German IT Crowd – episode 2 review inside

[TheLeen]

As reported earlier, German TV channel Sat1 has been working on a German version of The IT Crowd named Das iTeam – Die Jungs an der Maus. The first episode is due next Friday evening.

Sat1’s web team was a little too slow at first, setting up a sub page for the “new” show but forgot to make any of the buttons work. Now they’ve been a little too fast and put up the entire first episode for watching online. Which means that there will be reviews online before the show even airs. … mostly bad reviews. (I’m psychic!)

Now if Das iTeam was a new TV programme inspired by The IT Crowd, I suppose it would be a bit unfair to compare the two shows… but as it is actually a re-play of the same show, we’ll do just that!

Intro: Same music, different pictures. No pixel graphics, rather mugshots of the main cast. Not very exciting but not gruesome either just yet. Gabriel (aka Moss) is shown with a metal detector (at first I thought he was vaccuum cleaning the office), and Tom (aka Roy) is seen playing with a computer mouse mobile which is new, geeky and adorable. Hey, for the record, I said something positive!

Episode title: “Br?tchen vom Vortag” – yesterday’s breadrolls. This doesn’t really work as a translation (or adaptation) since yesterday’s breadrolls basically are… crap.

First scene: As even Graham Linehan pointed out in his own blog, they managed to fuck up the first joke by getting the camera angle wrong. What bothers me even more is that the camera movement seems way too slow. Seven or eight seconds in the original version, twelve (!) in this one! I didn’t plan to go into that kind of detail with this review, but this just struck me so hard as “not working… not working at all”.

Sky DuMont playing concern director Bornholm (aka Denholm) comes across as one big softie. The boss seems quite pitiful rather than scary at all. I’ll mention at this point that I’ve had a peek at the picture gallery on Sat 1’s website and saw Bornholm wearing a Kimono in episode two. Thankfully, I got it wrong – he isn’t wearing it during the speech about WAR on STRESS but the merger scene. I’m pretty sure the war scene will be fucked up anyway…

Britta Horn as Sandy (aka Jen) seems ok to me, albeit lacking Katherine Parkinson‘s charisma and bold, outgoing acting. Yes, I like her overacting and I think the German Jen is a bit bland. But maybe I’m just a grinch? At least she isn’t outright horrible.

The dialogue is largely the same, sometimes translated word by word, sometimes adding half a line or leaving half a line out. I’ll only mention it when I think it makes a real change (other than just “being less funny than the original”).

As soon as the basement scenes start, you can’t help but notice the blueish, greyish tint of… everything. It creates a very cold athmosphere for the IT department office. I’m sorry, this is just a bit… too soviet for me! (And this means that a certain joke of a certain series two episode cannot work anymore! It’s hardly possible to create a setting even… more soviet than this.) There’s hardly any colour in the office room, some robots but all in all too few toys, no posters, very few stickers, not too much there for us geeks to relate to.

Tom’s/Roy’s first scene (shoe woman from the past is on the phone, right?) is okay. He is wearing the RTFM shirt, so far so good! Somehow he reminds me of my ex boyfriend. If this is good or bad I don’t know. The writers manage to squeeze in an additional joke: “yes… just push the button. … Okay, let’s start at the very beginning: Do you have fingers?” The implication in the end that he was talking to a woman (“That told her!”) is missing for no apparent reason.

Gabriel’s/Maurice’s first scene, too. This moment did really disappoint me. From pictures, I was mislead to believe that the German (and caucasian – but that’s ok, Tom isn’t Irish either…) version of Moss could work. Two things get in the way of that: firstly, the actor (Stefan Puntigam) isn’t doing a very good impression. Secondly, the writers turned his techno babble (about another thread jumping in there and doing its stuff) into… just babble, really.

We’re 3 1/2 minutes into the episode, including intro. At this point on Friday, it will occur to many people that it’s a good idea to switch off telly and play a board game with their family.

