Customer Reviews

Absolutely Fabulous: Complete Series 3

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Break out the Bolly and the Japanese finger-food for the third hilarious series of ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS, the show that is - well - absolutely fabulous!

DOORHANDLE - Edina's got an electronic organiser and a plan to become a model (of efficiency, that is). And what's more efficient than flying to New York on the Concorde for a doorknob?

HAPPY NEW YEAR - It's New Year's Eve and Edina's got a full house - including Patsy's ultra-glam sister Jackie. But Edina's not going to let the crowd interfere with her resolution to have more fun!

SEX - Edina and Patsy plan to get in touch with their inner sexuality - they're planning an orgy!

JEALOUS - Edina's feeling low and needs an award for her PR work to make her feel better. Supermodel Naomi Campbell could be her ticket to success (that's if arch-rival Claudia Bing doesn't get to her first!).

FEAR - Saffy's moved out and Mother has become a Shopping Network junkie. Patsy might be moving to New York and suddenly Edina is free to change the whole direction of her life. Straight down could be a refreshing course!

THE END - Cosmodrama, deep breathing, sand play - Edina's on a quest for inner peace and enlightenment. Before the search drives her crazy, she'd better find Patsy in New York...

With Jennifer Saunders (Edina), Joanna Lumley (Patsy), Julia Sawalha (Saffy), June Whitfield (Mother) and Kathy Burke (Magda).

Guest starring Helen Lederer, Gary Beadle, Lulu, Celia Imrie, Naomi Campbell, Ruby Wax, Josie Lawrence and Kate O'Mara.

What can you say about Ab Fab that hasn't already been stated? This third and final series of Ab Fab is a little more sophisticated than the first two series in everything from script to plots to overall production. This series we see Saffie fall head over "logic bubble" heels for her adulterous lecturer, Eddie finally gets a belly button ring so Patsy can see how much it really hurts, Naomi Campbell making a guest appearance at the PR PR Person's Awards Dinner of the Month lunch and we finally get to see just what Pats & Ed look like after they come skidding back from the Rhumba Go-Go club. All this and more is jam packed and waiting for you to view one more hilarious time on one of the funniest dvd's you will ever buy. Ab Fab is the best British comedy of the decade...take a peek and find out why.

With its first three series, the popularity of Absolutely Fabulous just grew and grew. Millions tuned in every week for an outrageous helping of their favourite comic duo who drink, smoke and refuse to grow any older. Jennifer Saunders is once again superb as the evil and self-obsessed Edina Monsoon as is Joanna Lumley as Patsy Stone. Julia Sawalha is brilliant as Edina's long-suffering daughter Saffy, but seems a little distracted from her performance; she was spot-on and perfect in Series 2. June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks are also excellent as Edina's mother and Bubble respectively. The two became big stars after their career-revival through Absolutely Fabulous, and rightly so! There is a big list of celebrity guests in Series 3, ranging from Kate O'Mara, Gary Beadle, Naomi Campbell, Lulu, Celia Imrie, Kathy Burke, Ruby Wax and Josie Lawrence.

Doorhandle is the first episode of Series 3 and a superb one to start it off. Edina's got an electronic organiser which controls her life. Apparently she got it free because, "It's the latest thing!" Since Patsy burnt down their kitchen in the Series 2 finale, Edina and Saffy's kitchen has been left in ruins. To begin with, Edina and Patsy fly to New York to buy a doorhandle! Happy New Year is just a classic episode, and one of the best in the show's history. It's New Year's Eve and Edina's house is full of all the people she hates - her mother, her ex-husband and his boyfriend Oliver, Bubble and Sarah (Saffy's best friend). Things only get worse when Patsy's older sister, Jackie, arrives on the scene. It's the first time they've seen each other in 20 years and she spoils Edina's plans in a big way for a night out on the town. Kate O'Mara plays Jackie as Patsy's older sister incredibly well and she gives some of the most hilarious scenes in the episode. For example, she says to Edina when she first meets Saffy, "Oh well, too late to flush her now!" In the end, Patsy discovers a whole different side to Jackie than she had ever dreamed of, and the revelation that she's 72 makes Patsy seriously question how old she is! Sex is an episode loved by a lot of people, but I don't quite see what the appeal is. After discovering a filthy magazine in her son's bedroom, Edina plans an orgy with a man of her choice - along with Patsy and her man! As usual, things go totally wrong and they're forced to race around to find Saffy's college lecture to recover the two tapes that are mixed up - one on science DNA, and the other one of Patsy's dirtier ones!

