10. Yesterday's Jam
I still remember the first time I saw this episode. There was this amazing feeling of stumbling onto something really special the first time I watched it. I knew that this show would be one I'd have to watch .Because this is one of the rare few pilots that holds up when compared to the rest of the show. The thing about pilots is that they're made to be built upon. The show should develop the ideas introduced in the pilot, and should get better as it goes on. This however, means that the pilot seldom stands as one of the shows highpoints. Which is defintely a double edged sword. Because as much as you want to be able to say "this is a great episode", you also wouldn't want the show to peak too early. If a show's highpoint is at the very start, well it can only go downhill.
But sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes you get a pilot that stands on it's own merits, as well as perfectly setting up the show. One that works as both a great start to the series and a great episode in it's own right. Great pilots are pure lighting in a bottle kind of stuff, but when they do happen, it's pretty damn great. Which is where Yesterday's Jam comes in. This is as perfect as an introduction as I think you can get. And watching it again, it holds up as one of the show's best. Which is no small feat.
It's a perfect taster of what the show is, first of all. The story structure, writing style and sense of humour are all fantastically displayed here. I know that this is a sitcom, and doesn't have any real overarching plot or anything like that, but this is the perfect episode to start with if you're going to watch this show. It's surprisingly representative of the kind of stuff you'll be seeing. And the character introductions are strong too. The introductions of Denyholm, Jen and Roy are fantastic, and pretty much tell you everything you need to know about these characters. You know exactly what they're like even from the first time you see them, and the introductory scenes themselves work as really great jokes, too.
And it's hilarious as well. The jokes here had me cracking up regularly. Denyholm's speech about teamwork, Jen's desperate technobabble, the first time we see Roy, the entire party scene, Denyholm's line about the kind of company Renyholm is. Hell, the first shot (above) is one of the episodes strongest jokes. THE. FIRST. SHOT. That's beyond impressive. As I said, not many pilots can stand as one of the best episodes of their respective show, but Yesterday's Jam certainly does. It's a great start, and the show just kept impressing me from there.
9. Friendface
I think it was inevitable that the show would have an episode that satirizes social media. It's not the only one, of course, but I think that it's the one that goes the furthest with the parody, and it's better for that. I think that this episode gets right what the finale gets wrong in terms of it's parody. I think a big part of that was timing. This episode aired just as social media, particularly Facebook, really began to take off, and so a lot of the satire in this episode really hits home that much more. I also love the approach it takes with the parody. It shows why people get consumed by social media, and then dedicates the entire episode to mocking them relentlessly. The scene in the office where the I.T. department are talking on FriendFace is probably the best part of the episode ("That was a classic Moss line").
This episode also has a really nice contained arc for Jen. She starts off thinking she's ten steps ahead thanks to FriendFace, but slowly starts to realise that she hasn't really done anything with her life, leading to Moss pretending to be Jen's tennis player husband, which gets out of hand, naturally. This whole plot is a perfect lampooning of Jen's need to impress other people, something often brought up in the show, but rarely done better than it is here. I also love Moss and how bizarre his lies are, which is something of a running gag now that I think of it.
The scene in the bar are just so wonderful too. Any scenes that show how dreadful the main characters are when it comes to social situations are just wonderful, and here it's no exception. All of the characters are just so fantastically awkward that you have to laugh. Roy meeting his ex girlfriend is just so hilariously uncomfortable, and leads to a fantastical literal punchline with Douglas.
Overall, this is one of the strongest parodies in the show. It's a spot on lampooning of social media, but it's never cynical or nasty. All of the jokes are in good fun here, leading to a delightfully wacky parody, and one of the show's funniest episodes. The satire here is something that the finale would try to replicate, but didn't really capture for me. It was too over the top to be relatable, something that this episode never struggles with. So yeah, easily one of the show's funniest. Though I must say, there's another episode that pulls this kind of satire off slightly better.
8. Return of the Golden Child
Death in media is a pretty big thing. Especially in TV. When a character leaves a narrative permanently, it almost always has a huge effect on the show going forward. It could be character development, or building to a large emotional moment, or even a reveal, but it's rarely none. The death of Denyholm in The I.T. Crowd breaks all the rules, and that's completely okay. It's so casual and nonchalant, and only really effects the events of this episode alone, and even then, it's only really to introduce Douglas. Why it works though is because it's played mainly for laughs. Any other show would have played Denyholm's death as a more serious moment, and maybe gotten some black comedy in here or there, and then introduce Douglas, but instead we get this, and it's brilliant. It's not even a special episode or anything, it's just the second episode of the second season.