But for the sake of completion, we’ll go on. Tom/Roy and Gabriel/Moss are talking to each other. Ah – this is when yesterday’s breadrolls are mentioned. “Yesterday’s sandwiches – that is what we are to them!” says Tom just before picking up a sandwich from Gabriel’s desk. After Gabriel’s hint that it is “vom Vortag” (a day old) he drops it. Now why change a working joke? I’ll never know. Also… they say “Br?tchen vom Vortag” which is kind of the “official” term for it instead of what average Joe would call them: “Br?tchen von gestern”. This isn’t the only occurence of weird, overblown or awkward language in the episode – more examples to come.

Cut to the unisex toilets scene. Bornholm/Denholm gets it all wrong. After Sandy’s/Jen’s mentioning of Ally McBeal he says, “Nur hier arbeiten alle und haben keinen Sex auf dem Klo.” / “It’s just that here, everyone’s working and not having sex in the bathroom.” Did I miss something? Didn’t Denholm originally say the complete opposite? “That’s the sort of place this is Jen. Lot of sexy people not doing much work and having affairs.” I am fairly sure. It seems to me that in several places the German version’s writers just didn’t get the original joke and thus turned it around by 180 degrees. Oh, hell…

We’re back in soviet IT department. Penumatic blast first, then encounter with the “98% done” toilet man. Another change that – in my eyes – ruins the comedic timing. I keep telling myself that the laughter in the background can’t be real.

The IT team meets for the first time. Tolstoi is now Thomas Mann. Not too bad a change since Gabriel finally has a funny-ish new line: “Thomas Mann? I thought we were talking about Spiderman?!” On the other hand, one of my favourite lines was dropped (“I don’t remember this conversation – AT – ALL!”). Gabriel starts talking awkwardly again when he shouts after Tom that he has “… da eine Wunde am Kopf. Wunde am Kopf!” (head wound). It would have sounded a lot better if he’d used the word that people usually use in these situations: Platzwunde.

Next thing you see is Gabriel comparing not the child’s edition and adult’s edition of Harry Potter, but this year’s and last year’s phone book. With a text marker. Oh, you writers. Bad idea! How do I put this to you? Geeks read and compare books, yes. Geeks do not read phone books. Not in 2007. Excuse me, are you from the past? Have you heard of the internet? Or full-text search? Apparently not. Anyway. Tom comes back from Sandy’s office and picks up a toy in order to call his boss Bornholm. He does not hear it ring, he does not pass out. Just after he hasn’t passed out, here’s where the advertising break will take place. Afterwards, cut to Bornholm’s office.

What you say! Yes, after so far only small changes were made, here are some two or three scenes missing entirely. No Gabriel to connect Sandy’s phone. No pretend conversation. No Tom coming up with a plan, or scheme. No slightly larger glasses! That was a favourite joke of mine! Cut! No water spray for Gabriel (which is kinda weird because he is using some spray later on), no confrontation, no plugging in her computer. We just move on right into Bornholm’s office. At 10 1/2 mintues, we’re halfway through.

I’d been curious about how they were going to translate the “pair of horrible, old ladies” conversation just before Denholm walks in. They haven’t. It’s missing, too. Bornholm speaks about teamplay. Again, so soft, so friendly, so calm, somewhat dreamy, slightly… senile? I don’t understand his approach at all. Another little comedic climax – “They may have to escort the current security team from the building for not acting as a team” – cut. Bornholm’s speech seems a bit forced. “Teamf?hig” (teamworthy, team compatible) is actually one of all German managers’ favourite words. Bornholm does not use it. Awkward talking. Bornholm now acting camp. He shows them the A-Team (but to my dismay no mention of Tiger, Doyle or the Jewellery Man). The rest of the dialogue is largely the same, except that the IT team repeats the word team over and over while leaving. As mentioned before, Gabriel using spray on his hot ear.

Back in the basement, Sandy wants to learn what IT’s about. Gabriel: “Ich erarbeite gerade eine ganz einfache Programmierung, in der ich…” again, awkward talking there. I’m certain now that this was intended by the writers. But not even the nerdiest person in the world would use these words. We do not “erarbeiten eine Programmierung”.

