Review: The IT Crowd

One of the best made shows I’ve ever seen is The Office. When I heard that the producers of that veritable chronicle of middle management woes were now bringing us a show about two dorks and a damsel, I winced, assuming the worst.

And boy was I wrong.

Grudgingly, I tuned into Star World at 10.30 on Thursday night, prepared for a half-baked joke or two squeezed out of the hackneyed premise of a couple of socially challenged nerds plunked next to a daffy bimbo. My reluctance changed to relish within a matter of minutes – The IT Crowd is not a show about losers struggling to fit into the real world. It’s a show about losers blissfully unaware of life beyond a computer screen. And throw in their foxy, eccentric boss who doesn’t even know what CD stands for and we have a ‘win’age a trois.

Roy, Moss and Jen are the titular threesome who operate, or rather, attempt to operate from their subterranean office, in the basement. While neurotic Roy affects disdain for his job, reflected in his habit of asking customers who call whether they’ve tried turning their computers off and on again before they can even say hello, Moss needs three increasingly large pair of spectacles to process any sentence with the word ‘plan’ in it. As for gizmo-virgin, Jen, she bluffed her way through her interview with the frighteningly earnest and equally technologically impaired boss, Denholm, and was appointed head of the IT department.

The pilot episode revolves around the two basement banished pariahs trying to oust their lovely, loopy ‘leader’ out but ultimately establishing a mutually convenient relationship, which teeters on the most classic English comedy, with all its much revered satire, sarcasm and sophisticated buffoonery.

The chemistry among the leads is palpable, as they negotiate excellent timing and relinquish comic territory almost imperceptibly, for the sake of making the audience laugh. It’s refreshing to see three exceptionally talented young comedians support each other so well and contribute so equally to the narrative. The story is surprisingly layered with the contrast, between the upper world of elegant spaces and glamorous people and the shoddy, depressing dungeon where our three misfits live, depicted very well. Even the secondary characters perform with much élan in the limited time they are given. Although there is a laugh track, it doesn’t seem to force laughter from the audience and is rather unnecessary since the jokes are funny enough without being expressly identified as such.

The running theme throughout of course is the lack of connection that these troglodytes have to the actual, blue-skies-and-green-grass world. They dwell and revel in their obscure inside gags, such as Roy sporting a new geektastic shirt everyday and have absolutely no desire to engage in normal human activities like dating as in the case of the boys and telling the truth in the case of the girl.

Although Jen is quite obviously a popular person who has no trouble interacting successfully with fellow carbon based bipeds (as they appear to Roy and Moss), when she attempts to cause Roy and Moss’ much delayed initiation into adult society by throwing an ‘IT Department Party’, Moss thoroughly, unwittingly sabotages it.

There is initially a dislike between the two inadequate men and the clueless woman but their attempts to exit the disagreeable nature of events are thwarted and they resign themselves to the partnership. This reflects the sedimentation of Jen, both literally and metaphorically, as she ‘settles down’ at the bottom of the building, the corporate ladder and in terms of relationships with men. It also shows the eternal stagnancy of Roy and Moss.

Roy, more amenable to normalcy, is doomed, because of his near co-dependency on Moss, to never be able to quit the overgrown, contradictory child he has become. Like the smart slacker kid who mopes about school because he thinks he’s too good for it, Roy on one hand gets giddy about anything with wires and on the other, loathes what he has to do for a living because it’s too easy.

Moss…well…is just Moss. If the geeks shall inherit the earth, he’ll be the king, queen, president and prime minister all rolled in one. He believes in enunciation, esoteric references to computers all the time and is always itching to plug in or type something.

With this gawky, gormless gang invading my TV set every weekend, I hardly need to worry about tickling my funny bone. I highly recommend this ace, endearing Britcom to everyone. This is what really goes on at your local Tech Support!
RATING: 4/5