Jealous is one of the best episodes in Series 3. Edina and Patsy are attending the PR PR Person's Awards Dinner Of The Lunch Month. Edina hopes to win the top award, but fails against her arch-rival Claudia Bing. Even after choosing and bribing the judges, she still looses to that Bing woman! Naomi Campbell also stars in this episode as the stuck-up and very difficult supermodel who is pestered by everyone every minute of her life. Meanwhile, Saffy has a new love interest in a college lecturer. When the revelation that he is married with four children comes out, Edina's punch to the face sorts him out! Fear is probably the worst episode of Series 3, in which Saffy has now left home to attend college and after a bust-up with Edina, Patsy moves to New York, while Edina resides to the country to "find herself." The episode is good, but not much happens. The End is the final episode of Series 3. Edina and Patsy aren't finding much happiness in their new homes, and if the truth be told, they miss each other dearly - not that they'd actually confess to that. Edina decides to track Patsy down in New York, and the reunion on top of a skyscraper is a great moment to see these two life-long friends reunited at last. The two return home and are the subject to a screaming lecture from Saffy, before a hilarious look at what the whole bunch of them will be like in 25 years' time!

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

Series 3 of Absolutely Fabulous is a lot more sophisticated and aware of its popularity than Series 1 and Series 2 were. The jokes and gags keep on coming, almost at five-second gaps! The guest-stars are all superb, and the storylines which happen in each episode seem to be at their peak in Series 3 more so than in any other series of the show. The selection of 15 Minutes Of Out-Takes is brilliant and are almost as funny as the episodes themselves. Don't hesitate, buy Absolutely Fabulous Series 3 DVD now!

FINALLY! From what was supposed to be the FINAL SEASON of this classic BBC comedy, another six adventures of EDINA and PATSY (Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley), as they bow out with the total lack of grace you have come to expect from these wacky women! RELIVE the crazed comedy from Series 3 in these SIX priceless episodes: "Door Handle," "Happy New Year," "Sex," "Jealous," Fear" and, of course, "The End!" But do not PANIC! Do not WORRY! There is talk of an AB FAB revival! In YOUR lifetime! And if that is not enough, there are also priceless OUTTAKES! What more could you POSSIBLY WANT?!?!?!

Series 3 continues the fabulosity of the series right up until it's proverbial "The End" episode. Funny as hell still after all these years. This particular DVD edition (Not the 3 disc "pink leopard") has all the original theme music in-tact, which is great. Just get it, it's worth it! Long live Patsy and Eddy!

What do you get when you put the worst of the 60's, 70's and 80's and set it in the 90's? Well it must be Absolutely Fabulous.

Doorhandle - A few years have passed but Edina still hasn't fixed her kitchen and Saffy has had it. Eddie and Patsy set out to find the perfect doorhandle and Eddie remembers seeing it in NYC,

Happy New Year - Patsy and Eddie are going to an exclusive New Years Eve party at a club so exclusive that it has no name. Saffy, her grandmother, her father and his lover are celebrating at the flat. But when Patsy's older jet set sister unexpectantly arrives, Patsy is first overjoyed then shocked at her change.

Sex - The girls are planning an orgy with a couple of rent boys and remember the good old days when sex was everywhere. Saffy's group is preparing a presentation on DNA and things get crazy when Saffy's presentation video and Patsy's homemade porn video get mixed up.

Jealous - It's the PRPR awards and Eddie is expecting to win the top prize. But when her chief rival wins, Edie goes into a rage. At the next meeting, she tells off the entire group in what is one of the most unlikely and selfless speeches Eddie will ever make.

Fear - Saffy has moved in to the halls of residence at the college and Eddie is at ends - she cannot even open a can without help. And things are going bad for Patsy, the magazine has folded. But is it good news when she gets an offer at magazine in NYC? Eddie thinks it is and forces Patsy to accept it.

The End - Patsy is in NYC and Eddie is at a retreat searching for inner peace. Well, she finds it on top of a skyscraper in NYC - that's where Patsy has accidentally lock herself on. The end black out scene is 25 years in the future and it isn't pretty!

