Sadly, but equally brilliantly, the IT Crowd series finale went out over the weekend and it was an hour of unadulterated brilliance for anyone that missed it. After four series, amounting to 24 episodes plus the special, which combined tots up to one more and something much better than the annoying, time bound Keifer Sutherland franchise, there’s a lot of history to close off.
With Chris O’Dowd and Richard Ayoade going on to take Hollywood by storm, in their own understated sort of way, the show was brought to a close with the 1 hour special on Friday 27th September 2013. Based on the sheer genius of the special, as well as the previous 4 series, we’d be keen for all parties involved to ditch their other projects and get back to the basement of the IT department.
Yes O’Dowd is probably going to be pretty funny in Nick Frost’s Cuban Fury and Ayoade’s upcoming movie, The Double, looks impressive, but we’d gladly give up both for another few series of The IT Crowd. The only real good thing that can come out of the end of the series, apart from the class of the finale, would be a whole new project for series creator, Graham Linehan, building on his other, equally ace shows, Father Ted and Black Books.
The funny this is that as good as the finale was, it wasn’t even their best episode, which goes to show how flippin’ great the show has been over the years. If the coffee barista flirt scene, Moss’ phone box transformation or the board game review show in the final episode aren’t enough to convince you, check out episode 2 of series 3 and tell us you didn’t snort a little while you were laughing.
You can’t can you. You tried, but there was a little bit when Roy’s sat in the wheelchair and you couldn’t stop it. Like when you accidentally trump when you sneeze or the time you watched the Sid Vicious leg break too many times, or when you stared at a girl for a split second too long, giving her enough time to catch you and leaving you suddenly looking all over the place to pretend you’ve just got weird eyes, which, by the way, is the last thing a pretty girl will be looking for in a man.
Okay, so you might not of snorted, but things definitely got out of control there for at least a second or too where you sounded more like an animal than a respectable human being laughing amiably at a show that you love.
Anyway, while the finale adds the required closure to the fractured storyline, it does feel a bit baggy around the edges, especially when you get past the half way point and you suddenly find yourself in the no man’s land of what happens ordinarily in the basement when the real half hour of an episode is finished.
The IT Crowd will inevitably go down in history as one of the the great cult classics and the final episode was overall pretty hilarious. It was great to see Jen, Moss, Roy, Douglas and Richmond back again. It’s just a bit of shame that they’re not here to stay or in their usual half hour spot.
The IT Crowd finale review: 4/5
The IT Crowd series 2 episode 1 review for comparison: 5/5
