# TV show Vicious - is it worth staying up late? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635 "2014-07-21T00:04:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/1 "2014-07-21T00:04:16Z")
I haven’t seen [Vicious](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicious_(TV_series)) but it sounds like something I’d like - anyone seen it? is it worth staying up past my usual bedtime to watch? 😛 wikipedia says _Vicious is a British sitcom shown on ITV. The series stars Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as Freddie and Stuart, an elderly gay couple who have been together for 48 years but endure a love/hate relationship._ ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/2 "2014-07-21T00:21:14Z")
Love it! Great cast and writing. Love the way they talk to each other. The plots are a bit silly but who cares? Watching this group and the chemistry they have is a real treat. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/3 "2014-07-21T01:13:50Z")
exactly what I was hoping to hear, thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/4 "2014-07-21T02:00:33Z")
Right, it’s not about “plot,” it’s about characters… with some really funny lines. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/5 "2014-07-21T02:10:50Z")
all the British comedy I can think of is character driven; best stuff out there! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/6 "2014-07-21T02:56:36Z")
Saw the first one and it really, truly blew chunks. A complete waste of talent. Stereotypical bitchy, old queens, obvious and cheap jokes, acting and delivery that was unforgivably stagy. A crappy, 70s sitcom magically pushed into 2014. “On the Buses” was funnier. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/7 "2014-07-21T04:03:07Z")
No. It’s not worth it. It sounded like it should be really funny and the cast is great but I saw the first episode and it was horrible. It seemed like something from the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/8 "2014-07-21T04:51:39Z")
hey,\* I’m\* from the 70s…:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/9 "2014-07-21T11:19:43Z")
It was bad. Really really really really offensively really really bad. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/10 "2014-07-21T13:06:49Z")
I did stay up and watch it and it wasn’t that bad - wasn’t excellent but I smiled a time or two and enjoyed watching two excellent actors. I’d watch it again. bad? pfft! I used to watch a show called 'Allo 'Allo a World War II comedy that was less believable than Hogan’s Heroes and more tacky than Benny Hill. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/11 "2014-07-21T15:26:38Z")
I like it. I’ll admit it’s cliched, but everyone gets the most out of the lines and there’s plenty to make me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/12 "2014-07-21T16:01:26Z")
Jacobi and McKellan slumming is funny for about 5 minutes and the old lady who falls asleep all the time amuses me, but it feels dated and more sad than anything else. Two men in a relationship like that is fundamentally depressing, not humorous. Also, far too little eyecandy. If we must be stereotypical and trite, then at least work in some shirtless hunks to appeal to my shallowness because it sure didn’t appeal to my mind. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/13 "2014-07-21T17:27:27Z")
I didn’t like the first episode, but after that it gets into a rhythm - the phone call to the mother at the start of each episode, for example. They know it’s camp, and it’s worth seeing Ian McKellan sputter his lines. His transformation from sad and dejected to downright giddy when Ass, er Ash, gets and then loses his acting job is delightful. Violet is also starting to grow on me too. I felt the same way watching the first episodes of _The Big Bang Theory_, if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/14 "2014-07-21T18:01:29Z")
It’s weird, in that it’s like a very 1970s comedy except it stars two really big stars (Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen, and actually also Frances de la Tour) and it’s about two gay men, which wouldn’t have been done in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/15 "2014-07-22T12:20:13Z")
It’s worth watching just to listen to Derek Jacobi talk. He has a voice that Morgan Freeman would envy. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/16 "2014-07-22T12:31:56Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > It’s worth watching just to listen to Derek Jacobi talk. He has a voice that Morgan Freeman would envy. Correction, that’s Ian McKellan. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/17 "2014-07-22T13:07:21Z")
Actually, it’s Ian McKellen. (EN not AN.) ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/18 "2014-07-22T14:28:44Z")
I love both of them for their talent and Derek is still hot. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/19 "2014-07-22T23:19:00Z")
Was he ever hot? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635/20 "2014-07-22T23:32:41Z")
yes - that’s my point. when I first saw him he was playing a monk and he looked good in what is NOT a flattering outfit. he still does! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-show-vicious-is-it-worth-staying-up-late/693635.md?page=2)