**Contains spoilers for the final episode of The IT Crowd**
On 27th of September 2013 The IT Crowd aired its final hour long episode entitled ‘The Internet is Coming’. As an avid fan of the show this was a bitter sweet occasion, joyous because there has not been an episode since 2010, but sad owing to the finality of it.
The IT Crowd has been running since 2006 and centres around an IT department tucked away in the basement of Reynholm Industries. The department is made up of two borderline stereotypical IT support guys, Roy (Chris O’Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade), and their computer illiterate manager Jen (Katherine Parkinson). The other significant character is the sexist and inappropriate boss of Reynholm Industries, aptly named Mr Reynholm (Matt Berry). The show tends to follow the bizarre situations the leading cast get involved in, such as Roy pretending to be disabled, which was referenced in this episode.
I think what makes The IT Crowd a great show, as opposed to just a good show, is Graham Linehan’s strong grasp of who the characters are. This always leads to brilliant one liners and funny situations fitting for each character and for the audience this reinforces a feeling of actually knowing the characters. The last episode was no exception.
The final episode centres around Moss comically developing self confidence by following Mr Reynholm’s suspect advice of wearing womens’ slacks, which is of course the go to method when boosting any man’s self worth. Roy and Jen get themselves involved in a viral internet video painting them as a ‘Small Person Racist’ and ‘Coffee Toss Tramp Bitch’ respectively. Finally, Mr Reynholm ends up in trouble whilst taking part in Secret Millionaire.
During this episode he has Moss creating a board game review show which fits with his Countdown obsession shown in a previous episode and on his quest for womens’ slacks he utters the brilliant line ‘I think you have just sold a brother some slacks’. Roy is labelled as emotionally ‘artistic’ and Jen gets herself into awkward situations by not thinking before she speaks, and Reynholm is conveyed as a surprisingly likeable idiot. All events fit with the characters we have grown to love. It personally always surprises me how Graham Linehan can create such bizarre concepts which are always a joy to see played out on screen.
The episode has many references for loyal IT Crowd fans from the previous four series. We see the return of Moss’s hot ear, ‘the internet’ and Richmond played brilliantly by Noel Fielding.
If pushed to find fault with it, I would say that the episode is long, an hour compared to the usual half an hour format. As a result, the pace is slower than normal and therefore begins to drag towards the end, with a few plot points perhaps being played out beyond their expiry date.
However, I think the last episode wraps things up nicely. It is great to see Roy and the others reflect on the series’ and thus summarise the show by beginning to realise that weird things seem to happen to them on a frequent basis. It also has one last finishing touch, adding on the line that it began with ‘try turning it on and off again.’ It is overall a very enjoyable and amusing last episode, and one as an IT Crowd fan I think is a fitting send off.
I would definitely recommend either catching up with The IT Crowd or if you’re a fan watching this lovely final episode.
The final episode of The IT Crowd is available on 4od.
8/10
