And now for my favourite show by Graham Linehan, and one that I've actually talked at length about before. In case you don't know, I ranked every episode of The I.T. Crowd, so I'll just give a brief description of the show and my thoughts on it here. Check out my ranking for more details.
So essentially it's about the I.T. department at Reynholm Industries, a company that makes... something. In the basement, there's Roy the slacker, Jen the overly ambitious relationship manager, and Moss, who is just.... well, he's just Moss. Together with their boss Denyholm, and later his son Douglas, they go on some crazy adventures. What I love about this show is how much of the comedy comes from the characters. And you could say that about a lot of shows, because it isn't something unique to The I.T. Crowd, but it's something that I think this show really excels at, and so is one of the best examples of it. The situations here come from each of these characters ineptitudes. Again, it's not like this show invented this, but I think that it's something that really defines the show as a whole and makes it work as a result. When you factor in Linehan's knack for incredible awkwardness, you've got something pretty great. Like maybe Roy will want to get out of a situation because he's lazy. But his attempts to avoid doing anything will trigger incredibly uncomfortable things to happen. Like that disabled bathroom scene. Or maybe Jen will act on her aspirations, only for the world to remind her that she'll probably never get out of the basement. Lest we forget that it's just not for her.
And yet it's not a pessimistic show. Unlike something like The Office, which had a fairly bleak sense of humour, The I.T. Crowd is a show that feels very playful. Like as awkward as it's situations get, the show always maintains this gleefully silly tone that keeps it funny. It does contain some comically unfortunate setpieces, but it's willingness to acknowledge it's own ridiculousness makes it so awesome. As much as I love the acidity and cynicism of Black Books, I always find myself coming back to the generally more upbeat I.T. Crowd. It isn't afraid to use mean spirited humour, but it makes it fit in with the general silliness of the setups and situations.
This is a show that I absolutely adore. Yes, I'm not crazy about it's ending, but that doesn't affect its place in my favourites list. This is a show that I just love. It's got one of the best casts I've seen in a comedy show, the situations are usually clever and always funny, and it actually gets better the more I watch it. The quotes and jokes are burned into my memory. And holy shit, does this show have good jokes. The Internet, Moss on Countdown, Friendface, Jen speaking Italian, Aunt Irma, Gay! A Gay Musical, Spaceology, Dungeons and Dragons, the bomb disposal robot, a fire at a Seaparks, I could go on all day. I absolutely love this show. If you want to hear me gush about this show even more, check out my rankings of the show's episodes. But for now, just know that this show is phenomenal. If you've not seen it, correct that immediately.
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