Most critics take to it. The praise clusters on Graham Linehan’s writing, which several reviewers say lifts a standard workplace sitcom into full-blown farce, with the ‘Work Outing’ episode named as the peak. The three leads are singled out repeatedly, Moss in particular, and more than one review approves of the show for leaning into the studio-audience format rather than apologising for it. The comparison with Father Ted comes up: geeks get the treatment the clergy once did. The final special is judged a well-balanced send-off.
The spread is wide. Empire, reviewing in 2006, finds the comedy limp and lazy, with few proper laughs and characters that never feel real. Variety, two years later, likes the concept but finds the loopy execution only occasionally delivers. Radio Times notes, more gently, that the series did not set the world alight at first and is best understood as a grower.