For someone old enough to know the rallying cry of "what's on the end of the stick, Vic?" and to have loved the show from which it came, I do appreciate the humor of Vic & Bob and have enjoyed it in many formats down the years. With that in mine I must admit that House of Fools has some issues that they have not been able to overcome, even if generally they had enough of their comedy about the show to make it quite funny and worth watching for fans (although probably not anyone else).
The sitcom provides a frame for them to do their thing but, while this worked with a panel show, it feels a bit too restrictive in how it is structured – requiring a narrative flow that is not always easy to setup and serve. For sure I can understand why some would look at this sitcom and turn it off, because it is far from what one would normally expect – and not all of that distance is a good thing. The humor is roundly silly as well; the duo always walk a fine line with this – and they generally have succeeded in the past to stay the right side of the silly line, keeping it surreal rather than stupid for the sake of it but in House of Fools it perhaps is not as consistent as it could have been. One of the things dragging it to the wrong side of the line is that so much of it is really crude. Some of this works but too much of it is poorly done and does feel like grown men laughing at naughtiness like they were children. Conversely though some of it is great stuff and is wildly imaginative and well done – the issue is that the mix doesn't work so the good stuff doesn't totally draw you in since the rest pushes away.
The characters are a mix. Vic and Bob themselves are pretty funny, with both playing their roles well. Berry is always welcome even if he is doing his usual stuff. Robinson's Julie is reasonably good in terms of character, while in terms of performance she is up for whatever is asked of her. Skinner is the same and it is not his fault that Bosh feels like a poor man's Uncle Peter; meanwhile Simonsen's Erik is amusing enough even if his one joke doesn't get funnier with repetition in the way that some other jokes do.
You do need to be a fan to get into this show, but the success of Vic and Bob in the past shows they have plenty of those. For me it had many things about it that really worked well, but too often it went to the wrong side of absurd and ended up feeling silly for the sake of it – particularly the cruder material which is generally not particularly funny either. I read there will be a second season and I do hope it can take what works and reduce what does not.
