Not quite as vexed

It’s the difficult second series. Vexed series one starred Toby Stephens and Lucy Punch as cheese and actual copper partner (not chalk) in a collection of comedy crime capers. He was an ass, a fool and a misogynistic pain-in-the-neck who had infuriated away every partner he’d ever had. He hadn’t set foot in the actual nick in years (creating a useful device for all the police work to actually be discussed in a bar cum coffee house rather than an expensive cop shop set) and had all the tact of a bull in a china shop who was also trying to do a three-legged race tied to another equally mal-coordinated bull. And she was a regular pretty good copper who just wanted to do her job and coped with him as best she could.

Wittily written and with sparks flying from these above par lead actors, their contrast worked. He was a bit loopy but meant well, in a drunk uncle kind of way, and she was the long-suffering partner who had her head screwed on right. Now Lucy Punch has left and been replaced by Miranda Raison (Spooks and Merlin), taking on the role of earthing Toby Stephens’ ridiculous live wire. Except she doesn’t. She’s a bit more a chalk to his milder cheese. Hmm.

His new partner is not down-to-earth enough

The first series split the critics, but I liked it. It was three episodes and this is made up of six. My difficulty with this is that Toby Stephens is no longer too outlandish. He’s still a bit of an ass, but there are no truly cringey moments of real dislike. Maybe the other critics made an impact on this, softened his edges, but the harsher side of comedy characters is what makes British writing so much fun and what always gets lambasted when being ‘adapted’ for the US market. I didn’t think we really had to do it here too.

My second issue is that his new partner, played by the lovely Miranda Raison, is not down-to-earth enough. She’s a bit uptight, a workaholic, yet still silly enough to send up the hard sell Stephens gets from a particularly predatory car saleswoman, with lewd gestures and suggestive faces behind the vixen’s back. What’s the point of the eccentricities if there’s no-one there tapping their long-suffering toe patiently and looking to the sky in exasperation?

The power of the straight man (or woman) is not to be underestimated. It’s more than just a tradition, it’s a method to get the most out of a pairing and the material they can share. Just A Minute would be nothing without Nicholas Parsons and Sesame Street’s Ernie without Bert would be plain annoying and tedious. The loss of Lucy Punch’s actual police person, dragging Stephens out of scrapes and allowing him the opportunity to shine, pleased as Punch, should he crack the case himself, is felt in this season opener.
Yes, it’s been tweaked but it’s still fun, just not quite as brilliantly obnoxious. But it might raise itself to those heights yet. Supporting characters CSI Naz and barkeep Tony have the potential to bring in that ‘straight-man’ perspective that’s such an asset in highlighting the comedy of the situation. We’ve got five more episodes to find out. Fingers crossed.

Vexed, BBC2, Wednesday 1 August 2012