The IT Crowd, a sitcom set in the IT department, hit the nation's screens last Friday and received a decidedly mixed reception.
According to industry figures, 1.8 million viewers watched the first episode, which is relatively poor return for the prime 2100 slot. Of those, a mere 100,000 switched off before the second episode, which was shown immediately afterwards.
This low viewing figure could be partly because these two episodes have been available online for the previous week. But the show, in which IT staff are portrayed as socially inept nerds, bosses as rampaging psychopaths, and women just care about shoes, found itself on the end of some hard-hitting criticism.
AA Gill wrote in The Sunday Times that one problem with the programme is that a lot of viewers, including himself, may have no idea what the IT department of an office is or does.
"I suspect it is one of those very, very little jokes that commuters share as a prophylactic against throwing themselves under the Tube," wrote Gill.
But aside from knocking what he clearly saw as a niche setting, Gill complained that the programme was bigger on situation than comedy.
"The whole thing is utterly and completely bereft of any smidgen of wit, humour or comic insight, and is possibly the least comedic comedy of the century. Its catch phrase is: 'Have you tried turning it off and then on?' Which is one option too many," he opined.
Writing on Bloomberg, Anna Picard complained: "The IT Crowd' is short on invention, plot and humour. I laughed out loud only once, and this was in the second half of the second episode, by which time most sensible people will have switched over."
Other critics were more positive however. The Observer's Kathryn Flett described the show as, "funny but also rather old-fashioned", while the Sunday Telegraph said it was "worth persevering with".
Did you enjoy the IT Crowd? Did you find its characters too clichéd, or was it a mirror-image of your working day? Let us know, by posting a Talkback below.
Talkback
There were a few laughs for me in there, but i lost interest very quickly due to the really, really OTT canned laughter.
Made it sound like it was trying to be a lot funnier than it should be, and IMO really killed what could be a great, funny show.
Might get better over tioe, ell lets hope so
Absolutely loved it!
All of our IT department watched it, either online or on the TV - and there were plenty of comments on Monday morning.
I watched it with my (non-techie) wife and both of us were laughing - albeit at different things and we've now added it to our sky planner!
I enjoyed it. Not the funniest comedy I've ever seen but definitely worth watching. Having come up through IT I laughed to see the stereotypes played so well (or maybe they're not sterotypes and BOFH has returned).
Funny in places - but those places were small as well as far & few between.
I'll watch it for a couple more weeks, willing it to get better, though I have a feeling it won't...
I laughed out loud many times. I agree it's not too cerebral, but I suspect this is what offends some people. To me it's a bit like Viz for TV and it works a treat.
I've been working in technology for 18 years, specifically IT for 10 of those and most of the situations were highly familiar, if perhaps somewhat exaggerated or charicatured.
Plenty of my friends, family and workmates also found it hilarious, although most of us are more in the Apple camp than the PC camp and we all know that PC people are a tad on the serious side, so I suspect the people that didn't find it funny were 'PC people'.
I think it has potential to grow into a good comedy programme, I particulary liked the way they spotted the new manager was not IT savy - she did not react to an original ZX81
So many home truths!
Shows the worst of IT departments and users / managers from both perspectives.
Keep it up!
not even the great Chris Morris could save this terrible piece of "comedy", the canned laughter is a sign of their desperation to flag that something "funny" has just happened
I enjoyed it a lot, and have worked with all those stereotypes. A few jokes were good enough for laugh out loud... We must laugh at ourselves or we end up threatening to behead those who laugh at us...
I loved it, it had some real laugh out loud moments. And it's about time there was some decent and slightly surreal situation comedy coming from the UK.
In fact, the only thing I found patently unfunny were the (bad) jokes about "Made in Britain", but they just showed what a throwback to the 1970s the comedy was.
As for AA Gill, the man is such an idiot (and anti-English bigot) that I'm surprised anybody still pays any attention to his waspish ramblings.
Can ZDnet please get rid of this f****ng ad! It is annoying and enough to avoid the site overall!
Oddly the show isn't actually based on an IT departments activities. You could lift the so-called comic moments and drop them into any number of sitcom environments.
Like much of TV, it isn't funny and it isn't clever. Hopefully it will die off quickly.
I was fairly amused at the IT Crowd and will definately be watching more. It was silly, funny, and lampooned users, IT dept and even the firebrigade so gets my thumbs up. I don't think it is designed to be valid commentry on anything but just supposed to be funny. It may not be as funny to a non IT person but as most of the jokes were non IT related I don't think is much of an issue. Guess you'll like it if you like sillyness.
If that's the best IT related TV programme they can come up with they need their heads testing. I worked in an IT department that was ten times funnier every single day, but also had glamour, sex, drugs, scandal and lots more besides.
OK, so if you want to laugh at 10 year old sterotypes then go ahead... but after being in IT for several years and being aware of how good this could have been, I'm disappointed.
I'm ashamed to say that we appear to be producing worse comedy than the US these days, as our American cousins now have some excellent shows...
Who'd have thought it...
Garstly - reminded me of Reggie Perrin - dated and only not so funny
I enjoyed it - the characters reminded me of previous collegues dealing with inept customers. Although it is not the funniest program I have watched, it has room to improve.
Enjoyable in a delightfully surreal way and also understandable by non-IT types. OK, it had "Have you tried switching the computer off, then on again" as a running gag; what's wrong with that? All too often we been told in real life to uninstall Windows and re-install it; the standard escape route for sloppy tech support departments.
Give it a chance: it's clean, non-violent and amusing. And it isn't about crime, hospitals, 'celebrities' or cooking. Hooray!
Utterly dreadful. Predicated on a view of 'the IT department' that might have borne shreds of truth 10 years ago, when IT was in its infancy in the corporate environment and amateurs could actually get employed regardless of their ineptitude in every other normal respect. Modern IT functions bear little resemblance to this, and this will only serve to reinforce some ugly, outdated and inaccurate stereotypes.
It also failed to be funny.
I only watched a couple of minutes of this dreck.. it could have been based on me .. But by god If I was as bad as these wankers then?? ... Reggie Perrin was pure gold compared to this. I have flushed away better sitcoms. the fact thats its the IT dept doesnt really matter, they might as well be the "accountants" or "engineers" even tho they are probably better understood. Everybody must surely know that in IT you have to be business-facing customer-aware flexible, adaptable and capable of working possibly one or two weekend days every month for which luncheon vouchers will be paid!!?
Which journalist called it old fashioned? What because it wasnt filmed with documentary style jerky camera movements? Was it not a copy of the office, which would have been easier to take? for its time, which is now, its on its own, which is good, its not following ths same hard to watch comedy styling that appear all the time now queue peep show! As for the person who said he didnt know what the IT department does, its pretty self explanatory, they work with computers? Im not sure what else you would need to know. Maybe these journaists didnt get the IT crowd, maybe they need to be more open minded. the office isnt the only comedy out there. And speaking of the office, what is david brents job? was that a major concern when watching that comedy? ok rant over. Give it a chance, its actually very funny!