DVD EXTRAS: 16 minutes of hilarious outtakes.

ABFAB as some of us fans call it is quite possibly one of the zaniest, craziest, sickest shows to come out of Britain to date. The premise is simple. There's Edwina (Eddie), her friend Patsy and Eddie's daughter Saffron (Saffi). Eddie is an overweight, immature, compulsive, undersexed, selfish, fashion misfit who worships LaCroix and everything he designs. Patsy is a drunken, non-working, oversexed, chain smoking, spend thrift, fashionista, self-centered, alcoholic, leach. She's also Eddie's best friend. Saffi is the plain jane, level headed, smart, prudish, straight laced dauther of Eddie and her father who happens to be gay has left her mother for a gay black man.

Poor Saffi even though the child of the house more often than not has to be the adult of the house. She fixes her mom breakfast when she comes in from a hard night of boozing and partying with Patsy. Patsy and Saffi hate each other and continually snipe at each other.

Aside from storylines, ABFAB is very difficult to describe because many of the funniest bits are visual. You have to see and hear everything. One funny episode has Saffi off to college for the first time. Eddie tries to guilt her into staying home but it doesn't work. That morning Eddie drives to the college and barges her way into Saffi's class with a can of something and a can opener and asks Saffi to open the can for her because she doesn't know how to work the can opener. Madness. It's very funny.

You should watch all of the episodes because there's not a bit of sanity in any of them. You've got to have this!

Not suitable for young children though. It's barely suitable for grown ups!

I have the complete set of AB FAB series with Pats & Edie, do not care for the ones with French in them; I hear Saunders is going to REVIVE this series & hope to get her NEW DVDs when they come out too!

I got tired of missing this series, so I just decided to start buying DVD's. Everything about this show was just as much fun as I remembered. The best part is that my three daughters, who previously resisted any pressure to share my anglophile tendencies, can occasionally be seen referring to each other as "Sweetie, Darling!" as the other says, "Darling, Sweetie!!" with full dramatic irony. Some of the historic references are lost on young adolescents, but it's okay because I have to explain lots of the British slang as well. They don't seem to mind because they "get" the humor as readily as I do: your basic maladjusted family, but certainly not the usual take on this very common premise for a sit-com.

I recommend this DVD unreservedly to those who enjoy British comedy and have somehow missed this one. If you are a parent and you are wondering whether this is family entertainment, here are some issues to consider: British television has an entirely different set of standards for what is considered "decent," I guess. I find this interesting rather than offensive and if you watch these shows you know what I mean. If you don't, you might to read about what an expert says or preview content carefully. As for the material on this DVD? Parents should know that this show deals with LOTS of adult themes. The characters tend to deal with the adult issues in a manner that is . . . shall we say . . . not very adult. There is drug use, intoxication, sex, and other stuff that most Americans would vehemently disapprove of that is openly portayed by these characters. Eddie and Patsy are Fabulous and think that this makes anything they do Fabulous as well (Ergo sum demonstratum - though they do not speak this much French, unfortunately!). Eddie's daughter, Saffi, is much more conservative in her standards for decent behavior. She is not only highly critical of their behavior, but is also a brilliant critic of their narcissism. If you are the parent of a vulnerable young teen or preteen, you should certainly be aware of the content of this DVD and all of the others in the series. Some parents might decide that they should not expose their kids to this kind of content under any circumstances; I must say that in our family I have seen this "inappropriate" content as a useful way to begin conversations about substance abuse. When the seventh grader asks, "Is she drunk again?" the answer is inevetably, "Well, yes. Naturally. But you do realize that people who are drunk as much as she is do not really function that well in life, don't you? And what if she didn't have Saffi to clean up after her all the time? Wouldn't you be crabby too?" These have been unexpectedly genuine conversations in several cases; because I work in mental health/corrections I'm really serious about this topic, and I try to point out real life examples frequently (like which famous person is dramatically burning out in any given week) rather than holding solemn discussions a couple times a year. But oddly enough, discussing their humor about sex, drugs, and all the rest openly might be the best way I've found to show my daughters that a lifestyle marked by pathological substance abuse, conspicuous consumption, and shallow narcississm, and poor social relationships is extremely uncool.

What can I say. I love all of the Absolutely Fabulous series. Some of my favorites are on this DVD.