Second and last season of Vicious keeps on describing the same situation as before: 2 elderly queens living together for half a century, their relationship with each other, with their friends, neighbours and family. Ash remains a part of the circle; he came with a girlfriend in the first episode, proposed to her a little later; and it was the rejection that he faced that forced Freddy and Stuart to re-evaluate the type of relationship they have. Most of the subsequent narration is dedicated to their wedding with excursions into Violet’s story (who became a victim of a scam), and Ash’s.

It should also be noted that there is a double episode special called A Year. It follows the story 1 more year after the events of the show’s finale, and is divided into 4 chapters, each depicting one of the seasons. It’s not very different from the show itself and basically winds up the plot.

In comparison with season 1 the show became even louder and cocky due to new visual design: somehow it correlates with the show’s inner essence, but, weirdly enough, does not make it any more pleasant to watch. Same goes for the deviations from the genre: in season 2 there is a lot of exterior scenes, and a whole lot of new, circumstantial characters, which definitely makes the narrative much more vivid, but not harmonious; if anything, it adds a note of nervousness to the whole thing. The way the writers handled new characters shows that they didn’t have a lot of ideas about them except that there should be more people – most of the heroes are easy to forget simply because none of the stays for long, even when it’s appropriate (like with Ash’s girlfriend).

The humor is exactly as it was – crude, slapstick, tendentious. There were less dog-themed jokes (thank god), but otherwise it’s pretty much the same thing. What’s different, though, is how sentimental the story became. Over the course of the season, and then during the special, it gradually became almost a melodrama – and almost here is only because it didn’t have enough time to hatch properly. All in all it’s a tear-jerker alright.

So what can be said about Vicious? It’s a weird and undesired bastard of comedy that strives to be 2 completely opposite things simultaneously, and dies out after finally realizing how impossible of a task it is. It may be worth watching for McKellen’s fans, but should probably be avoided even by them.

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Vicious is a sitcom about a couple of elderly gays and a bunch of their friends and acquaintances. Freddy and Stuart has been living with each other for almost half a century, yet Stuart’s mother still doesn’t know the truth about them. Things start moving more sharper when a new neighbour moves into the apartment above – a young man named Ash, for whom the Freddy & Stuart company becomes a substitute for a family.

This is a downright sitcom – a really devoted attempt at restoring genre’s original conventionalities and limitations. I can guess Janetti is a fan of it, and through this show he expresses his dearest desire to bring it back. It doesn’t seem like he believes it’s even possible, though, because the whole thing reeks of desperation. It’s like the show tries to be cosy and shocking at the same time, which is naturally weird and produces corresponding effect. The humor bears a note of hysteria, pretty much all of it.

The presence of Ian McKellen, as well as of Iwan Rheon (whom I know from Misfits and, of course, Game of Thrones) is worth mentioning, although in view of the genre policy on the show, neither of them did anything particularly remarkable.

All in all, the show might give you a laugh or two, but considering the negative counter-weights that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to watch it.

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