The shoe girl appears on stage. It is sad, but the viewer can’t help but notice that the acting was a lot better in the original show, even for this minor role. Sandy resolves the situation, but the original implication that she didn’t do it on purpose at all – was cut. Her subsequent “people’s person speech” is actually not half bad. After Tom has not passed out for the second time during this episode, the brainstorming takes place. Carbon copy of the original scene, bar one change: in the middle of it the IT team is seen scratching their noses like little Vicky the Viking! Oh my God, they snuck in a telly reference! But wait a second, is Gabriel wearing slightly larger glasses there?!

The party! Taking place at 19:00 instead of 5.45 PM but whatever. Sandy tells everyone that “IT people and normal people should meet mroe often… to improve teamplay!” Tom goes to get some moe beer instead of wine (of course!), Tom and Gabriel were one drunk in Hamburg instead of Amsterdam (all good changes/good adaptation in my opinion) and the hookers’ names were Kiki and Vicky. Well, you know what happens next. Or actually, no, you don’t. No shouting, no strangling – Gabriel uses the spray on his ear again and that’s that. Cut to the last scene. Sandy calls Tom and Gabriel “zombies” (made me laugh) and then answers the phone “correctly” which earns her commendatory looks by the other two that weren’t there in the original.

The picture slideshow is missing.

Last scene: Bornholm is really desperate because his voice activation isn’t working – no sign of rage though. And that’s it.

I just had another look at Yesterday’s Jam. And I can’t help it… it’s not just the soviet colouring of the German IT department. All characters come across friendlier, more lovable and… cuddlier in the original version – despite all the shouting, screaming, choking, funny voices and, yes, passing out that does not take place in the German version.

You know how there are both funy jokes and funny people in this world? And a funny person telling a funny joke will make you laugh (and a funny person telling a shit joke sometimes will, too) while an unfunny person just can’t pull of the very same joke? Watching Das iTeam feels just like that – for 18 minutes. At this point I am asking myself whether I should be grateful – the original is 23 minutes of geeky goodness long.

The actors: Britta Horn (Sandy/Jen) and Sebastian M?nster (Tom/Roy) were okay acting-wise, Stefan Puntigam (Gabriel/Moss) seemed quite bad at least to me, and Sky DuMont (Bornholm/Denholm) was beyond bad – what was he doing? I hadn’t expected much of him anyway, despite him being a respected (or at least, well-known) actor, after reading that interview at fernsehjunkies.de with him a few weeks ago. In the fifth paragraph he states that Das iTeam is going to be successful because it is going to be better than the original. Why? Because they’re going to do a lot of things different, he says. In paragraph seven he states that everything’s been directly translated, and largely the same. Make up your mind! So, what was he doing? He probably doesn’t know this himself.

The writing: is a pile of crap (see above).

All in all, there’s not much good to say about Das iTeam, although I tried to be fair and list all the things that I thought were decent or even funny. I tried. I really, really did.

Topic

[TheLeen]

Re-reading it now, the review sounds too tame.

[Phil]

Didn’t I just send you a message on Facebook asking you to do something like this? Was this an insane coincidence, or do you have the speedy-review capabilities of a superhuman?

[TheLeen]

Yes.

[Phil]

Excellent review, by the way. I was really curious about this. If it didn’t seem now like it’s never going to happen, I’d do the same for the stateside debut of the show. I’m most qualified because I speak American.

[TheLeen]

Thanks!
This must be the longest text I wrote since uni. Probably G&T’s bad influence.

It’d be nice to read a full review of the American pilot. But then, I could watch that one myself. But you can’t really watch the German thing, harr harr. But believe me, it’s for the best.

[John Hoare]

That is fucking excellent, Marleen.

When Noise To Signal relaunches (hopefully at some point early next year), I may have to mail you and ask if I can use it for publication there…

[TheLeen]

Oh, sure, take it. Already said to Phil, I’d be honoured.

[TheLeen]

Haha, I got the episode 2 bit wrong, too.

