Customer Reviews

Absolutely Fabulous - Series 1 to 3 [VHS]

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Absolutley Fabulous is undoubtedly one of the very, very best British sitcoms. Every episode is hilarious and it started a nation crying out "sweetie darling". The pairing of Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley is priceless! These form a hilariously over the top duo who are both in the fashion industry but do very little work and mainly leave it up to the incompentent and very dizzy Bubbles (played brilliantly by the talented Jane Horrocks) to do all the work even though she makes a shambles out of it most of the time. Theres also Saffron (perfectly played by Julia Sawalha) who is Edinas' poor, put upon daughter and comedy veteran June Whitfield as Edinas' batty mother. This is certainly a big highlight in the career of the enormously talented writer and actress Jennifer Saunders. All of these 18 episodes are classics, made instantly memroable by its sharp, witty diaogue and magnificent comic playing. Its intersting to see Joanna Lumley escape her usual aristocratic image and play foul mouthed, chain smoking Patsy Stone. Saunders and Lumley have masterminded that essential comic delivery and timing brilliantly. It really iis impossible to select a favourite episode but could say that amongst the best are POOR (series two) when Edina and Patsy are arrested for drunk driving. One of the funniest scenes to take place in this episode is when Eddy and Pats are holding up traffic. A lady presses the car horn continually to which they jump out the car and go up to the car the lady is in and start hurling abuse at her. Classic stuff. Other excellent episodes include where they go off to Morroco to promote Edinas new business venture, Pop specs. An episode titled DoorHandle (series three) is where they travel all the way to New York in search of a new, hip, door handle for Edinas living room. FIRE is a great one when Eddy, Pats and Saffron are locked in a room together and they all reveal there darkest secrets. The quality in all three series' never once falters. A CLASSIC! HILARIOUS! A COMIC MASTERPIECE! Excellent comic playing and a hilarious, rollercoaster dialogue. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!

This brilliant, caustic, uproarious and innovative situation comedy will go down in history as one of the very few greatest ever. The premise -- sort of a American sitcom turned on its head (the mother is the juvenile and the daughter is the sensible one) -- might have gotten stale or threadbare quickly. But with a genius like Jennifer Saunders writing and starring, and with the sterling supporting cast, this set is a delectable treat from first to last. The self-absorbed and fad-mad Edina and the equally self-absorbed sex-and-substance addict Patsy, the not-always patient Saffron, and June Whitfield hilarious as Edina's Mother, are main ingredients in a witches' brew that will intoxicate and delight you. And special mention has to be made of the numerous flashback and dream sequences, which are so far-out and funny that they'd be worth the price alone! (For example, in the "Birth" episode, the flashback to Edina's birth-- with Mother in her hospital bed made up complete with lipstick and wearing pearls as the nurse wields huge salad tongs to clamp the exiting child...and Patsy's riotously funny birth scene in a Paris avant-garde flat with beat poets, a Piafian singer, a ballet dancer, and a modern painter, swirling around Patsy's mother as she free-verses "Come, no longer my ball and chain! Enter the world, you tiny-- mediocrity!... Oh, cut the cord, cut the cord!..." is, in a word, priceless!). Patsy and Edina are (really) horrible but excruciatingly funny! A Desert Island set!

My 19 yr old daughter and I cannot get enough of this absolutely fabulous British comedy. You will either love it or hate it--no in-between. This ingenious series is a perfect satire on the 60's generation. It is brilliant comedy acting by women--from the main characters, Eddie, Patsy, Saffie, Mrs. M, and Bubble to the other women characters in the fashion industry that surround them. There is plenty of drinking, drugs, self-centeredness, imaginative costume, shouting, loud theme music and outrageous behavior to make one wonder what the appeal is. Absolutely Fabulous lifts off the ground and takes flight. If you become hooked and fond of these insane characters you will go through the series and back again and again. A great time capsule of a whacky culture.

