This week, Roy (Chris O'Dowd) is walking around the office topless, thanks to the consequences of a typically awkward and comical series of events (involving a coffee stain and a sickly cleaning lady), Mos (Richard Ayoade) gets concussed after running into a door, Jen (Katherine Parkinson) decides to go for a job interview, and Douglas (Matt Berry) is forced to wear special underpants as part of a sexual harassment suit...The usual mix of comic highs and lows follow, as Graham Linehan once again ties together his stream-of-consciousness together with varying degrees of success. Roy's half-nakedness around the workplace takes an amusingly daft trajectory, as he's ejected from the building and eventually become a homeless tramp. Despite the character's popularity, Mos remains underused on The IT Crowd, generally – often just interrupting scenes with a silly remark. Still, moments when he accidentally throws hot coffee over Roy (intending to have thrown an empty cup as a practical joke), or his embarrassing candour over a cleaner's age, were small highlights.
Despite the use of an opening recap of events last season (where Douglas harassed Jen by trying to drug her with Rohypnol), that subplot doesn't really carry this episode. Douglas essentially sits around, being occasionally electrocuted in his groin by malfunctioning underwear he must wear as part of Jen's sexual harassment suit. Once again, it's Jen who earned my attention, as she goes for a job interview and struggles with the simple question "what does I.T stand for?" As the most realistic character of the three leads, I find it easier to relate to Jen as a person, and Parkinson gives a performance that's more nuanced when compared to the clear-cut, unchanging shtick of super-geeks Roy and Mos. She's the relatively complex Ted, to their caricatured Dougals.
A few good jokes help gloss over the under-serviced Mos and the unfunny Douglas (I like Berry, but there's no texture or wit to his boss character) – such as the Windows log-on music being heard when Mos regains consciousness. Perhaps most frustratingly, it's a shame The IT Crowd isn't more serialized, with each episode existing in its own bubble (even when episodes start with an uncharacteristic recap, as it did here.) For example: it was a pity Jen didn't leave the office -- if only for the next episode -- after her successful job interview.
Her decision to stay felt unlikely and forced, but The IT Crowd is cartoon-like in how everything resets to the status quo by the end credits. A missed opportunity to give Katherine Parkinson new territory to play in, I felt. I would have loved to see Mos and Roy's reaction to Jen's departure, and her inevitably horrific replacement. Maybe that's my beef with IT Crowd: I just expect more than we get.
5 December 2008
Channel 4, 10pm
Writer & Director: Graham Linehan
Cast: Chris O'Dowd (Roy), Richard Ayoade (Moss), Katherine Parkinson (Jen), Matt Berry (Douglas), Lucy Robinson (June), Janet Whiteside (Olive), Tom Binns (Nolan), Adam De Ville (Greg), Laura Patch (Tour Guide), Tom Meeten (Tramp) & Darren Strange (Lawyer)