He’s wearing the Kimono in the merger scene, not war scene. :x

[Tanya Jones]

Good review, Marleen! The misunderstanding of the original is pretty startling; after all, YOU understood it! As you say, it’s not even true to colloquial German, so God alone knows what they’re up to.

Katherine Parkinson’s performance is often misunderstood over here, too. The acting HAS to be big to work with everyone else’s performances. Linehan writes a lot of shouty stuff, and it’s odd that everyone who complained about the shouting in the IT Crowd don’t complain about the shouting in Father Ted.

[Tanya Jones]

Poor Graham!
http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/2007/12/28/german-it-crowd/

[TheLeen]

Well, try and watch the German version and you’ll find that without the shouting… it just doesn’t work.

Okay, it doesn’t work for many reasons. But that’s one of them. Everyone seems so tired and uninspired. Not even the girl with the shoe seems passionate.

But like I said, I didn’t mind the “over the top” Jen in the first place; on the contrary, I was a bit sad that they toned her down for the second series.

[Tanya Jones]

Yeah, exactly! People I know who didn’t like the first series that much have said that the second series is better. I still don’t see what makes the second series superior, though. It’s defintely funny, and holds up to repeated viewings very well, but, with the possible exception of the first episode of series 2, I think the first series is still the best. Jen’s catchphrase of ‘TAXI!’ is marvellous.

[Tarka Dal]

> it?s odd that everyone who complained about the shouting in the IT Crowd don?t complain about the shouting in Father Ted.

That’s a fair point. I imagine it’s a personal thing. From my own perspective the shouting in Ted is never as whiny. Whereas the squeal that comes out Jen’s mouth during a lot series one causes much the same feeling as hearing Catherine Tate’s voice.

[TheLeen]

Denholm shouts *all the time* and people *love* him.

Roy does a good deal of shouting as well.

I like the shouting. There’s a German saying: The IT Crowd “has pepper” ;) The original version anyway. No pepper in the German version :(

[Tanya Jones]

Hmm. I can’t help but think ‘whiny’ equates to ‘female’ when it comes to IT Crowd complaints ;)

[Phil]

The shouting in series one worked so well because those were situations that CALLED for shouting: the first-day abuse, the fire/stress test, etc. The shouting was structurally appropriate.

I don’t know if Jen was actively toned down for series two…she may well have been, I won’t pretend to understand what goes through somebody else’s mind when they write something. But it seemed that the situations would have called for something a little less explosive as a response. I’m pretty sure the change was just natural, owing to the content of the stories.

Well, whatever. They’re both excellent…series two I’d say is slightly stronger because it contains my two favorite episodes, but they’re both just about equally great.

[Jonathan Capps]

I certainly don’t think Catherine Parkinson is *ever* whiny. That’s not her character at all.

I will say, though, that is someone is not keen on Jen or Roy’s shouting in series 1 then the fact that Chris Morris and the cast of Father Ted are great at shouty comedy is utterly irrelevant, surely? I hate Catherine Tate’s catchphrase comedy, but would you defend her by saying The Fast Show was brilliant at it?

[TheLeen]

It would depend on whether someone said “There’s too much shouting going on in The IT Crowd” or “Katherine Parkinson’s way of shouting is getting on my nerves”.

[Tarka Dal]

> I will say, though, that is someone is not keen on Jen or Roy?s shouting in series 1 then the fact that Chris Morris and the cast of Father Ted are great at shouty comedy is utterly irrelevant, surely?

Surely given that the dialogue comes from the same writer then it makes sense to question whether the difference could be due to the standard of delivery by the actor?

> Hmm. I can?t help but think ?whiny? equates to ?female? when it comes to IT Crowd complaints ;)

As Cappsy led onto Roy is ‘whiny’ a lot too. I still think it’s all just a matter of personal taste.

[Tanya Jones]

>It would depend on whether someone said ?There?s too much shouting going on in The IT Crowd? or ?Katherine Parkinson?s way of shouting is getting on my nerves?.

