Bad Boys

Is being predictable really so bad? Does it matter that the developments of any given episode of The IT Crowd can be guessed approximately ten minutes before they happen? It's a question I ask myself almost every week while watching Graham Linehan's scattershot but amiably entertaining comedy.

And Bad Boys, the fifth episode of The IT Crowd's somewhat uneven fourth series, is an instalment more predictable than most, but nevertheless a lot of fun.

Moss, arguably the most well-drawn and endearing character in The IT Crowd, is once again the driving force behind this episode. An unusually long lunch break soon spills out of control, leading the show's most reserved, awkward character on a hedonistic afternoon of shoplifting, riding around aimlessly on a bus, and staring belligerently at strangers.

Roy tags along for the ride, looking faintly morose as he contemplates his bet with Jen that he can last an entire day without telling someone to turn their computer "Off then on again."

Meanwhile, Jen finds herself at an office party hosted by Douglas Reynholm, who spends much of the episode chuffing away on a bong and abruptly changing the reason for his gathering in a series of amusing if inconsequential plot twists - the arrival of George Lucas (played by a hilariously unconvincing look-alike) provides an amusing, throw-away laugh.

It's Graham Linehan's nose for the odd and the faintly surreal, in fact, that provides the lion's share of laughs - Moss's curious decision to steal a clutch of Grand Designs DVDs, his child-like affection for a bomb disposal robot ("Can we keep him, Roy?"), and his experimentation with foul language ("Ploppers!") are all high points of this episode.

There are some moments, however, that fail to make sense. Roy's sudden inability to move in the episode's climactic scenes is rather incongruous - he's apparently frozen with fear - though a passing joke at the expense of Windows Vista provides a more than adequate diversion.

And while Richard Ayoade's attempt at street slang also fails to convince, the way in which Linehan draws together the episode's disparate strands - a bomb disposal team, Jen's £100 bet with Roy, and Moss's new-found rebellious streak - is both funny and deftly done, and Bad Boys' charm is such that it almost doesn't matter that you can predict the outcome several minutes before it occurs.

Bad Boys, yet again, fails to top the series four zenith of The Final Countdown (and one almost wonders whether Linehan should have shuffled the shows' sequence, placing that episode later in this year's run), but it's another solid installment in a show that has always been about lovable characters and easy laughs rather than cutting, razor-sharp wit.

Read Ryan's review of episode 4 here.