Review: The Inbetweeners - Reading Gives You Wings

MTV's "The Inbetweeners" is back with another mixed bag episode, thankfully rebounding from the last two abysmal episodes but still nowhere near its comedic peak.

This week sees the return of charming Aussie Jono, Neil's dad's 'special friend' and the object of the boys affection. Jono is protesting the closing of a CD store in the mall of all things, inspiring the boys to live in the moment and stand up for what they believe in.

In Will's case, that would be the school's embarassment of a library. The recent renovation serves to poke fun at how underfunded our public schools are, as the grand re-opening carries with it corporate sponsorship from Red Bull. Much to the chagrin of Will, the new "library" is less a library and more of a high school jungle gym, complete with skateboard ramps, rock climbing walls and, of course, energy drinks. It's simultaneously one of the more darkly funny and stupid scenes in the series, as the Red Bull sponsorship serves to brainwash the kids while also acting as the running joke throughout the episode, which is ironic since the running joke is brainwashing corporate sponsorship material itself. It's all very meta, as the kids might say. Man, I could sure go for a Red Bull right now...

Will hopes that his protest of the new library/extreme playground can also ignite sparks between himself and out-of-his-league cheerleader Samantha. Unfortunately, the energy drink is what gets Samantha's motor running, so to speak, and Will is faced with a choice: his principles or his mojo.

Simon is faced with a similar decision. While Carly's relationship with Bobby is on the rocks, things are going pretty well between him and crazy chick Lauren. Well, aside from her kleptomania. In kind of a sweet moment, Simon proves to not be a complete doofus and meekly confronts his girlfriend about her stealing in spite of his fear that this could spell the end of their relationship if she reacts negatively. Alas, it's not this instance that spells doom for Simon's relationship, but rather a later scene where he genuinely tries to help the heartbroken Carly.

Overall, a pretty average episode with a few decent laughs but nowhere near the highs of some of the previous episodes. I think I was grateful that it was also nowhere near the lows of the last two episodes more than anything.

Final Grade: C