Well, exactly. Most of the complaints I’ve heard are about her. But are the jokes as funny, or is it just a dislike of her? I think Catherine Tate delivers unfunny material AND has an irritating delivery, so I don’t think she’s really relevant.

[Tarka Dal]

> I think Catherine Tate delivers unfunny material AND has an irritating delivery, so I don?t think she?s really relevant.

If a line has truly awful delivery then it doesn’t really matter how good it was on paper. Sure purists and devotees can argue later that the material was great, but the damage is allready done.

[Tanya Jones]

So is the complaint that Katherine can’t deliver a funny line? Because I don’t buy that, really. Or is it because she’s shouting in a higher pitched voice than the others? There isn’t much she can do about that, though…

[Tarka Dal]

For me it’s a simple matter that I don’t like the way that actress delivers those responses. It’s not that she can’t delivery a funny line as plenty of other people find them funny. Neither is it a pitch issue or simply the sound of female voice doing shouty, mentioning Tate probably muddied the waters a bit and implied it was all women shouting.

[Nakrophile]

The IT Crowd is bollocks. Apart from Matt Berry and his voice.

[pfm]

> I don?t know if Jen was actively toned down for series two?she may well have been

I think that’s a definite. Katherine IMO is loads better as Jen in series 2. That’s not totally down to her not shouting as much, I reckon she plays her as a more sympathetic character. That’s down to the writing too though. It shouldn’t feel at any point that she is seperate from Roy and Moss, which I think happened quite a bit in series 1. It wasn’t until the last episode (Aunt Irma) that everything gelled (possibly my favourite moment in series 1 is Roy being slapped in the face in the Denholm high fives).

They all improved really, and it was sad that Chris Morris didn’t stick around because the dynamic of the whole cast would then have been perfect. Instead the main three just didn’t fit with Matt Berry’s character. He’s just too surreal to be as funny IMO. Sadly series 2 wasn’t THAT spectacular, with some parts like ‘Peter File’ just being plain bad I’m afraid.

[Phil]

Well, as I say above, she HAS been toned down, but the question is whether it was a conscious decision or whether it grew out of the scripts and situations. I don’t think the episodes of series two called for her to be quite as reactionary as she had been in series one, which could have allowed her to settle into the character in a different sense than she had been. That doesn’t NECESSARILY mean it was a deliberate choice though…

This kind of thing fascinates me. There’s nothing more intriguing to me than character-development, especially when there’s more than one force at work. (In novels, for example, you have only one force: the author. On screen you always have at least two: the writer and the actor. Even if the writer and actor is the same person each avenue of development is separate–just because a writer could imagine something doesn’t mean he’ll be able to act it out exactly as intended, and certainly the process of acting it can reveal things to him that his own writing did not. Very interesting subject.)

[Phil]

Also: why does this topic rate a “read more” link on the main page, and the other forum threads don’t?

[TheLeen]

> Also: why does this topic rate a ?read more? link on the main page, and the other forum threads don?t?

Been asking myself the same! :x

*Outing*

I started to like the Douglas character after I’d realised who he reminds me of very, very, very much.

Zaphod Beeblebrox O_O

[John Hoare]

> Also: why does this topic rate a ?read more? link on the main page, and the other forum threads don?t?

Been asking myself the same! :x

It’s because I’m an idiot.

[Danny Stephenson]

Does that just appear for larger starting posts? I’d noticed that if they’re of considerable size. Of which this post is MASSIVE!

[John Hoare]

Yep, that’s it. I’ll put it on the list of things to fix, but SOME DECENT FUCKING NAVIGATION has to take priority…

[TheLeen]

Additional. Just saw the telly release of this episode and something sensational happened – all the missing middle scenes are back in! Amazing. Now the plot makes remote sense. They’re decently done (as in: not totally terrible) as well. Also, and I hadn’t noticed this before, the picture of Bornholm behind his desk is moving in the last “hello computer” scene. As an added bonus, during the credits in the end there were some snapshots of Tom and Gabriel with Kiki and Vicky (which seem to have enjoyed the fair a good deal more than Brandy and Chrystal).
This certainly doesn’t save the show – but well, at least one of the major holes fixed…

[TheLeen]

Oh by the way:

Online mag netzeitung.de says in their iTeam review‘s “see also”:

> “ganymede.tv” compares “IT Crowd” und “iTeam” (engl.)

