Saturday, April 6, 2013

The IT Crowd

I have been watching a lot of British Television lately. I don't really know why. Maybe it was re-watching Monty Python and The Holy Grail again, maybe it was when I started watching Doctor Who (which I plan on doing a review of soon). But something has drawn me to more and more british television and movies. The shows I have recently begun to watch are these. (And again, i plan on doing reviews of most if not all of them.)


  • Doctor Who
  • Sherlock
  • House of Cards (BBC Trilogy)
  • The IT Crowd


The one that I want to talk about first is The IT Crowd as it is the one that I have finished on Netflix and I am also watching at this very moment.



Quick synopsis, The IT Crowd follows a trio that work in the basement of a big british company called Reynholm Industries. Their names are Jen, Roy and Moss. They of course work in the IT department.

Jen, played by Katherine Parkinson, is a woman who joins Reynholm Industries and placed in the IT department under the assumption that she has computer skills, which she doesn't.

Roy, played by Chris O'Dowd, is a slacker computer whiz on a chase for women but has no social skills to pull it off.

Moss, played by Richard Ayoade, is the british Sheldon (from The Big Bang Theory) and has absolutely no social skills and has lived a very sheltered life putting all his energy into computers.

There are other recurring characters, especially the CEO of the company, Douglas Reynholm, played by Matt Berry.

I freaking love this show. I might say that this show is a combination of The Office, Seinfeld, and Scrubs all with a british accent. Anybody who has watched the show knows that Moss is the absolute best character with his brilliant delivery of lines and his quirkiness.

But the show is just too damn clever. It never takes itself too seriously and doesn't reach any kind of drama, its just funny. Lots of times with comedies, especially in the States, there seems to be a desire to throw in scenes of drama and serious character moments every once in a while with the laughter and the humor. How I Met Your Mother is a fantastic example. Its a very funny show and I love it just as much if not more than IT Crowd. But it has these moments where the characters who have been making jokes and being comedians the entire episode turn serious. Don't get me wrong, How I met Your Mother does that very very well and its one of my favorite shows because of it, but its shows like this that make the IT Crowd original in its own way. Even shows like Family Guy has its How I Met Your Mother moments where there's a serious moment thrown in there. The episode Brian and Stewie is simply an episode with those two characters, and the show actually turns very serious towards the end of the episode. I loved that episode but it was a definite switch in style of a show. In IT Crowd, I really don't think they intend on doing something like that. I'm not the expert but I'm almost certain there was no episode of Monty Python's flying circus where John Cleese and Eric Idle just sat in a bank vault and talked. Their purpose was to make you laugh and that's it. No drama, no sad tears, just laughter and situational humor. There's IT Crowd for you.



Its very similar to Seinfeld in which the characters have a relationship with each other but it never gets too serious. There is an episode in fact where I thought for a moment that Jen and Roy were going to have a How I Met Your Mother moment and cause drama within the comedy that had been created, and it was probably filmed that way, but it was quickly thrown away when Roy shuts the door of the cab on Jen's face and she drives away. The episodes are based off of the characters reactions to situations, not the characters themselves and I don't think you see that done very well these days. But IT Crowd does it almost flawlessly.

There's a lot I can say about IT Crowd but it's really something you need to see for yourself.

I want feedback. Have you seen IT Crowd? if so did you like it? Was there ever an episode of John Cleese and Eric Idle just sitting in a bank vault talking? If so I want to see that episode.

Funny IT Crowd gif

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