I consider myself to be somewhat of a geek. My geekdom relates to various areas of pop culture – particular television series, superheroes, fantasy in book or movie format and anything web-related. The latter is not due to the fact that I’m IT savvy in any way. Far from it. My interest is purely from a pop culture point of view. Which is precisely why, for a time, The I.T. Crowd was one of my favourite television shows.
The title of the show says it all really, and the plotline revolves around three main characters (with another couple of others on the peripherals) who form the IT department at a particular company.
The series was hilarious, mainly because it unashamedly brought together all the stereotypes related to your average techhie geek that you could possible imagine and threw them at the viewer. This applied both to characters and situations.
There is Moss, the genius who suffers from a slight touch of sociopathy; Roy, who is on the autistic spectrum of personalities – although he prefers to think of it as being ‘artistic’; and finally, Jen, who breaks away from the typical IT geek stereotype by migrating to a different one – that of airhead who is lucky to have figured out how to switch on her PC. Of course, she is the manager of the department, as these things are wont to go.
The show left an impact on all those who are into this aspect of pop culture. The situations depicted are real, and genuine techies probably spend most of the show rolling their eyes in a flash of déjà vu. My personal favourite is that eternal stockphrase that anyone who has ever operated a PC will have heard at one time or another upon calling the IT guy to sort an issue: “Have you tried switching it off and on again?” Show me an IT guy who isn’t guilty of this stalling tactic, and I will show you a flying pig.
Anyone who has ever followed the series can name their favourites. My personal ones are many. Top of the pops has to be the one where Jen breaks the internet – because, you know, the internet is housed in a small, black box and what do you know, people are actually ready to believe that, with hilarious results, of course. Another one is the role-playing episode. No, not that kind of role-playing, get your mind out of the gutter – I’m referring, of course, to the Dungeons & Dragons style, dice-rolling games. Anyone into this hobby will recognise all the clichés (the fact that I opted to mention Dungeons & Dragons is another cliché).
Sadly, all good things come to an end (I’m on a roll, as you can see) and the series was killed off after Season 4. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, seeing as it left while still on a high. So why am I suddenly resurrecting it now, two years later? Because, as all geeks reading this already know by now, the special concluding episode, The Internet is Coming. has finally been released!
I started watching this last episode, which was first aired in the US about three weeks ago, with trepidations. My prayer was one: Dear producers, please don’t ruin the conclusion and leave me with bad memories of one of my all-time favourite series.
Just when you think that they’re not going to make us happy, wham,it happens
As it turned out, it was a riotously funny conclusion that presented the perfect balance between new jokes and situations and references to the previous, recurrent gags.
We get to see Moss’s transformation into Mr Super Cool, Roy’s spectacular breakup, Jen’s and Roy’s cyber indictment on You Tube and a couple of other new situations.
Just when you think that they’re not going to make us happy, wham, it happens; the reference to the ‘internet is broken’ episode and the classic line that we’ve all come to love and hate.
And finally it’s lights out. Perfection.
rdepares@timesofmalta.com