outlets which target the 16-26 age range. So the representations in this will be created to appeal to a youth audience. This would have been taken into account, when the casting of The Inbetweeners was taking place, and each of the representational groups researched. Each individual trait of the characters would have been considered, when trying to aim each episode towards its target audience. It is this target audience that would have had to have been kept consistent throughout all series’ and episodes to maintain a set viewing rate. For instance to include all groups of teenagers, Neil would have been cast to be classed as the dumb teen as he is the one who creates the most idiotic conversations and speaks without thinking. He is often ridiculed by his own friends, but seems to never take offence to the mimicking. However, Neil is similar to his other friends in the fact that most of his ‘one liners’ and set jokes are about women’s anatomy or sexual related topics much like Jay. Jay, could be classed as a superficial teen as he is the one the least concerned with school, and more concerned with the fact he is apparently more sexually active than the other three. Stereotypically like any other superficial teenager, most of Jay’s conversations or jokes are almost entirely crude gestures towards females. However, as a female who watches the show, the crude gestures are part of the comedy and meant in a light heartedly way, and even I do not get offended by what is being said. Superficial teens manage to lighten there situations in everyday life, as they often manage to effectively manipulate everyone around them to make themselves seem as respected as any other group of teens. Also, it is this fact that Jay is apparently more sexually active than the rest, that is an exception to the ’geeky’ stereotype, as it is often normally only the popular teenagers that seem to be in relationships or popular with the opposite sex. Finally there is Simon, the hardest to categorise as he is the one tends to follow the other boys without thinking independently. He is to some extent self aware of his friends and his surroundings as he often knows that Jay is lying or ‘working the crowd’ to make himself seem the better one. It is these aspects of Simon’s personality that corresponds to other teenagers in society who do not like to be categorised. However in saying this, Simon does sometimes concentrate on the sexual side of things, with the fact he has been interested in one girl in his class called Carly, since early childhood. Again this could be classed as quite superficial. Overall, the four boys could be classed as ‘geeky’ together as a group, but they do have their own traits individually, but these individual traits do also correspond to what the target audience relate to.

“The Inbetweeners” has just finished season two here in the UK, and as each of the episodes concentrate on a different storyline, the traits of each of the four boys do switch between stereotypical categories depending on the episode. For instance, towards the end of series one the boys do begin to act spontaneously, by playing truant, concentrating on parties instead of revision and sometimes being disruptive to their surroundings. However, there actions do have punishments that follow, and this matches what happens in teenage everyday society to. Throughout both series’ the boys are hardly shown working at school, or completing school work (minus the revision for exams series) however they are still categorised within the ‘geeky’ stereotype simply because of there image and lack of popularity. Therefore Will, Jay, Simon and Neil both conform and counteract the particular teenager stereotype, because they match said stereotype whilst also going against it.

Overall, the representation and casting created within “The Inbetweeners” is accurate to my own experiences within the ‘teenage environment.’ Everything that has been mentioned above and in this show, could be classed as inaccurate due to the negative teenage images that have been shown in the media recently, but from a school environment point of view “The Inbetweeners” is authentic in showing the actions of teenage students, and there lifestyle. From a female point of view, we may not agree with or understand the sexual innuendo’s being made by the boys, but if we were to switch those innuendo’s to be about males instead, then I think females will understand how sometimes the youth disregard the actual person, and just use them to get what they want. However, this is used in a humorous way and like in relation to my own experiences, such events would be used in just harmful playful banter. So everything in conclusion, matches how teenagers; especially those who are students, are depicted within teenage dramas, but in saying this, there are different groups of teenagers that can also be mentioned.