Well, I suppose it's high time I've written about this brillian show. I'm talking about the british masterpiece called "The IT Crowd" - one of the funniest and most entertaining shows I've ever watched in a long, long time. Too bad it got cancelled by 2010. It's rather short, but really sweet. Sweet as in "funny as hell" - I'm watching and re-watching the series, and it never fails to make me laugh like "a giddy goat" whenever I see Roy walking nonchalant through the strreets of London with that ridiculous pink lipstick.
Being a guy who "works" with IT myself, I related to a lot of the nerdy material of the show. Specially Roy's favourite phrase, "Have you tried turning off and on again," because that's the first thing we IT guys do whenever's a PC is acting weird:
"Aperta a droga do reset e reinicia essa porcaria" - it would be my words on such an occasion. But the show is not IT nerd-oriented onlt - anyone could watch and have a few good laughs. The characters, my word, what brilliance they've put on each and everyone of them. Either it's Roy Trenneman(Chris O'Dowd) with his lack of patience toward "the ogres" that uses a PC but have no idea on how it basically works - a thing that often happens when you deal with IT - "I got a problem with my computer." And you go there and...find out that the power cable is unplugged. For reals, it has happened to me right here on this office. Or you could just laugh at Maurice Moss(Richard Ayoade) and his weird way of acting and behaving in general. Or you could laugh your ass off Jen Barber(Katherine Parkinson) and her computer illiteracy, and either way, she turns out to be head of IT on Reynholm Industries, even believing that the whole internet...is a flimsy black box with a red light blinking on top of it.
Reynholm Industries, the company where the bunch works on the show - is headed by two hilarious bosses: Denholm Reynholm(Chris Morris), who is always declaring war on something, or his son, Douglas Reynholm(Matt Berry), who takes over after his father's suicide on season 2 of the series. Both are quite funny to watch - Denholm and his antics anti-stress bullshit, or the sexist Douglas, who tries to get into every female's pants, specially Jen, who vehemently refuses him off and off again.
I relate so much with the show and its characters, that I've found Moss' interpretation of a football(fuck soccer, this is Britain) match, just fucking perfect:
That's just ME trying to watch a football match - I think the same way Moss does. At one point, he declares to Roy, "This is the worst thing ever," and I have to agree with him. A lot of people have already tod me that - "You should experience the THRILL of watching a football match at a stadium." And I say, "Fuck you. I've got better things to do than watch a couple of brainless idiots chasing a ball, making much more money I earn, just to do that - chase a fucking ball. You need the IQ of a fucking oyster(like Rafael says) to do such a thing."
Anyways, I recommend the show to everyone who's fond of british humour(much more funnier than those idiotic "american" things you see such as The Office, which sucks camel dicks) - I dare you, try to watch "The Work Outing", first episode of the second season of the show without having a laugh. Or try to remain serious as Moss deals with a fire in the office:
Try to keep it serious during the fire extinguisher scene. I dare you. I just can't.
And another thing I related so much is what Roy says about "meeting other people", as suggested by Jen:
I've always told you that - People! Bastards, them all.
Try to remain serious during the first season's last episode - "Aunt Irma Visits," and its effect on Roy:
I swear to you, I always have to catch my breath after this scene. It's fucking brilliant. The whole episode is, in fact, and I remain annoyed, just like all the other fans out there, that the sequel to this episode was never made.
But really, working on IT, you have to deal with basically the same kind of problems you see on the show, like this:
Oh yeah, I've dealt with computers on said state - teeming with viruses and popups and useless software the user may install during a simple install of a program say, like Winrar. "Do you like to make Ask.com your main search engine?" -WHAT? Fuck off. But the USER, or USERS, they just go checking on every page of the install program - and put on all that crap along with the desired software.
Anyway, hats off to Graham Lineham - the main writer of the show, or ONLY writer, if you believe the credits. It's a fucking masterpiece, and it saddens me that it got cancelled. I wish I was watching this back in 2006, rather than wasting my time on WoW.
Do yourself a favor, and either watch it on the "hacked" Netflix(using Proxmate on Chrome) - or download it all. It's not too big, each season has six episodes, and each one clocks at 22 minutes, more or less. 22 delightful minutes.
And next time your PC freezes or do something weird, TRY TURNING IT OFF AND ON AGAIN, before you bother us IT guys.
Cheerio, old chap! Go watch this - as soon as possible. And try not to laugh.
(Note: thanks to Eduardo Damasceno, who pointed me towards this magnificient show.)
