The IT Crowd (2006) : One thing wrong with this show

I like "The IT Crowd". It has a nice 'feel' to it, some funny humor, likable actors (apart from Jen, but she sort of fits in that role anyway), and even some pretty realistic social commentary.

It is a bit misandristic, like most TV shows, but it also makes fun of women, so it balances it out somewhat. Women still have the 'last say', and men are ridiculed more (even the boss), and there is of course the typical, unrealistic pandering to the women's ludicrous 'romantic' worldview, where a regular woman wouldn't be attracted to the super-rich CEO of a large corporation, if he's "not her type" or some nonsense like that. In reality, Jen would be drooling at any opportunity to even touch the bossman's feet. I mean, come on - are we to believe she would actually refuse a helicopter ride (a rare opportunity for any regular people) with a high-status man who fancies her? What are her other options - what in her life is BETTER than that?

That's like a heterosexual, sexually active man would refuse a spaceship/time portal travel with a large group of really beautiful, long-haired, horny, Asian, young and thin, petite virgins, who ALL fancy him!

In any case, those are just minor things, and they don't really get in the way of enjoying the show, once you know what to expect.

However, for a show about IT, there's remarkably small amount of any IT-stuff happening. And most of it is just plot devices - used ONLY to advance the plot, whatever that may be in a given episode.

I mean, look at the much-praised "Work Outing" episode. There's nothing particularly wrong with that episode per se, but how much does it really have to do with any 'Information Technologies'? How many computers do you see there after the first scenes? Almost ALL of it happens in a theater. No computers, no computer helping, nothing.

Based on that episode, this show should just be called "The Crowd".

That episode, as much as it is praised, and as funny as it can be in parts, is just a typical, GENERIC stuff basically. I mean, how many TV shows need to have stuff about gays and the handicapped? Why would people who seek for escapism want to be shoved the themes of 'gay' and 'handicapped' into their faces constantly (unless they are gay or handicapped (or both))?

If you look at almost any sitcom, from Seinfeld to even Curb your Enthusiasm, you will find the 'gay' and 'handicapped' themes all over the place. Why is this such a requirement for every single show?

Why can't show really be ABOUT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES or Tech Support? Didn't the authors trust their idea, didn't they think that was good or strong enough, that they HAD to bring in "gay" and "handicapped" stuff, and all that soap opera drama stuff with Jen?

I mean, when a man starts to watch a show called "The IT Crowd", how much does he really care whether Jen can impress her female friends or not? What the f does that have to do with "Aunt Irma"? Why would that kind of a show entail laughing at lipstick on a man (which is misandristic anyway, because it denies the humanity of a man - so women can wear lipstick without being laughed at, although it looks at least as ridiculous - but men can't? What kind of equality is THAT?)?

Especially after the first season - maybe even after the first episode - the show started being much less about IT, the lunatic corporate culture and computers (like one could have hoped), and much more about the typical, generic sitcom situations, soap, drama, and all that, with jokes peppered into the mix.

I appreciate the humor and all, but most of this show really could be called just "A generic crowd, doing generic sitcom things". The computer stuff is almost only used to undermine the masculinity of the 'nerds', and to ridicule them and to laugh at them.

There would be a plethora of all kinds of good ideas that you could probably create way more than 24 episodes of, that have a lot to do with computers, corporate culture and its weirdness and all that. But instead, this show ops to just make jokes about german cannibals, point out that men can't survive without women (yeah, right, you misandristic bastards), dating problems (how many shows HAVE to have this relationship crap stuffed down our throats?), some unrelated goth-stuff, Jen's relationship problems especially, etc.

Now, although I think it's progressive and good chance to show how obsessed women really are about shoes, and how interesting it is to show japanese people speaking japanese language (well, I am a bit biased, since I am learning it, and I must say the translations are pretty much spot-on, as much as I could understand it), and even a woman getting deservedly hit (if only with a rubbery clown shoe) and men being angry at women for lying and being generally stupid (Fifty-Fifty), what does that have got to do with computers?

What does ANY of this, and most of the stuff we are shown, have to do with Information Technology? Nothing - ABSOLUTELY nothing.

I hate when they do this - they take a "THEME", and then they use that "THEME" only as a BACKGROUND to bring out the typical sitcom situations that you could see in any generic show.

Heck, this show could just as well be about antique store or an accounting department. It could be about deep-sea diving or three people who formed their own architecture firm - it doesn't matter! It would be the same, generic (although sort of funny and a lot of the times likable) sitcom stuff.

That, is what I think is wrong with this show - it's not very "information-techy" at all, and with a name like that, I think it should be.

Otherwise, I think they should have simply chosen a more 'neutral' and 'generic' name (but that wouldn't be as gimmicky, quirky and 'sellable', now would it?).

I think people who don't know anything about computers and love the generic sitcom stuff, can't even understand my point. But the tech geeks and nerds who were expecting this to be about technology and computers, and the endless and bottomless STUPIDITY of the people who call or ask for Tech Support, (which would be an inexhaustible supply of ideas and great humor) might.

If you are still doubting or trying to grasp what I am trying to say, just go here and see for yourself:

http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid

Then come here and tell me, whether you think there would or would not be enough material there for a great, funny show without soap, drama, 'relationship' crap, or the typical need for a woman for a main role. I think it would be a great, hilarious, funny and wonderful show if Jen didn't exist or was a man, and if it concentrated at leeast MOSTLY on that kind of tech support humor, where the clients/customers are shown to be realistically stupid morons.

If a comic like 'User Friendly' can do it so well for so many years (though it also diverted into other areas), I see no reason why a 24-episode sitcom couldn't.

But it's the political correctness that rots EVERYTHING and kills all originality - everything MUST have the same formula, there always HAS to be women, HAS to be 'romance', HAS to be 'relationships', HAS to be all kinds of 'we are not men'-crap, and so on. Sigh.

So predictable, so boring.

And of course there MUST be stuff about gays and the handicapped.

I mean, I have nothing against laughing at gays or the handicapped - I'll laugh at pretty much any group of people if the joke is funny enough (I am not politically correct, so I don't give a shít), and if that group isn't kicked around by the world already (like white men are, for example - those jokes ceased to be funny because of the massive unfairness and suffering, and 'less than animal'-status that white men have - when you see a homeless man and a dog, you feel pity for the dog, right?).

But I didn't find that episode that everyone seems to love, very interesting, and in some other sitcom, it may have been fine, but in a show about "IT", I would expect to see "IT" in every episode, dámnit!

I found it very typical, rather boring, and unrealistic. I mean, why would even the nerdiest of nerds lie about being disabled in the first place? Why not just yell "Everything is fine, go away" or something? Why not just tell the truth?

And the whole gay agenda has been shoved down our throats for so long that it just leaves me numb. So you are gay, so you aren't gay, I don't care either way, just don't be boring, and don't shove your gayness to my face anymore.

The only good point about that episode was the remark that Jen looks like a man - but she should have taken it as a compliment, because men are good.