"Vicious", one of the gayest shows ever?

[marylander1940]

Vicious tells the story of aging partners Freddie and Stuart, two men who have lived together in their "Covent Garden" flat for almost 50 years. Freddie was a budding actor and Stuart worked in a bar when they first met, but their careers are pretty much over and their lives now consist of entertaining their frequent guests, making sure that their aged dog Balthazar is still breathing, and hurling caustic insults at each other.

 

[video=youtube;L0m1WzJiUv8]

 

http://www.pbs.org/program/vicious/

[Lookin]

I like the two programs I saw so far. Was thinking I'd love it, but not yet. The characters are not very well developed, in my opinion. But this is the beginning of Season 1, so I hold out hope.

 

More than hope, actually, as Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi are capable of much more than they've been asked to do in the episodes I saw.

 

With the rapid changes in gay culture, you should pardon the expression http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif, there should be years of good stories for these two.

 

And their friends. One of my fantasies is that they'll get Patrick Stewart* to guest star. I believe that he and McKellen are good friends, so maybe it's not such a long shot.

 

In the meantime, I'm glued to the screen Sundays at 10:30. http://www.myemoticons.com/emoticons/images/msn/smiley-in-action/tv.gif

 

 

*Although he's not gay (not yet anyway), Stewart had a terrific gay role on Frasier some time back:

 

[video=youtube;u6dOVgRev1U]

 

[+ poolboy48220]

Patrick Stewart & Ian McKellan are good enough friends that McKellan officiated at Patrick Stewart's wedding last year, to a female singer. The headlines were "Ian McKellan marries Patrick Stewart".

 

Patrick Stewart played gay wonderfully in "Jeffrey" in the 90's.

 

I've just set that show up on my DVR.

[actor61]

Vicious tells the story of aging partners Freddie and Stuart, two men who have lived together in their "Covent Garden" flat for almost 50 years. Freddie was a budding actor and Stuart worked in a bar when they first met, but their careers are pretty much over and their lives now consist of entertaining their frequent guests, making sure that their aged dog Balthazar is still breathing, and hurling caustic insults at each other.

 

[video=youtube;L0m1WzJiUv8]

 

http://www.pbs.org/program/vicious/

 

Forgive me, but I think it's just an awful, awful show and the 2 Sirs are slumming for money. It plays to every stereotype - swishy, bitchy queens insulting each other while their fag hag tries to seduce the hunky young man who hangs around with them. Awful, awful, awful.

[Electra 225]

I agree. The writing, directing, and acting are something out of a fifth-tier market community playhouse. This is an awful show that makes "The Boys In The Band" look like a multiple-award Academy Award film. This "show" needs to go away and stay away. It is an embarrasement to the gay community at large and to thinking people everywhere. Obviously, the cast is simply doing it for the money and phoning in their performances. They should be ashamed of themselves...

[marylander1940]

Maybe it's the stereotype of English people, and their sarcasm or it's a show about an older couple that happens to be formed but 2 males who have enough free time and treat each other that way.

Gay men come in all shapes, colors, backgrounds, religions, etc.

I wouldn't take it in such a personal way, some of the frequent characters do remind me of the actors, but non of my friends including the ones I've lost to HIV is close to those actors.

[TruthBTold]

I agree. The writing, directing, and acting are something out of a fifth-tier market community playhouse. This is an awful show that makes "The Boys In The Band" look like a multiple-award Academy Award film. This "show" needs to go away and stay away. It is an embarrasement to the gay community at large and to thinking people everywhere. Obviously, the cast is simply doing it for the money and phoning in their performances. They should be ashamed of themselves...

 

Even though I would like there to be a show about a group of older gay men interacting with each other on various levels, this is not the one. So far there has been no character development whatsoever. It is like something from the 80s, which is what I thought it was when I first saw it on PBS. I was shocked when I saw the production date as 2013.

[foxy]

This show could have such potential with such great actors involved but it is really bad. I find it hard to believe the money could be that good to ruin their reputations. Too bad. I was hoping to like it.

[bigvalboy]

I found them a bit interesting, only in that I do know a gay couple identical to this pair, and I was fascinated by the similarities. Thirty five plus years ago, they used to be married. When they split up, neither one could afford to buy the other one out of a rather fabulous home in Old Pasadena, and neither one was willing to leave the home that they had both loving restored, so there they stayed. They both dated other people for a number of years, but now, as they are well into their 70's, they have found themselves together, not only by chance, but now by choice, and the love that they have for each other is immeasurable. As the insults fly during their dinner parties, both will often laugh simultaneously. It is quite entertaining, and better than some plays I've seen.

[unsub2O17]

Yes, they're stereotypes, but some of the back and forth is really very witty. Derek Jacobi is now also into his second season of "Last Tango in Halifax"--shows what an amazing acting range this man has. Not to mention "I Claudius" or "Henry V".

[SteveEscort]

The show was a massive flop in England. It was in a graveyard shift time slot at 10.30pm and generally unliked. The theme tune doesn't gel at all with the show and is not a patch on other gay themed comedies like Gimme Gimme Gimme.

 

Some old luvvy in British TV obviously loved it because it's back for second season. It even had a Christmas special, which went totally over my head.

[actor61]

Yes, they're stereotypes, but some of the back and forth is really very witty. Derek Jacobi is now also into his second season of "Last Tango in Halifax"--shows what an amazing acting range this man has. Not to mention "I Claudius" or "Henry V".

