Customer Reviews

Absolutely Fabulous - Complete Series 1-3

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Break out the Bolly and the Japanese nibbly bits! Edina and Patsy are simply FABULOUS in this DVD set, featuring all episodes from the first, second and third series of AB FAB.

"Fashion" - Edina (Jennifer Saunders) is busy planning the fashion parade of the season, complete with Princess Anne wearing a Vivienne Westwood basque!

"Fat" - Eddy is in full panic-mode. Her arch-rival from the 60s, Peggy "The Stick" Caspar (Alexandra Bastedo) is coming and she has to get thin in time!

"France" - The ideal getaway...or maybe not. When Eddy and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) decide to take a weekend jaunt to the rustic vineyards of France, they end up getting more than they bargained for...

"Iso Tank" - Saffy (Julia Sawalha) has forbidden her mother to attend the Annual College Open Day, so Eddy is upstairs sulking in the isolation tank, but don't count on Eddy giving up so easily...

"Birthday" - The acursed day has arrived! It's Eddy's 40th and she's convinced the buzzards have started circling. Saffy has organised a sit-down lunch and Eddy is determined to ruin it.

"Magazine" - Eddy has a new boyfriend and Patsy decides to visit her office...my my, how things change!

"Hospital" - Patsy needs a facelift and Eddy's ingrown toenail is giving her grief...time for a trip to the hospital.

"Death" - Eddy's father is dead...but is it art?

"Morocco" - Eddy and Patsy set off for Marrakesh with Saffy in tow...

"New Best Friend" - Eddy is expecting a visit from old friends Max and Bettina (Miranda Richardson), who were notorious in the 60s for their minimalist lifestyle, so Eddy simply must have clean surfaces! But Eddy gets the shock of her life when she discovers how time has changed her friends...

"Poor" - Things are getting dire! Eddy's two ex-husbands have cut her off, and it looks like she is poor! She and Patsy are forced to drive to a (gasp) supermarket...

"Birth" - Patsy sets fire to the kitchen thanks to her chain-smoking so all the action is relocated to the lounge, where Eddy notices Saffy's top button is undone...could Saffy have a boyfriend?!...

"Doorhandle" - A new year, but the kitchen still looks like a cinder-pit. Saffy orders Eddy to get her act together, so she and Patsy head off to New York to browse doorhandles...

"Happy New Year" - The family has gathered with Saffy to celebrate the coming year, and Eddy and Patsy are all set to paint the town red, until Patsy's ultra-glam sister Jackie (Kate O'Mara) crashes the scene...

"Sex" - Whilst clearing out Serge's room so she may finally build a walk-in wardrobe, Eddy discovers a copy of "Razzle". She and Patsy decide to plan an orgy...

"Jealous" - Eddy is fuming. Her PR rival Claudia Bing (Celia Imrie) has duped her yet again, leaving Eddy feeling like a bird on the wire...

"Fear" - With Saffy now boarding at college and Patsy moving to New York, Eddy's walls have collapsed so she decides to move into a spiritual commune...

"The End" - Things are not going as well as they should for Eddy and Patsy, so they decide to forget their differences and go back home.

This triple-set is a smart buy for fans of the show. You'll laugh till you cry!

This package contains the first three, indispensable seasons of the best British comedy since Monty Python. Writer/actress Jennifer Saunders has a razor wit to rival Dorothy Parker and a sense of physical comedy that rivals Lucile Ball. The humor is distilled down to a potent proof. There is no filler. The lead characters, Edina Monsoon (Saunders) and Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley), are atrocious, gaudy, middle-aged, drugged out, perfidious, pretentious, lovable, codependent wrecks who in the throws of their debauchery are able to touch on poignant truths about life in the modern world. These episodes chronicle their adventures through everything from birth and death, to fashion shows and plastic surgery debacles.

This is take no prisoners comedy. There isn't anything that they will not do and no one that they will not offend. Julia Sawalha is brilliant as Saffron, Edina's abused, uptight, straitlaced daughter. And June Whitfield elegantly completes the generational triangle as Edina's batty, kleptomaniac mother.

The magic here is that all of the characters can be both endearing and horrible at the same time. "I know I might seem selfish, but its me me me!" I believe her!

This dvd has excellent audio and visual quality and a nice package of obligatory special features. These episodes stand up to repeated viewing. I put them on any time I need to feel "Absolutely Fabulous".

The British TV sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous" first premiered on the BBC in 1992 and quickly became one of the most popular shows. Once people in the U.S. began to watch it, it's popularity spread rapidly. The show's plot centers around a twice-divorced, middle-aged woman named Edina 'Eddie' Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders), her drunken best friend Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) and Edina's teenaged daughter Saffron 'Saffy' Monsoon (Julia Sawalha). Saffy, who is far more mature than her mother, has a difficult time coping with Edina's often-irresponsible behavior. Also, Saffy & Patsy hate each other with a passion. Edina's mother, Mrs. June 'Gran/Mother' Monsoon (June Whitfield), is a bit confused sometimes, but Saffy gets along with her far better than Edina. Then there are Edina's two ex-husbands who occasionally come to visit: Marshall (Christopher Ryan) who lives in Los Angeles and Saffy's father, Justin (Christopher Malcolm), who broke up with Edina to be with his gay partner Oliver (Gary Beadle). Edina hates Oliver with a passion.

