Quote: curtis patrick @ April 29 2013, 11:49 PM BST

I know you jest but in all fairness - I don't mean to offend, the show just annoyed me so perhaps 'simple minded' wasn't the right thing to say - in review - I believe that was simple comedy, so those that enjoyed it like simple comedy.

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You get annoyed by simple comedy? Jesus, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton etc must really piss you off.

Quote: curtis patrick @ April 29 2013, 11:43 PM BST

Oh darling, what are you like? You're so out of touch, har har it's rather amusing.

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No genuinely Zac who?

Quote: Pingl @ April 30 2013, 12:00 AM BST

You get annoyed by simple comedy? Jesus, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton etc must really piss you off.

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Comedy evolves - it's not the comedy that annoys me, it's the lazyness.

Quote: Pingl @ April 30 2013, 12:00 AM BST

No genuinely Zac who?

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'Oh sweetheart, I know you don't know of whom the young chap speaks of, I'm as lost as you, we're a right pair aren't we? Oh lord it's very amusing, more wine?'

Quote: curtis patrick @ April 30 2013, 12:15 AM BST

Comedy evolves - it's not the comedy that annoys me, it's the lazyness.

'Oh sweetheart, I know you don't know of whom the young chap speaks of, I'm as lost as you, we're a right pair aren't we? Oh lord it's very amusing, more wine?'

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Comedy evolves? Bollocks, it's either funny or it ain't, if it's funny it stays funny, if it's not it don't.

A right pair, bit sexist that

Quote: Pingl @ April 30 2013, 12:20 AM BST

Comedy evolves? Bollocks, it's either funny or it ain't, if it's funny it stays funny, if it's not it don't.

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Of course it evolves, society changes, comedy does to reflect it, to reflect our thinking.

Quote: curtis patrick @ April 30 2013, 12:25 AM BST

Of course it evolves, society changes, comedy does to reflect it, to reflect our thinking.

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Comedy fashions change, they go in and out. But what is funny remains funny, a pie in the face, someone falling over etc etc. Laurel and Hardy belong to the first half of the twentieth century but they remain funny. The best comedy always remain funny, Hancock, Keaton etc. Cream rises, time tells, comedy at its essence is a universal that doesn't change. Basically, fashions change, funny is always funny. Benny Hill was funny and is funny, he became unfashionable but things change and people are reevaluating him now, because basically what he did was classically funny. The ancient Greeks knew what was funny, Plautus knew what was funny in ancient Rome, the basics never really change.

Talking about what is funny evolving or not is a lost cause as all humour is subjective anyway.

I still loved Vicious. And I couldn't give a flying f**k if anyone thinks I or my sense of humour are 'simple'. All I ask from a comedy is for it to evoke laughter, and this did so in spades.

Quote: Aaron @ April 30 2013, 12:39 AM BST

Talking about what is funny evolving or not is a lost cause as all humour is subjective anyway.

I still loved Vicious.

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I love a lost cause, and I liked Vicious too.

Quote: Aaron @ April 30 2013, 12:39 AM BST

Talking about what is funny evolving or not is a lost cause as all humour is subjective anyway.

I still loved Vicious. And I couldn't give a flying f**k if anyone thinks I or my sense of humour are 'simple'. All I ask from a comedy is for it to evoke laughter, and this did so in spades.

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Yup

I was concerned that the previews and the publicity was just hype however I did enjoy it.

Yes McKellen and Jacobi did 'ham' it but the show asks for that.
The set certainly could have been a theatre stage but the show didn't suffer for that.
It didn't have me rolling on the floor like the studio audience but I smiled a lot and even chuckled.
I don't think Ms De la Tour's character was like Miss Jones from Rising Damp at all.
Fortunately the Mrs was abed so I could relax my miserable down-trodden persona for a brief moment.

I hope it gets even better though I worry that they might 'gay' out.

Very promising opener.

Quote: Aaron @ April 30 2013, 12:39 AM BST

Talking about what is funny evolving or not is a lost cause as all humour is subjective anyway.

I still loved Vicious. And I couldn't give a flying f**k if anyone thinks I or my sense of humour are 'simple'. All I ask from a comedy is for it to evoke laughter, and this did so in spades.

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By your tone, it seems you're suggesting 'simple' is negative, that has not been said, just that the humour in the show has no depth. If that's what people like then all the best to them sincerely - I was stating from a writing perspective that it is effortless.

Having read all the reviews for the show - because I have to for this website as I'm the one who links them to the guide - the critics hate this show, but mainly because you can hear people laughing.

Quote: curtis patrick @ April 29 2013, 11:49 PM BST

I know you jest but in all fairness - I don't mean to offend, the show just annoyed me so perhaps 'simple minded' wasn't the right thing to say - in review - I believe that was simple comedy, so those that enjoyed it like simple comedy.

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Or can appreciate many different types of TV sitcom; from Vicious to Louie. A nice varied diet.

Quote: Ian Wolf @ April 30 2013, 8:45 AM BST

Having read all the reviews for the show - because I have to for this website as I'm the one who links them to the guide - the critics hate this show, but mainly because you can hear people laughing.

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The Guardian gets upset that it's pre-Office. If that means "funny" rather than "sneery and uncomfortable". then I'm all for it.

One of the pieces of received wisdom that has to be challenged is that The Office is the highpoint of comedy of the past twenty years, and after it, everything changes, rather like the aftermath of a large meteor hitting Mexico and killing the dinosaurs. Hence the endless parade of workplace-set, laugh-free, shaky camera pseudo-docs. The more advanced version of this conceit is that in fact the KT boundary of comedy is Curb Your Enthusiasm, a claim undermined by the fact that approximately no-one actually watches it, whereas the Office was at least somewhat popular.

There's nothing wrong with laugh-out-loud studio-based comedy. When it's done well, as I think Vicious is, then it's funny. It's entertaining. It passes half an hour. When it's done badly, or with a contempt for the audience (essentially, "I wouldn't watch this, but I'll make it for the little people who don't know any better") then it's "The Wright Way" and it's horrid.

Quote: Kidda @ April 29 2013, 9:35 PM BST

Maybe I need to give it another go but I just didn't find it that funny.

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Weirdly, I didn't find it funny either, but I laughed a lot.

The writing was tidy but completely obvious and without character, apart from about 2 lines...and yet, with a cast like that, every third hand old sitcom one-two seems hilarious. I may get bored over the duration - or, alternately, now we're set up the writing might become more interesting - but either way I'll be watching again.

Quote: Tursiops @ April 29 2013, 11:48 PM BST

The script was too frail a thing to bear the weight of those performances.

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That's nicely put.

Quote: gappy @ April 30 2013, 9:45 AM BST

Weirdly, I didn't find it funny either, but I laughed a lot.

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I despair.

Anyway, I thought it was great. Bit short on story perhaps but I laughed all the way through which is - I believe - what a sitcom is meant to make me do, so it certainly succeeds. And who'd have thought that ITV, after being terrified of sitcoms for so long, would come back with such a confident belter? Amazing!

Quote: gappy @ April 30 2013, 9:45 AM BST

Weirdly, I didn't find it funny either, but I laughed a lot.

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