I enjoyed it. It was sweet and old-fashioned but funny. Loved the hysterical reaction to the curtains being drawn - 'The light!' Frances de la Tour's character is a recreation of Miss Jones, the spinster who thinks she a guy magnet.

Very Poor. The cast is great but it was just Poor.

Disappointed.

Ken

Which was sweetest, the rape joke, the dead prostitute joke, the dead dogs joke or the lechery?

There were a few funny moments but it was all a bit too frenetic with the scatter gun 'jokes'. There didn't seem to be any time to get to know the characters and build up the pace. Hopefully it'll settle down a bit next week

The only comedy that has been successful with that is Not Going Out in my opinion. I prefer a slower approach like One Foot In the Grave. You had time to laugh your head of and it was just genius.

Panto basically. Shame.

Ken

You must be one of Ben Elton's assistants...

I think I preferred this more than The Job Lot but as I say everyone to their own.

Just shows how divisive subjective comedy is- I think Not Going Out is derivative nonsense, and Lee Mack has the comic timing of a potato.

(I do love OFITG though!)

Simply awful. McKellen & Jacobi should be ashamed of themsleves.

Judging by the last scene I think the reactions to the door/phone are going to be a funny running gag.

I thought it was really funny !

A gay version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, but okay. Ian McKeelen and Derek Jacobi playing to the back row but they seemed to enjoy it. Some lines were very 'projected' in a stagey way. Needs to be more subtle and a bit more story. This is why One Foot In The Grave is still very much missed.

Each to their own Ken.
I thought One foot was dire.

Indeed - you can get a bit more panto once the characters bed in and we get used to them. Interestingly, one of the writers worked on Will and Grace, which started off in a rather low key way and then got brasher and more cartoony over time. This was too top heavy with one liners which stopped us from getting to know the characters.

I imagine though that writing the first episode of a sitcom must be really difficult, as you have to juggle the jokes and the scene setting. The only first episode which I have ever seen which accomplished this well was AB Fab - the first 15 minutes is just Saffy and Eddie alone in the kitchen, and then in the second half Patsy materialises and we go into Eddie's work life. Simplicity is key - the problem with Vicious is that it tried to bombard its audience with too much too early on

Preferred this over The Job Lot (too much like a documentary if you've every had any experience of the DWP).

Probably have worked better if they'd done a few asides to camera ALA Mrs Brown.

I think this show's audience is 10pm on Sunday night though.

The reason a few posters on here suspect canned laughter was used was because the clunky, expositional jokes near the beginning prompted an unrealistic amount of laughter.


Even American sitcoms weren't / aren't that bad...

I laughed a couple of times (twice more than I did for The Wright Way) but I didn't like it on the whole. Too camp, overacted, no subtlety...it felt a lot like am-dram.

I'm not irrationally offended by its faults (did I mention The Wright Way?) but I can't see why the Radio Times decided to give it rave reviews when the standard of the jokes was very low.

Rape jokes? I mean, come on.

Jacobi is much more deft at comedy than McKellern.

First episodes are usually hard with comedies, you have to get to know characters before finding them hilarious.

It was better than I thought it would be, I'm not yet going to put money on it being a flop or a success but I shall watch again next week

It could have been SO much better.. i just found it as limp as an old lettuce..

Two of our greatest actors and a large slice of Ham - divine

Oh, I strongly disagree.

I think you may be confusing camp for comedy. McKellen was far funnier.

Too true - a good comedy will have the confidence to mix jokes which elicit a mild titter with much bigger belly laughs. Vicious seemed to be working just at one level - EVERY line seemed to elicit a huge laugh

Well I laughed and think it has potential

More ham than a deli counter - wonderful!

Loved Frances de la Tour's character

I'll keep watching

The mix of opinions on here is quite interesting. Some people are making a fair criticism that it was very stagey and the two leads were just hamming it up massively - but that to me was why I enjoyed it so much. Not every sitcom needs to be subtle and knowing.

I think it's bloody hilarious. I like the idea of an old fashioned sitcom