 

Derek Jacobi is undisputably one of the greats, which is why his participation in this show is so difficult to understand. Both he and Ian Mackellan know how to read. Surely, they must have realized how terrible "Vicious" is when they were sent the first script.

 

When I was in drama school in London in the early 1970s, I became friends with Sir Derek through a program at the school. He was/is a delightful man. I never miss "Last Tango in Halifax" just to watch a master at work. I hope he's doing "Vicious" to pay off his mortgage or put a young relative through school because there really doesn't seem to be any other reason!

[Lookin]

Well, I watched the third show and can't say it's getting any better, but no worse either. The writer's an American who worked on Will and Grace and Family Guy, neither of which I found funny.

 

In my humble opinion, the writing's the problem so far and the difficulty may be the assumption that someone who has written for a gay-themed American show has all the qualifications necessary to write for a gay-themed show featuring two of the best British actors in the business. I think he's going to have to up his game if Vicious is going to get better.

 

This isn't the first British program with A-list acting and B-list writing. I've watched enough Keeping Up Appearances that I know nearly all the lines, most of which are wretched. But I keep watching to see Patricia Routledge deliver them. And of course her physical comedy.

 

I'll keep watching Vicious too, even if they have the boys read the phone book, fingers crossed all the while that they'll sneak in a good line every once in a while.

 

I thought the second show, where they had Stuart take a part-time job to buy Freddie a new coat, showed just a hint of three-dimensional characters. So I'm still holding out hope they can create something really good. But they're going to have to get serious about the material.

[tyro]

If these two acting deities are having trouble bringing this show alive.......uh........

I don't have a TV (the ex took that, but it's OK) so I've never seen the show, but these actors have mad skills!

T

[+ quoththeraven]

I saw the first episode, forgot to record the second, and haven't watched the third yet. Its style is supposed to be based on Brit comedies of the past like Are You Being Served. I wouldn't know, and I'm not convinced that creator/showrunner Jannetti (as noted, an American (and gay man) who worked on Will and Grace and Family Guy) is the best choice for this. To me, it has something of a music hall vibe to it.

 

At least half the problem is writing, and neither McKellan nor Jacobi has any experience with sitcoms or a studio audience. It shows. McKellan has said that he intends to tone down his performance so it isn't so broad, which I think is part of the reason the characters come across as two-dimensional. (Though I find Jacobi's character even more broad and stereotypical than McKellan's.) But in a wasteland where most sitcoms rely on stupidity and amusing or ironic situations rather than funny lines (I blame Seinfeld, possibly unfairly), at least it has lines that I find funny enough to laugh at, particularly about age and mortality. I also appreciate that it shows that there can be love beneath the snark and sarcasm and faux (and not so faux)-hatred.

 

Their friend Violet is the worst part of the show. As soon as she made the joke in the first episode about standing around waiting to be raped by the hunky new neighbor, I washed my hands of her. The desperate passes she then made at him only made things worse. If I wind up swearing off the show, she'll be reason number one.

[actor61]

I saw the first episode, forgot to record the second, and haven't watched the third yet. Its style is supposed to be based on Brit comedies of the past like Are You Being Served. I wouldn't know, and I'm not convinced that creator/showrunner Jannetti (as noted, an American (and gay man) who worked on Will and Grace and Family Guy) is the best choice for this. To me, it has something of a music hall vibe to it.

 

At least half the problem is writing, and neither McKellan nor Jacobi has any experience with sitcoms or a studio audience. It shows. McKellan has said that he intends to tone down his performance so it isn't so broad, which I think is part of the reason the characters come across as two-dimensional. (Though I find Jacobi's character even more broad and stereotypical than McKellan's.) But in a wasteland where most sitcoms rely on stupidity and amusing or ironic situations rather than funny lines (I blame Seinfeld, possibly unfairly), at least it has lines that I find funny enough to laugh at, particularly about age and mortality. I also appreciate that it shows that there can be love beneath the snark and sarcasm and faux (and not so faux)-hatred.

 

Their friend Violet is the worst part of the show. As soon as she made the joke in the first episode about standing around waiting to be raped by the hunky new neighbor, I washed my hands of her. The desperate passes she then made at him only made things worse. If I wind up swearing off the show, she'll be reason number one.

 

I couldn't agree with you more. The character Violet is the most offensive aspect of the show. And she IS the reason I stopped watching.

[EastbayMike]

Derek Jacobi also guest starred on a Frasier episode as an awful stage actor.

[Lookin]

Derek Jacobi also guest starred on a Frasier episode as an awful stage actor.

 

 

Yes, he's done sitcom before and quite well I thought. Of course he did have a good writer. http://www.bufftalk.org/forum/images/smilies/icon_shakespeare.gif

 

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[+ quoththeraven]

Also it's a different thing to be guest star on a sitcom versus starring in one.

[Kevin Slater]

I suffered through about ten minutes of the pilot episode. Nothing original and the grating laugh track was unbearable. I am fascinated, however, that one actress' name is Frances de la Tour. Dress her in a yellow jersey and presto! you've got a drag queen.

 

Kevin Slater

[+ poolboy48220]

She played Madame Maxine, the headmistress of the French Wizarding school Beauxbatons, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She was half-giant, and had a thing going on with Hagrid.