British Comedy Guide

The IT Crowd 3.0 Page 35

Any word on whether or not we're going to see series 4 before the end of the year? It's been nearly a year since series 3 ended.

I heard a Christmas special this year and the 4th series next...anyone else?

There wasn't enough material for the third series, I can't imagine there will be a fourth - not unless Linehan brings in some new writers - something he said he was going to do at the end of series two, incidentally.

I heard of a possible Christmas episode, but I haven't found anything concrete.

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/the_it_crowd/

Quote: Aaron @ September 27 2009, 4:09 PM BST

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/the_it_crowd/

Great. :)

Quote: Aaron @ September 27 2009, 4:09 PM BST

https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/the_it_crowd/

Good thumbnail assessment of the patchiness of the writing.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 27 2009, 4:17 PM BST

Good thumbnail assessment of the patchiness of the writing.

I agree to some extent with that about the third series; I really liked it overall, I think it's certainly in the top tier of current sitcoms, but the distance between the cracking episodes and the run of the mill was much more obvious for some reason.

The IT Crowd is my favourite sitcom really. That and the Boosh, which will probably never really be great again. (It was a launch vehicle really - like the Space Shuttle, and now that Noel's in orbit it's not needed).

The problem with Linehan is he can't do it all by himself. The first series was sublime (apart from ep 6) and he'd obviously been cooking it up a long time. The second series had it's moments, but crucially, left behind a lot of the IT-based humour, which clearly doesn't come naturally to him. The third series was... well, some of it was embarrassing.

I have lots of man love for Matt Berry as well, but much of this belongs in the bar, not on screen. The calandar geeks episode just dribbled away. It was clearly finished in the editing suite, rather than on the computer screen. Linehan didn't have enough material for a series to start with, he leaned too much on his actors for funny performances to make up for the lack of funny lines and he didn't have enough IT jokes.

Getting a couple of writers in to help him will make it work. If Linehan writes the whole 4th series himself as quickly as he wrote the last one it will be a disaster.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 27 2009, 5:00 PM BST

he didn't have enough IT jokes.

Hasn't Linehan said several times that it's not supposed to be a sitcom about IT?

That doesn't change a thing. It's set in an IT department, and the title has 'IT' in it. Some kind of reference to that setting would be rather good.

Quote: Ben @ September 27 2009, 6:36 PM BST

Hasn't Linehan said several times that it's not supposed to be a sitcom about IT?

It's about geeks, really, isn't it? Geeks and outsidery people. The IT department is a natural work setting to locate them in.

So, no Christmas special then? Shame, but I look forward to series 4!

Quote: Godot Taxis @ September 27 2009, 5:00 PM BST

The third series was... well, some of it was embarrassing.

I dissagree. Yes, series three could have been better. It was never that bad. It had some fantastic moments as well.

It did have a couple of fantastic moments. But it was embarrassing in parts. I won't go over it, because I'm sure I've gone into it earlier in this thread - I do like this show. 'Calendar Geeks' was particularly bad. A lot of it had clearly been rewritten on the day of shooting.

When I first watched in Sony rights retransmission back in 2007 I thought "this is just a silly nerd sitcom, I watched Moss with his robotic overacting and just didnt understood his humour. As the episode went on, the three characters caotic behavior suddenly started flowing in my brain and I loved it.

The Irish actor is expressive without tiring you, funny without overdoing it. Moss is incredible, so clean and straight, naive and good spirited without being stupid. The idea of IT being a lost department where guys do what they want cause nobody really understands what they are doing...

Together with The Office, the two sole good international sitcoms of the decade.

luis

Share this page