The IT Crowd

_***½

When her job interview gets away from her, Jen finds herself sent to the basement as the new head of the IT department. Now she must manage to convince both her bosses and her subordinates that she's not computer illiterate, but can't even manage to find a place to plug in her phone.

This is a series that I had heard about through my co-workers, some of whom actually work in IT, and they all spoke very highly of it, but it wasn't until Netflix decided to recommend it to me that I finally made the time to watch it. I can't say that I was in love with the show at first viewing, but after a few episodes, I came to appreciate the humor provided and I now consider myself a fan.

Having had to deal with people in the IT department before, I admit that this is pretty much exactly how I imagine their behavior. I have, indeed, been asked if I have "tried turning it off and back on again," and am saddened to admit that, quite often, this is what manages to fix the issue at hand. It's the kind of joke that's funny to both people that work in the IT department, because it's absolutely true and typical of something said repeatedly during work hours, and to people that need to contact said department, because it's the kind of phrase that's cited to us whenever we've got an issue. It's a joke that's funny to different people for different reasons, making it appealing to a wide variety of people.

I like that everyone, regardless of social class within the company, is presented in a fairly even manner; while the IT department fancies themselves far superior to the rest of the company, such as when Chris O'Dowd's Roy is overtly rude to a woman over the phone, they are knocked back down to earth, provided in said woman coming downstairs and attacking Roy. The higher ups in the company believe their jobs are more important that those of Roy and Moss (Richard Ayoade) but find themselves completely useless when something goes wrong, with the head of the company, Mr. Reynholm (Chris Morris) being unable to turn on his computer when Roy convinces him that it's been set up with voice recognition software.

Roy and Mr. Reynholm are almost cartoonish in their mannerisms, so over-the-top that they're almost unbelievable as human beings. Slapstick certainly has a place in comedy, but here it's played too obviously when it should be a played with a degree of subtlety. Moss, on the other hand, is just strange for the sake of being strange, which isn't necessarily needed when Jen (Katherine Parkinson) presents such a typical presence that it highlights just how out-of-hand the rest of the characters behave.

The stereotype of women being terrible with technology is a little tired; I'm aware that it's necessary in order to bring Jen into the trio, but the angry client that Roy was rude to over the phone could just as easily have been male instead of the angry woman that later came downstairs to beat him.

The cast does a great job with the material they're given, each have great comedic-timing, and the chemistry between them is fantastic. The over-the-top absurdity in some of the performances can likely be attributed to either the writing or the directing, but the actors make the most of it and prove that they can carry this show. Parkinson does a good job showing Jen's determination to get and keep her job while also displaying her humility when she's caught in a lie, and she's very real, and very funny.

Graham Linehan directs the first episode with perhaps too much of a focus on the awkwardness of both Roy and Moss. The running gag regarding Moss' hot ear is a little too silly, and Roy can sometimes slip from mildly inelegant to downright repulsive. The majority of the episode does a good job of balancing the absurd with the more grounded elements of the show, and even in the most questionable moments the humor manages to shine through.

Written also by Linehan there is a clear love for the characters as presented here, and an underlying knowledge of the world in which they live. The premise is strong because the main joke of the series can be viewed in a number of ways, depending on the viewer's own position, and that in itself is brilliantly creative.

This first episode is not as strong as it could be, but it's still quite good never-the-less. The series has a great amount of potential, with any number of stories that could stem from not only the workplace adventures, but from Jen's attempts to introduce Roy and Moss to the outside world. The IT Crowd is one of those shows that might take an episode or two to make an impression, but once it has it sticks and leaves the audience wanting more.

The IT Crowd is in the running to become the feature for Fridays. The series ran from 2006 to 2010 on Channel 4 with a total of 24 episodes.