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Critic Reviews
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This sitcom is simply infectious. [4 Jul 2014, p.60]
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In the hands of McKellen, Jacobi, and company, they are sitcom characters who manage the tightrope between human warmth and on-screen viciousness, and they do it by being the best damn sitcom characters they can be.
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It’s like watching old episodes of “Served” or “Keeping Up Appearances” or “Allo Allo”: slightly horrifying, like a slow-motion train wreck, but also, every few minutes, convulsingly funny. This has everything to do with Mr. Jacobi and Mr. McKellen.
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It’s a breath of fresh television air.
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McKellen and Jacobi, who are, of course, giants of their profession, are clearly having a lark with Vicious, and you'd be foolish not to want in on the fun.
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Once you accept that you are in for a certain kind of joke repeated over and over again — or three kinds of jokes, if you include those regarding the deterioration of mind and body and those about kids these days — and settle in to the show's rhythms, you find yourself, paradoxically, laughing more easily.
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While Vicious plots don’t stick, they do entertain.
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Sounding like an old married couple, the interplay between the two is, at times, bitingly and laugh-out-loud funny. But it also becomes tedious.
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There’s an odd-couple vibe to Vicious, though it’s also a big, broad comedy reminiscent of Frasier if Niles and Frasier were a bickering gay couple instead of brothers.
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The mean-spirited (if ultimately loving) nature of the series could easily be a turn-off for some. Others will simply wish the writing was as consistently clever as McKellen’s line readings.
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Vicious is Two and a Half Men for pensioners. Some of the jokes admittedly are very funny, but they are ruined by a hideous laugh track.
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McKellen and Jacobi seem to have a fun time slinging the insults, but before long, the show starts repeating itself, almost as if it’s going senile right before our eyes.
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There are some giggles here and there.... But mostly, Vicious is a creepy, in style and attitude, retro serving of tea and hostility that's unworthy of the talents on board.
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The show is, essentially, three dated, clichéd jokes told over and over again.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 15 out of 19
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Mixed: 3 out of 19
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Negative: 1 out of 19
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Jun 30, 2014
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Jul 22, 2015
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Jun 20, 2015