The I.T Crowd - Season 4

syklops

SkidMark wrote: »

I think The IT Crowd is running out of steam, don't know if it will last another series after this one.

I see similarities with Father Ted, where the third series became increasingly surreal as Graham Linehan admitted he and Arthur Mathews were running out of plot ideas.

To be honest I saw they were running out of plot ideas long before now. There were a few plots in seasons one and two which were a bit daft in general. Season three was obviously hashed together, but they managed to make it funny at least, 4 so far for me is way off the beaten track.

You cant blame them in many ways. Once we had seen "Hello, IT, Have you tried turning it off and on again?", the next funnier in-theme gag was the automated machine which said the same thing, and they had little IT related material to continue with. Now obviously the show doesn't need to be just IT related, but the general plot should be.

The Don

That was a pretty bad episode. The plot was bad and some of the gags just didn't work. A few laughs but far from the usual.

Hope they don't get caught having to re-write again.

FreudianSlippers

syklops wrote: »

To be honest I saw they were running out of plot ideas long before now. There were a few plots in seasons one and two which were a bit daft in general. Season three was obviously hashed together, but they managed to make it funny at least, 4 so far for me is way off the beaten track.

You cant blame them in many ways. Once we had seen "Hello, IT, Have you tried turning it off and on again?", the next funnier in-theme gag was the automated machine which said the same thing, and they had little IT related material to continue with. Now obviously the show doesn't need to be just IT related, but the general plot should be.

I don't really understand what you mean by hashed together. It's not exactly a show that needs a coherent plot line. I'm not completely impressed by season 4 myself, but bar "From Hell" and "Calendar Geeks", season 3 was very good. And even out of those 2 not so good ones, "From Hell" wasn't even that bad.

Stark

I didn't care for season 3 at all. I thought the was way too predictable and the setups far too long. Most of the time you were practically given the punchline in the opening of the joke but had to wait half the episode for them to tease it out. The storyline with Roy and the window cleaner in Season 4 was more of the same.

FreudianSlippers

Stark wrote: »

I didn't care for season 3 at all. I thought the was way too predictable and the setups far too long. Most of the time you were practically given the punchline in the opening of the joke but had to wait half the episode for them to tease it out. The storyline with Roy and the window cleaner in Season 4 was more of the same.

If you found "Are We Not Men?" predictable then fair play to you for being clairvoyant - I certainly didn't see Roy robbing a bank with a bunch of randomers and Moss and Roy kissing in a side ally.

froog

loving season 4.

Stark

OisinT wrote: »

If you found "Are We Not Men?" predictable then fair play to you for being clairvoyant - I certainly didn't see Roy robbing a bank with a bunch of randomers and Moss and Roy kissing in a side ally.

"I'm not affected by Coke ads. Oh look, I have a fridge full of Coke!". Yeah, not predictable at all.

The Recliner

Not loving season 4 to be honest

Liked the Street Countdown episode but meh to the others

Was very disappointed with the last one

So that is 2 crap episode and 1 good one so far for me, hopefully it doesn't continue like this for the rest of the run

FreudianSlippers

Stark wrote: »

"I'm not affected by Coke ads. Oh look, I have a fridge full of Coke!". Yeah, not predictable at all.

You're talking about a different episode now. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but to say that the show is predictable probably means: a) you didn't understand the joke and/or; b) you're overthinking it.

JonathanAnon

SkidMark wrote: »

I think The IT Crowd is running out of steam, don't know if it will last another series after this one. I see similarities with Father Ted, where the third series became increasingly surreal as Graham Linehan admitted he and Arthur Mathews were running out of plot ideas.

Agree 100%. Even the countdown parody was tired and predictable..

MagicMarker

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Agree 100%. Even the countdown parody was tired and predictable..

You predicted street countdown?

Good for you.

Skid

One of the problems for 'The IT Crowd' is that they have never developed any supporting characters.

It's just Roy, Jen and Moss in each episode, with Reynholm popping up occasionally. Richmond from Series 1&2 was never replaced.

All the best sitcoms (which have lasted more than a few years) have recurring supporting characters. It allows the writers to develop more believable plots without resorting to surrealism and repetitive scenarios.

Think of Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends, Only Fools and Horses etc - they all had memorable suppporting casts

If The IT Crowd had introduced a few employees from other departments as characters it might have increased the lifespan of the show.

rfrederick

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Agree 100%. Even the countdown parody was tired and predictable..

I had fun explaining Countdown to those I know.

Disclaimer: I'm a {stupid,fat,what-have-you} American who first saw Countdown eight years ago. Damn do I miss the Richard and Carol Duo!

syklops

SkidMark wrote: »

One of the problems for 'The IT Crowd' is that they have never developed any supporting characters.

It's just Roy, Jen and Moss in each episode, with Reynholm popping up occasionally. Richmond from Series 1&2 was never replaced.

All the best sitcoms (which have lasted more than a few years) have recurring supporting characters. It allows the writers to develop more believable plots without resorting to surrealism and repetitive scenarios.

Think of Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends, Only Fools and Horses etc - they all had memorable suppporting casts

If The IT Crowd had introduced a few employees from other departments as characters it might have increased the lifespan of the show.

Obsolutely agree here. In Father Ted, you had the four regular charachters of the 3 Fathers and Mrs Doyle. You also had memorable charchters in Father Larry Duff(Larry's tremendous fun!"), Bishop Brennan(Oh, that Gob****e!), Father Dick Byrne and the rugged island lads, Father Noel Furlong, plus the other people on the island like Mary and John O'leary, Sergeant Deegan, and Tom.