*g*

[Ian Symes]

Cor!

[Tanya Jones]

Woo-hoo!

[Arlene Rimmer BSc SSc]

Wowee! Good work there.

[TheLeen]

Because I can’t get enough of it:

Video comparison @ youtube

[pfm]

> Video comparison @ youtube

Please, kill me now…

[Phil]

Did you make that, Marleen?

[TheLeen]

Nope, not mine. Love it, though. It should have included many more scenes. Like, the entire episode. Yes.

[Phil]

I think there’s a ten minute limit for youtube, which may have dictated that. But a side by side for the whole episode would be very interesting.

[Danny Stephenson]

Can’t you apply for a ‘director’ account at youtube to extend your limit?

[John Hoare]

Can?t you apply for a ?director? account at youtube to extend your limit?

Not any more.

[John Hoare]

And that video is possibly the best thing on YouTube ever. Brilliantly made.

It makes the German version look at the very least a likable show… but then there’s absolutely no way I can judge it properly when I don’t know German.

God, I wish I was doing Standard Nerds now! I WILL do it as a column on Noise To Signal instead when I get the chance.

[Tarka Dal]

> > Can?t you apply for a ?director? account at youtube to extend your limit?
> Not any more.

DivX Stage 6 seems to have no limit on length and the picture quality is better than Youtube too.

[Phil]

“Hallo! Compu-ter!”

That guy really doesn’t seem to know how to play that scene at all. Granted, Chris Morris was doing his in front of an audience, so he was kind of able to ride that energy, but this German guy just seems to have been told, “Alright, say hello computer six or seven times and periodically look like you’re angry.”

Also, the scene spent plugging in Jen’s computer…in the German one, “Roy” pops back in with a very satisfied look on his face when he realizes what’s happened, and even his tone of voice implies a sort of “I told you! We got you now!” kind of thing.

In the original version it’s about a thousand times funnier because Roy’s emotion is so enormous and vague. It’s not satisfaction that he feels when he jumps back in the room and points…there’s a huge amount of panic in there as well, and a lot of fear that he’s also just exposed HIMSELF as an idiot. Much more complex, and much funnier.

Like John, though, I don’t speak German. Which is why I’m glad we have Marleen here to assure us we’re not missing much.

[TheLeen]

> God, I wish I was doing Standard Nerds now!

Get back on it John! I’ll help you out! I’m an IT Crowd addict!

> assure us we?re not missing much.

You aren’t. Even if it looks a BIT like a show that actually somewhat likable, they’ve messed up too many things. First and foremost, the actors are no comedians. And the script is shit. It’s just not funny. I’ve read about three dozen (or more) reviews and blog entries about “Das iTeam” now and *not a single one* was positive. At the official Sat1 (tv channel) board, there’s only hate going on. The show had the lowest viewer rating of all shows that night (and I reckon the other ones were shit too, alas don’t get the amount of hate that iTeam does). I have read a total of ONE individual forum posting at a random discussion board that said “I don’t know the original, but this was actually okay.”

Believe me, there’s not much to like. :(

[Tarka Dal]

> the actors are no comedians

They don’t really need to be to pull off a successful sitcom. They just have to be good actors with a funny script.

[Phil]

>The show had the lowest viewer rating of all shows that night

Forgive the question, but what were the viewing figures like for the UK version’s first run? Were they high or was this show a slow burn?

[Andrew]

> Forgive the question, but what were the viewing figures like for the UK version?s first run?

“Poor”, basically.

> They don?t really need to be to pull off a successful sitcom. They just have to be good actors with a funny script.

I suspect Marleen meant they lacked comic timing, not that they weren’t also gainfully employed as joke tellers. And timing’s vital for a comic performance. A great dramatic actor can still kill a joke.

[Author]

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