It was not the reunion episode they were expecting
The Inbetweeners was first aired on E4 back in May 2008 - meaning that the show is now a decade old.
To mark the occasion, Channel 4 announced
a special reunion show to be shown on New Year's Day.
https://twitter.com/blakeharrison23/status/1080108971229433861
This, understandably got some fans very, very excited - Will, Simon, Jay and Neil hadn't been seen on our screens together since
The Inbetweeners 2 in 2014.
To be fair, we should state, Channel 4 never said this was going to be a proper episode. Instead, it was always meant to be just a nostalgic reunion show, getting the full cast back together to joke about and tell stories.
And that's what we got. Hosted by Jimmy Carr,
Fwends Reunited was filmed in front of a studio audience, and had Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, Blake Harrison, and James Buckley reminisce about making the show.
https://twitter.com/jimmycarr/status/1080123984811823104
They came out in a yellow Fiat Cinquecento, they gave out some awards, they tried to stuff Joe Thomas into a suitcase. It was perfectly acceptable, bland TV to watch while recovering from a big New Year's Eve.
However, a lot of people were not happy about it. At all.
Many viewers thought it was going a full-on new episode - and thus were pretty pissed when they basically just got a clip show.
https://twitter.com/DanGasser/status/1080207857008738309
https://twitter.com/RhiannaDhillon/status/1080232055580053505
https://twitter.com/markdennison/status/1080211389757751299
https://twitter.com/jonnot/status/1080207748145524737
https://twitter.com/Liam_Shep2/status/1080209596071981062
https://twitter.com/SarahO_Connell/status/1080280063415861248
https://twitter.com/jonoread/status/1080211432212447232
Like we sent - it was never advertised as such - but when you see the words "Inbetweeners" and "reunion", we can see why people jumped to conclusions.
Always read the descriptions in your TV guides thoroughly, kids.