Why You Should Be Very Excited Indeed About "The IT Crowd" Finale

Graham Linehan's amazing sitcom comes to an end this week and it is all about your life. Mild spoilers ahead.

So The IT Crowd returns for a one-off final episode this week.

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Graham Linehan's sublime sitcom, set in the basement tech department of a faceless corporation, is coming to an end. Not really surprisingly since the cast are big movie stars now. So it's a credit to them that they've gone back for this one-off special to finish the story properly.

There's none of your Breaking Bad series finale mania going on here.

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The pressure of finishing up a well-loved show can take its toll and the fans often just end up frustrated more than anything. There are things that happen that point to this being the end, but for the most part, they just get on with doing a reliably brilliant episode.

Chris O' Dowd may be a Hollywood heart throb now, but Roy's love life is showing no sign of improving.

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Richard Ayoade may be a hot shot director now, but Moss is still suffering from confidence issues.

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His online board game review show isn't doing so well. But Reynholm lets him into the secret of his success. Hilarity ensues etc.

If you're on this website, the episode is basically all about your life.

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The IT Crowd finale is completely and unashamedly about the social age. The episode is in fact called The Internet Is Coming.

A series of unfortunate events leads Jen and Roy to become super-trolls.

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Not to give too much away, but some business with a fit barista, a homeless woman and a van with tits leads to them becoming the most hated people on the internet since Cat Bin Lady.

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To save the reputation of the company, Reynholm has to go on Secret Millionaire.

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They are forced to resort to drastic measures.

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Which isn't helped by Jen still not knowing what the internet is. At one point they resort to Twitter to try and make amends. Because as everyone knows, Twitter is the perfect place to explain a complex situation.

Anonymous get a look in.

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Roy may or may not be in Anonymous. He isn't sure.

So what will become of our heroes?

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More than anything, the final IT Crowd is a marker of how much the world has changed since it started. In 2006, "viral" was something you needed medication for, people still went on MySpace and socially, internet people really were the lowest of the low. Setting a sitcom about losers in the IT basement made sense. Yet look at us now.

There's a line when Reynholm talks about "that thing that we make," a sly reference to changes in the economy. The Internet Is Coming mercilessly skewers the way we spend our lives of course. But it also hints at some kind of redemption for our trio.

The IT Crowd, Friday, 9pm, Channel 4.

Channel 4

Excitingly, it goes out right after the premiere of Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D..

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