Cast: Chris O'Dowd (Roy), Richard Ayoade (Moss), Katherine Parkinson (Jen), Chris Morris (Denholm), Matt Berry (Douglas), Noel Fielding (Richmond) & Alex McQueen (The Vicar)
Moss discovers a website that predicts people's deaths, and Reynholm Industries is shaken when Denholm commits suicide…I didn't expect Chris Morris to turn up in series 2 as company boss Denholm, but it seems he was gracious enough to give writer Graham Linehan a suitably hilarious suicide as his swansong… and then appears in pre-recorded videos at his own funeral!
After Denholm's wonderful exit, the first half of Return Of The Golden Child suffers from the same first-half blues as last week's episode, with Linehan clearly setting up gags for pay-offs after the adverts. The theme this week is death; although the comic potential of Roy (Chris O'Dowd) being given his time of demise (via a website calculation) is sadly not the main thrust of this episode. I was expecting a humorous riff on Final Destination, but it wasn't to be…
Instead, it all boils down to Denholm's funeral, of which the IT Crowd's triptych of characters all play second fiddle to Morris' beyond-the-grave video and a bonkers late-appearance by Matt Berry as Denholm's son Douglas. There's a brief smoking gag for Jen (Katherine Parkinson) and an overused bit of business with a vibrating phone for Roy and Moss (Richard Ayoade), but very little else to sustain things.
I also think Goth weirdo Richmond is being used badly on the show now, as he only appears to deliver a few weak gags here -- almost becoming the IT Crowd's equivalent of Father Jack shouting "arse!" when things get stale. Noel Fielding would be best utilized in a Richmond-based episode, rather than these pointless appearances…
While it was nice to see the characters involved in IT work around the building in a few scenes, this episode involved the second "work outing" in as many weeks, and I just don't think the characters work well once removed from their environment. That was also the case in Father Ted, when the cast were similarly neutered once they left Craggy Island for one episode. We can believe Linehan's crazy group exist in the context of their own little world, but they just seem ridiculous when they invade our own…
Matt Berry, who co-starred with Richard Ayoade in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, is Chris Morris' replacement as company boss, and definitely makes an impression here… just not a very good one. Berry is known for his eccentric, vocally-fruity performances, but his fist-pulling screams of "Faaather!" at the church and general zaniness, was overcooked and misfiring. Morris was able to balance insanity with intensity, whereas Berry just seems to draw on lazy nuttiness.
Overall, despite a few amusing moments (the first few vibrating phone gags, Jen's line "you clean your teeth in the bath? But that's where your balls are" and Morris' early death fall), this episode was very tepid. The final gag, a lazy homage to an Airplane! visual, made very little sense, and was indicative of the unfocused nature throughout.
31 August 2007
Channel 4, 9.30 pm