There are some great jokes about Denyholm in this episode, from the pensions fund, to the video played at his funeral, and especially Douglas' introduction. When I saw that Matt Berry was going to be in this show, I instantly got excited. Especially because of the way he's introduced. His epic shout of "FAAAAAATTTTTTHHHHEEEEEERRRRR!", and everything he says after ("SPEAK PRIEST!") are so over the top and just so damn funny to me. This was the best way to introduce a character like Douglas, who is so unstable and out of touch. In other shows, something like this would be a total shark jump, but here I think it works because it's so nonchalant in making huge changes, which not only works in creating some great jokes, but is actually really good writing; making a huge change by not making a big deal of it.
Roy thinking he's going to die is great too. Especially in the church, when he's waiting for the clock to strike three, Chris O'Dowd plays that exaggerated fear so well, and gets so many laughs out of it. Moss' death calculator is hilarious, and Roy's desperation to literally avoid death is great too. This whole episode is pure black comedy, and it's probably the best episode in the show for darker humour, which it does so well, and is so clever in the way it does it. It completely subverts expectations, and it introduced Matt freakin' Berry into the show, which has to count for something.
7. Aunt Irma Visits
I find it odd that the finale failed to do what had actually already been done in this episode, and done so well. I had been watching the show up to that point, and really been loving it, but when this episode came along the show really became a favourite of mine. The idea itself was so absurd, but the show pulled it off splendidly. I remember finishing it and thinking "yeah, this is the best episode". Obviously, it got topped as the show went on, but it's still my favourite from the first season, which was already damn strong up to this point.
The jokes here are really something great. Aunt Irma visiting Jen, the string of analogies, the meeting at the beginning, Moss in therapy, the big girl's night out ("How big are the girls?"),the newscasts of geeks running wild, Richmond "not being his usual cheery self at all", everything here was just hilarious. The show up to that point had me cracking up regularly anyway, but this episode raised the bar like nobody's business.
As I said, this episode also might have been one of the reasons the finale disappointed me as much as it did. The idea of two of the characters being harassed online was done so much better here. I think it's because the finale went a little too over the top, and then just abruptly ended without resolving anything, where as this episode has things inflate, and then the characters deciding that they don't care. The show isn't one for realism anyway, but I felt that that was a much better conclusion to the one in the finale.
The very end of it deserves mention too. First time I watched it, I actually kind of worried that the ending of this episode was going to become a huge thing, and would add unnecessary drama into what was, at that point, a light silly fun comedy. They did the smart thing though, and made it a noodle incident. Thank god they did, because things really only went uphill from here.
Though I do find it odd that they put "To Be Continued" at the end. Maybe there were plans to make that a plotline in season two?
6. The Work Outing
I've often seen this listed as the show's best episode, and that's a hard claim to disagree with. Aunt Irma Visits was such a good way to end season one, so I have to admit that I didn't know if season two could follow it up well. Lo and behold, it surpassed it entirely.
This episode spawned so many moments that would become downright legendary. Especially the scene in the disabled bathroom. Hot damn, that scene. As I said before, Roy's plots generally involve him getting into impossibly awkward scenarios, and while this episode wasn't the first to put Roy into an uncomfortable situation, it's safe to say that none of the ones before went this far. And it works. Both scenes with the lift going into the van are just hilariously hard to watch. Actually, all of Roy's stuff is wonderfully awkward. I can't really explain it any better than that. It's cringe comedy at it's very best, in my opinion.
And then there's the magical spectacle that is "Gay! A Gay Musical". Every single song from this episode is pure gold. Not only do they provide some fantastically quotable lines, but they're all wonderfully catchy. This entire sequence is one of the funniest parts of the episode. Moss in audience participation is the cherry on the cake. Speaking of Moss, Moss as a bartender is so fantastically random, that you have to love it. It's one of the best episodes that addresses the relationship between Roy and Moss, and Jen. They aren't like anyone she's known before, and so a night out with them turns into something completely unexpected and really weird.
If I was a tad worried about The I.T. losing some of it's mojo in the second season, The Work Outing put those fears to rest and provided one of the series' best episodes in the process.
And tomorrow, the grand finale! See you then!
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