In only Fools and Horses, you had people like trigger, and Denzel, and Boycey, etc etc. I wont go on to list them all. In the IT crowd its just the 3 lads, Jen, and Douglas. I should really say the 2 lads as they seem to have lost Richmond. As a result they have run out scenarios for the 3 charachters, and seem to be relying heavily on Douglas for the extra laughs.

Considering they are obviously running out of material, I am amazed they have not done an IT convention episode yet. They could bring in a wide range of IT geeks as one off charachters to test them on the audience in general, and pick any that stand out to be a recurring charachter.

phasers

Wait, who were the supporting cast in Friends?

I don't really see how a supporting cast would work in the IT Crowd, there's no reason for them to interact with many other people more than once

Basq

The supporting cast theory is muck!

'Seinfeld' revolved around 4 characters for 9 years.. and that's probably one of the most successful sitcoms ever made.

syklops

Janice.

Ah-hahahahah. (Annoying laugh)

Ursula - Phoebe's sister.
Frank Junior - Phoebe's brother
Ross and Monica's Parents
Rachel's Dad
Gunther
Carol
Ben
Susan

There is loads more aswell. For a series with as many seasons as that and which went on for as long as it did, you have to define a recurring episode more accurately. Does Paulo count? He was only in like 5 episodes.

syklops

basquille wrote: »

The supporting cast theory is muck!

'Seinfeld' revolved around 4 characters for 9 years.. and that's probably one of the most successful sitcoms ever made.

So because there is one show which only had only 4 charachters, that completely debunks the theory??

Its longevity had nothing to do with it being well written and it not running out of ideas? :rolleyes:

EDIT: You dont consider Newman a supporting charachter?

amacachi

Might not be a popular view, but does anyone else think it was never that good to begin with? It's a decent show but I've never understood the big deal about it.

Skid

basquille wrote: »

The supporting cast theory is muck!

'Seinfeld' revolved around 4 characters for 9 years.. and that's probably one of the most successful sitcoms ever made.

Sure it was about the 4 lead characters, but it wouldn't have had the longevity without Frank and Estelle Costanza, Helen and Morty Seinfeld, Newman or J.Peterman, to name a few of their excellent recurring characters.

phasers

syklops wrote: »

Janice.

Ah-hahahahah. (Annoying laugh)

Ursula - Phoebe's sister.
Frank Junior - Phoebe's brother
Ross and Monica's Parents
Rachel's Dad
Gunther
Carol
Ben
Susan

There is loads more aswell. For a series with as many seasons as that and which went on for as long as it did, you have to define a recurring episode more accurately. Does Paulo count? He was only in like 5 episodes.

Paulo was in more epiodes than half the characters you mentioned! I wouldn't call them supporting cast really, except maybe Gunther.

Also lol at Ben being considered cast, thy actually made jokes in the show about how nobody remembers him

RE Seinfeld, from the few episodes I've seen from various seasons I fail to see the importance of any of the supporting cast. I mean the Costanzas and Newman were good, but they weren't the cornerstone of the programme and I definiely wouldn't consider them very important.

syklops

phasers wrote: »

Paulo was in more epiodes than half the characters you mentioned! I wouldn't call them supporting cast really, except maybe Gunther.

I forgot Estelle as well. How could I forget her?

Thats why I said you really need to define what a supporting charachter is. Particularly for a long running show like friends.

phasers wrote: »

Also lol at Ben being considered cast, thy actually made jokes in the show about how nobody remembers him

RE Seinfeld, from the few episodes I've seen from various seasons I fail to see the importance of any of the supporting cast. I mean the Costanzas and Newman were good, but they weren't the cornerstone of the programme and I definiely wouldn't consider them very important.

Cornerstone? Of course their not the corner stone. If they were the corner stone they wouldn't be supporting charachters. Jerry Seinfeld is a corner stone. Newman is a supporting charachter.



Are we off topic yet?

DeepBlue

amacachi wrote: »

Might not be a popular view, but does anyone else think it was never that good to begin with? It's a decent show but I've never understood the big deal about it.

It's an "okay" show with mostly "okay" episodes with the odd brilliant one thrown in.
[controversial]I'd rate Father Ted as only "okay" too.[/controversial]

amacachi

DeepBlue wrote: »

It's an "okay" show with mostly "okay" episodes with the odd brilliant one thrown in.
[controversial]I'd rate Father Ted as only "okay" too.[/controversial]

Get away with the Father Ted bashing! :pac:

phasers

DeepBlue wrote: »

[controversial]I'd rate Father Ted as only "okay" too.[/controversial]

:eek:

Basq

To be honest, this week ain't a whole lot better!

Not as bad as last week though!

"So far, he's satisfied with general laughter!" - that gave me a giggle though!

mike65

Maybe Graham Linehan has run out of jokes, tonights were essentialy re-hashes of sketches from previous series but not as amusing as the set-ups are familair, without a fresh twist.

Basq

I definitely now think Linehan should have stuck to the 3 seasons (a lá Black Books and Father Ted).

I think the most recent season of The IT Crowd really might put a dampener on it as a series.. it won't take away from the previous seasons mind!

phasers

... Wow, that sucked.


I've never turned off an episode of the IT crowd before, but that one was just so terrible I couldn't make it to the end.

CiaranC

I LOL'd

Methinks you people watch too much tv