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

Taken 2

I love stories. I love hearing them, I love making them, I love sharing them. I love stories shared through written work and I will no doubt be posting on interesting books that I have read. But the main purpose of this blog will be to look at the TV shows and movies that I watch and will be watching in the future. I'm not a professional critic... at all. But I like to think I have a fresh eye for movies and TV shows. As many of your know, Roger Ebert, one of America's most well known movie critics just passed away. Now I wasn't the biggest fan of Mr. Ebert, I thought he had some interesting opinions and not all of them I agreed with. That being said he was a man who truly appreciated cinema and loved the art of it. I won't say I'm starting this blog in honor of him because I've wanted to do something like this for a long time, but no doubt remembering his love of movies has made me come back to this idea and give me the motivation to start something like this up.

Well the first post I am writing about is probably not the best movie to begin with. Hopefully I will write up another review very soon if not tonight. 

But here is Taken 2. 

I love Liam Neeson. Yes, he's not the world's greatest actor. He's been in some really bad movies: Star Wars: Episode 1, Clash of the Titans, After.Life. But I think for every bad movie he's done, he's done more entertaining, if not really good movie. And even the movies listed above, I don't mind Neeson in those movies, he's probably the better part of those movies. 

And then there's Taken. I don't know if I've ever seen a movie like Taken that has made me not care about how thin the plot is or how underdeveloped the characters are. The movie is just entertaining. I think I read somewhere that Taken is very much like a video game in that Neeson is given an objective and he does whatever he needs to do to get it done... and that's it... His daughter is kidnapped, he needs to go rescue her... and that's what he does. There is no twist, there is no alternative motives, he just goes and saves her. It's brilliant!

And then there's Taken 2. I of course was confused when I saw the trailer for it 

The trailer

Here's a spoiler, from that trailer, you know exactly what the plot is and what is going to happen. I really could not believe it. It took me a little under a year to finally get around to see it and I was... underwhelmed? 

I mean I went into not expecting much. Even if you didn't watch the trailer, you should know what is going to happen well before it does so there wasn't much build up. With the experience of the first movie I expected this to be another video game like action movie. And it was... 

No surprises, no twists, just Liam Neeson, an agent of what I assume is the CIA, doing whatever he needs to do to save his daughter and his wife (Oh big change up adding the wife by the way). It was the same exact movie, just different bad guys and different location. It wasn't really bad, of course it wasn't phenomenal, it was entertaining... just like the first one.

Now this is a trend I am starting to see in movies, not too many, just enough to make me angry. Something that I am starting to see is a trend where a movie is successful for the things that go on in the movie. Whether it is action in this movie, or jokes in another movie. 

I saw The Hangover part 2. I was really close to asking for my money back because it is the exact same movie. Same characters, same plot, just different location and a few new situations. Movies aren't suppose to be made from shells. Just because something is successful doesn't mean you should make an exact copy of it and write it off as a sequel. 

Both first movies of Taken and the Hangover were entertaining movies. Movies I enjoyed because the idea of the plot was original and new. But the sequels were the exact same movies. I am glad I saw Taken 2 on DVD and not in the theaters because I probably would have asked for my money back. And now I hear they're making a Hangover part 3?!?!?! Why? It's like telling the same joke to a friend over and over again. Sooner or later, that joke is not going to make you money anymore. So why ruin the joke? I am actually surprised that they got all the actors of the first two Hangovers to come back for a third one. Maybe they just really like each other.

Taken 2, it wasn't an awful movie, why? Because Taken 1 wasn't an awful movie, and they're the same movie. Both movies were made by directors who did the Transporter movies, Hitman, movies that are just summer blockbusters and entertaining flicks. And that's good for them, I love those kinds of movies. They're good when you don't want to think too hard and just enjoy some guy taking on a bunch of bad guys just because they're bad. Its reminiscent of Die Hard and I freaking love Die Hard (the first 3). But that's another example of putting the same character in the same situation, the same action sequences, just in a different location and calling it a new movie. Its not. 

There's a line at the end of Taken 2 where Liam Neeson is talking to main bad guy of the movie. Neeson has him at gunpoint and says, (I am paraphrasing of course) "You have two options. First option, I can kill you. The second option is, I can let you live, you can return to your family, you can live out your life with your sons and you can give me your word that you will leave my family alone." The bad guy asks him why he is giving him this option and why he is letting him live. Neeson simply answers that he is tired and he doesn't want to do this again. When I first saw this I almost thought the next line was going to be. "Why are you doing this?" "Because I'm tired.... I'm really tired and I really don't want to make a Taken 3." I hope there was glimmers of that in Neeson's delivery of that line because I really don't want there to be a Taken 3. 

So what is there to take out of this? I would reach out to Mr. Neeson and say, "Mr. Neeson, you've done 2 very successful movies about the same thing. Be smart and get out while you're ahead. There was little reason for you to do Taken 2, there is absolutely no reason you should do a Taken 3." 

But of course, since both movies did well, there is talk of a 3rd sequel and although my man Mr. Neeson has casted some doubts on the project, I do not doubt they will drag this idea to the grave and it will join several other series in that arena of repackaged ideas.