I first caught an episode of Absolutely fabulous about 5 years ago. This is probably the funniest comedy I have ever seen in my life. I usually don't purchase tapes, as once you've seen the movie and caught it on TV, that's usually enough...but this is different. I have to admit that I've watched these tapes over and over again, and they just get funnier! Jennifer Saunders is an extremely talented woman when it comes to her writing and acting skills here. The cast and characters are perfect, which makes it all work so well. I understand there were plans to recreate this series in America...I don't even think they should try as it would never come across the same. The only unfortunate thing about this series is that they only made 18 episodes. I would love to see more!

Jennifer Saunders is a comic genius. She has created characters so real, you wonder if she doesn't really know these people. Dysfunctional takes on a whole new dimension in Eddie Monsoon's world of drink, drugs, and immorality. The one-line cracks are the best. Even though the subject matter (alcoholism, drug abuse, promiscuity, bad mothering, extreme materialism, lack of concern or care for anyone else in the world) is heavy, it is never treated with a heavy hand. Just remember, Jennifer Saunders (who plays the lead character) is making fun of what she portrays. And listen carefully: the British accent can make you miss some jokes when they go by too quickly. I have every tape in this series memorized, word for word, and I am not a big fan of watching TV or videos. By the way, Bubble is the most underrated character in this series: Jane Horrocks is HILARIOUS! This box set is worth every penny.

This is not a review, but a response to some of the other reviews out there. Ab Fab has a DVD release date! It will be available in the UK from mid November on DVD (only region 2 coding, though).

Keep up the pressure and a zone 1 (USA) version will not be far behind.

These beautifully funny shows rival the old screwball comedies of the 1930's & '40's for roll-on-the-ground laughing madness. In fact, the old and rarely seen adjective "madcap" describes the shows perfectly.

Edina Monsoon is a self-absorbed slacker who lives high by ripping off her ex-husbands. She and her friend Patsy Stone get into almost as many misadventures as they do bottles of vodka. Saffy, Edina's long-suffering, introverted daughter provides the foil for the madness.

Jennifer Saunders has talent coming out of her ears; not only does she perform pratfalls and other physical comedy without the help of a stand-in, but her non-stop delivery would be funny if were just reading the phone book. As it is, the scripts are works of art, much funnier than Seinfeld, funnier than Monty Python even.

The only problem with these shows is that you can't eat while watching them, because you can't eat while laughing unceasingly.

I have been watching AbFab since its beginning and the first three series are just fabulous. I never get tired of watching them and I just love some of the one-liners. It is fabulous, sweetie darlings!

british humor is the strangest thing. you have to be fairly odd yrself to understand it. i love it! this is one of my favorite uk shows. what's not to love? you've got the best friends eddie and patsy who both adore a little weed and lots of booze and every now and again something harder. you've got the daughter, saffy, who is extremely smart and pretty funny in the way she reacts to her mother and patsy. then there's the rest of the ecclectic family. gran who is rather eccentric, the gay ex husband, the writer who tries to sell screenplays and get close to celebrities by joining cults, and all of saffy's little friends who are kinda weird but cute. this show wasn't nearly on long enough for my taste but i enjoy every minute of it. i've seen them all a hundred times but it only ever gets funnier. if you like british humor, you'll love this show.

One of the funniest Britcoms ever ("Fawlty Towers" and "Blackadder" are the only ones that are better). I find it incredibly amusing that most of the Hollywood community found this series to be so witty and yet the entire time the show was making fun of them, along with the self-absorbed fashion industry (it says something about the intelligence of Britain vs. the US as a whole). All you have to do is listen to Saunders' (Edina's) speech at the end of the episode "Jealous" and you can easily see how she used this show as a venue to bite back at people who lived their lives totally out of disregard for everyone else and yet came out at huge events pretending to care (read: Hollywood and the Fashion Industry with AIDS, cancer, the situation in Bosnia). Jennifer Saunders is a genius for creating a show with such sparkling wit and intelligence (yes, intelligence) which was a pure delight to watch, yet still managing to slam the American entertainment scene. My favorite episode, "Death", also satirizes the art world. If you're like me and appreciate subtle humor, you'll love this series.