The IT Crowd - Review
BAFTA and Emmy Award Winning Comedy From The Creator of Father Ted
Mar 31, 2009
The show stars Chris O'Dowd (The Boat That Rocked), Richard Ayoade (Garth Marenghi, The Mighty Boosh) and Katherine Parkinson (The Boat That Rocked). It also features Chris Morris (Brass Eye, Jam), Matt Berry (Garth Marenghi) and Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh).
When Graham Linehan's latest offering hit TV screens, many people thought it was a little tame and outdated. The show relies heavily on contrived situations, hammy acting and features a laughter soundtrack. Who uses canned laughter in this day and age? (Incidentally, it is in fact filmed in front of a live studio audience.)
Despite its old fashioned approach to comedy, the show has been hugely popular, and has won praise on both sides of the Atlantic. Although in recent years we've all become used to shows that take pride in subverting the conventions of sitcom, it's actually quite refreshing to see a modern show using this old, much-loved formula.
Premise of The IT Crowd
The show focuses on the shenanigans of 3 members of fictional business, Reynholm Industries' IT Department. Roy is a lazy, scruffy, work-shy Irishman who tends to try and respond to all technical queries with "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" or "Is it plugged in?". Moss on the other hand is a technical genius and tends to offer advice that is so overly complex that only he and Stephen Hawking have any chance of understanding it. Jen is the newest member of the team and although managing to wangle her way into a position as Head of IT, in reality she has no idea what IT even stands for.
Humour/Characters
The show is chocked full of great geeky humour but is still accessable to those of the less nerdy persuasion, and all characters are treated with great affection. Richard Ayoade steals the show as socially awkward Moss, a man with a side-parted afro and a fear of spiders. Great performances are also displayed by the infamous Chris Morris as boss Denholm Reynholm and Matt Berry as his son Douglas, who takes over the company after Denholm's unfortunate suicide following an investigation into some irregularities in the company pension fund.
US Version
A pilot episode for a US version of The IT Crowd was filmed and was set to air on the NBC network. However, the show has been repeatedly rescheduled and did not appear at all on their 2008-2009 schedule, so the plug may have been pulled entirely. The show featured Richard Ayoade reprising his role as Moss, with Joel McHale as Roy and Jessica St. Claire as Jen.
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