EPISODE
SEASON
Vicious - Season 1
Freddie Thornhill (Sir Ian McKellen) and Stuart Bixby (Sir Derek Jacobi) are an old gay couple who have been together for nearly fifty years. Their lives now revolve around entertaining their frequent guests and hurling insults at each other at every opportunity.
1987, Ammanford, Carmarthen, Wales, UK
7 September 1960, London, England, UK
19 May 1931, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
30 July 1944, Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, England, UK
26 November 1943, Watford, Hertfordshire, England, UK
10 July 1972, Dover, England, UK
June 25, 2014
Leave your politically correct concerns on the doorstep, sit back, and let the venom wash over you like a sleet storm. McKellen and Jacobi, who are, of course, giants of their profession, are clearly having a lark with Vicious.
June 27, 2014
Vicious is a creepy, in style and attitude, retro serving of tea and hostility that's unworthy of the talents on board.
July 01, 2014
As a jazz musician might do something lovely even with a banal melody, McKellen and Jacobi - baritone to tenor - make beautiful, dissonant music together.
June 27, 2014
Line-for-line, Vicious would seem depressingly outdated and especially boring if delivered with American accents; but it somehow takes on a whiff of Oscar Wilde-like charm simply because it's British.
June 26, 2014
It's a breath of fresh television air.
June 27, 2014
McKellen turns out to be the show's not-so-secret weapon. A great actor playing a mediocre one, he's somehow entirely convincing in the part and particularly adept at delivering Janetti's acid-tongued putdowns and sarcastic asides.
June 27, 2014
Vicious is an apotheosis of the form: Its theatricality is expert, its rote insult comedy is delicious but not unyielding, and its unhip datedness is mined for exactly that quality.
June 30, 2014
Mr. McKellen and Mr. Jacobi attack their roles with gusto; they ensure that Vicious is a fun, farcical throwback.
June 27, 2014
The show is, essentially, three dated, clichéd jokes told over and over again.
July 08, 2014
Couple's relationship is groundbreaking, but jokes aren't.
