February 12, 2011

The I.T. Crowd: Seasons 1-4

It's odd that the discussion on The I.T. Crowd was rekindled today, as I watched a number of episodes throughout the series (what should I use instead of "series" for British shows?) today to have finally finished it all off. Not too hard, as I had seen 15 or so beforehand and the 4 seasons have resulted in a whopping 24 total episodes. Anyway, as with Trevor, I really can't tell what makes this show so addicting. It's basically a look at the lives of I.T. guys Roy, the slacker; Moss, the socially-challenged geek; and Jen, their computer-illiterate boss. A lot of the jokes come from the disconnect between tech-savvy people and everyone else, but that's hardly the basis of the show. The easy jobs they all have give them a lot of time to goof off and get into classic sitcom hijinks. I'd say it has as much to do with computers as Always Sunny does with bars- it's just a part of the setting really. I think the humor mostly derives from the over-acting. A few of the characters really ham it up and go overboard. I'll cite this scene, a favorite of mine- after the CEO of Reynholm Industries commits suicide (a great scene on its own), his long-lost son shows up at his funeral like this. Then that's quickly followed by this. It's a show that is continually focused on wackiness- every time you think the classic sappy-but-funny sitcom moment is about to happen, it doesn't. And as a final selling point, this is the easiest to understand British show I've ever seen. So yeah, this is good stuff, and I wish there were more than six episodes each season- I'll have to wait for series 5.

1 comment:

  1. I said it jokingly in my last comment, but have since learned that it is actually 100% correct - "Season" is to "Series" as "Series" is to "Programme."

    It seems like too many of you have been watching this show for me to resist jumping aboard, but as you know, I'm handicapped by my own (stupid) insistence on buying DVDs, already a dying technology. I'm waiting for the seasons to sink as low as $10 or so, so it may be a while.

    Regarding easy-to-understand great British comedy programmes (ugh), I have to recommend "Peep Show," a POV-based sitcom that works surprisingly well. I'm not sure about its Netflix availability, but I'm sure it's findable somewhere; the show has run through seven seasons and is pretty widely beloved over there.

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