The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle

This is a really, really good comedy. We tend to live in a culture where if something isn't making us laugh every few seconds, it gets overlooked. Such is the case with this show. The target is the repugnant daytime chat shows that exploit misery and anguish for cheap light entertainment through armchair psychology and stereotypical prejudice. There's a very tangible anger running through this show that elevates it from satire into something very biting and raw.

Saunders and Richardson are magnificent, Richardson particularly. Theirs are intelligent performances, superbly delivered. The show is co-written by Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist and the show itself is largely about the manipulation and exploitation of emotion and vulnerability in the name of greed and media status. Will it make you laugh hysterically for 30 minutes a time? No. Is it designed to do so? No. Is criticism of it for not doing so therefore an epic failure of understanding and appreciation of dark comedic satire? Absolutely.

This series will definitely have its detractors, but I'm sure that both Jennifer Saunders and Tanya Byron already knew that going in. Still, they are holding up a mirror ...

Sometimes it's incredibly brutal and tragic; sometimes shockingly so. Take a look around at our world. If you're honest about what you see, you'd see this show as an indictment of media corporations and the celebrities they produce for worship, true that. However, you'd also see regular, vulnerable people who don't even try to communicate anymore unless there's some bit of technology between them and others, be it television or the Internet or their celphones. A character says 'association by disassociation' and I think that's such an accurate and succinct description of the contradiction that many of the more vicious daytime talkshow hosts thrive off of.

Meanwhile, we're all still here together: wanting to connect with others and struggling with our own difficulties wherever they find us.

This show is brilliant. I'm actually surprised that it made it this far. Yes, there is hilarious comedy in there, too, but this is not garden variety satire merely for the sake of laughs. And Jennifer Saunders' amazing portrayal and that of her supporting cast is only heightened by the outstanding writing and direction. There were so many moments that literally took my breath away.

I love Vivienne Vyle!

Basically I think people is expecting "a new Ab Fab" which is just ridiculous. I mean, I LOVE Ab Fab and bought all the episodes and I'd be the first to scream and cry with happiness if Jen decided to do Ab Fab again, but come on! We can't expect Jen to do the same thing forever! I think it's brilliant of her to do something so different, and not just get stuck in the Ab Fab-y sort of comedy. I watched the pilot of Mirrorball and I'm glad it didn't get picked up. Sure, it was entertaining, but it was also practically the same as Absolutely Fabulous, with the same types of characters. Vivienne Vyle is something completely different and has a darker style of comedy and may therefore not be appreciated by all the Ab Fab fans, but I really loved it! V.V. is not even supposed to be a comedy actually, but a sort of a dark drama containing comedy. It's advertised as a comedy only because Saunders is in it, and therefore people will watch it. I think this show only proofs to us that Jen has several talents ad not just in comedy. She's like an onion! Not that she smells bad and makes people cry, but she has layers. Terrific layers. Either you only love her for her hilarious ones, or you can appreciate her for her deeper sides as well, as I do.

Hurrah for VV!

I adore AbFab, and have enjoyed Jennifer Saunders in just about everything she's done. So I really wanted to like this show. But I can't; it is much too excruciating a spectacle. Perhaps if it had been packaged as raw drama, it might have had its moments of brilliance. But presented as it is as "from the creators of AbFab", and echoing the AbFab narrative in more ways than one, it goes off the rails almost instantly. Simply put, it assumes that because AbFab won accolades for cruel jokes, angry rants and portrayals of addiction, then by extension -- more cruelty, more anger and more addiction will yield the mother of all comedies. It doesn't. "Watching a car crash" is a tired cliché, and yet so apt here: I was drawn in, yes, and at the same time not tickled or intrigued even for a second. Just pulled into masochistic voyeurism of no redeeming qualities.

When the first episode of Vivienne Vyle premiered in the UK in October 2007, the critics knives were out for Jennifer Saunders latest venture into sitcom territory. A sharp shock for anyone expecting Absolutely Fabulous or Jam and Jerusalem, Vivienne Vyle is a disturbing, all too real insight into the world of TV talk shows and celebrity culture.

Jennifer Saunders relishes her role as the ambitious, uncompromising Vivienne Vyle - host of a trashy morning talk show. Miranda Richardson excels as the heavy drinking, manic editor of the show who, after a fight breaks out on the show, decides to take the programme in a new direction.

Over six thirty-minute episodes, The Life And Times Of Vivienne Vyle perfectly balances comedy, tragedy and a disturbingly authentic view of the celebrity culture in which we live.

Ignore the critics and give it a chance - this is Jennifer Saunders at her very best.