The first three seasons of "Absolutely Fabulous" had the following 18 episodes:

First Season:

1. "Fashion". Edina panics about a fashion show that she has procrastinated about for six months and has to bring it all together that night. Edina's dimwitted secretary named Bubble (Jane Horrocks) isn't much help.

2. "Fat". Edina faints when Bubble tells her that an old acquaintance, Penny Casper-Morse (Alexandra Bastedo), is coming to visit and Edina has gained a bit of weight since their last unpleasant encounter years earlier.

3. "France". In of my personal favorite episodes, Edina & Patsy travel to France where they are to spend a holiday in a luxurious estate. Instead, they find what looks like abandoned servant's quarters and stay there. While "dying of starvation", Edina & Patsy get Saffy to come all the way from London to bring them food. Bubble unexpectedly comes along too.

4. "Iso Tank". In another classic episode, Edina tries out her new isolation tank and believes that she is adopting numerous Romanian babies because Saffy wouldn't let her come to one of Saffy's school presentations.

5. "Birthday". Edina refuses to get out of bed on her birthday, but Saffy has a surprise luncheon planned for her that includes Marshall, his girlfriend Bo (Mo Gaffney), Justin, Oliver and Gran.

6. "Magazine". Patsy actually pays a visit to her employer, a fashion magazine where some unusual people work. When Patsy can't find models to show off some odd clothing, she manages to get Saffy & Gran to appear on a morning TV show hosted by Kathy (Dawn French, of "French & Saunders").

Second Season:

1. "Hospital". When Edina stubs her toe, she insists on being taken to a hospital. Patsy comes along too after deciding to get a facelift when she's hounded by reporters & photographers for having an illicit affair with a member of Parliament.

2. "Death". When Edina's father dies, Saffy insists that she not come to the funeral; so Edina proceeds to purchase thousands of pounds worth of bizarre modern art so that there won't be any money for Saffy to inherit.

3. "Morocco". In another classic episode, Edina & Patsy decide to travel to Marrakech where Patsy is planning a fashion photo-shoot, and Edina wants pictures taken of her "pop-speck" sunglasses. Saffy wants to go too because she's studying the indigenous people of Morocco, so Patsy manages to sell her as a slave in an open-air market.

4. "New Best Friend". When Edina's old friends Bettina (Miranda Richardson) & Max (Patrick Barlow) come to visit, they have apparently abandoned their minimalist lifestyle for being very nervous parents to a young baby; but Patsy's jealousy of them puts a temporary rift between herself & Edina.

5. "Poor". After Justin & Marshall successfully cut off Edina's alimony payments, Edina is forced to listen to an account manager (Mark Wing-Davey) who tells her that she needs to cut her expenses, but ends up having to spend a lot more after getting in trouble with the police and an unsympathetic judge.

6. "Birth". After Patsy falls asleep in Edina's kitchen with a lit cigarette and burns down the kitchen, Edina, Patsy and Saffy are accidentally locked into Edina's sitting room by Gran where Edina tells Saffy about giving birth to her.

Third Season:

1. "Door Handle". With the kitchen still needing to be finished and unable to decide how to decorate it, Edina & Patsy fly to New York where Edina saw a door handle that she liked. By the time they return, Saffy and her friends finish the kitchen themselves.

2. "Happy New Year". To bring in the new year, Saffy wants everyone to spend a quiet night at home with Gran and Justin, but Patsy & Eddie have been invited to a big party. When Patsy learns from Bubble that her sister Jackie Stone (Kate O'Mara) is coming to visit, she gets very excited until she sees what her formerly wild sister has become.

3. "Sex". After breaking into her son's locked bedroom (her son left years earlier), Edina & Patsy come across some of his adult magazines, which inspires Patsy to have her & Edina to pay to have two men come over for a bit of fun. Unfortunately for Saffy, a VHS tape that Patsy has gets accidentally switched with a science tape that Saffy needs for a presentation at school.

4. "Jealous". When Edina doesn't win a prestigious PR award, she comes up with a completely new PR idea, but loses her speech beforehand. In the meantime, Edina also helps Saffy fend off a married man who is one of her teachers at school. (This is only episode in which Saffy is really happy with her mother.)

5. "Fear". After Saffy moves into college dorms, Patsy moves in with Edina; but when the fashion magazine where Patsy works folds and Lulu (herself) ends her PR contract with Edina, Patsy decides to go to New York.

6. "The End". With Saffy & Patsy both gone, Edina joins a commune, but isn't happy there; so she flies off to New York to find Patsy who hasn't been doing too well there. Reluctantly, Saffy moves back home and a glimpse of what life is like with the three of them 25 years later is shown.

Overall, I rate the first three seasons of "Absolutely Fabulous" with a resounding 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend them.

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.

Disc One: Complete Series 1
Fashion - We meet Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders), her daughter Saffron (Julia Sawalhia) and her best friend Patsy (Joanna Lumley). Edina and Patsy are putting on a fashion show (which we never see.)

Fat - An old chum, who is hyper critical, is visiting Edina. Edina is too fat and she will do anything to loose weight except diet or exercise.

France - Patsy and Edina are going to France on holiday but they don't speak French! When Saffy finds out that Bubble has received a notice that Edina needs to sign, they travel over. The four of them sharing the small cottage is just hilarious. But Patsy is in for the big shock when she returns home, she enjoyed ping pong without drugs!

Iso Tank - Hey, Edina is into every new fad and so she has bought an isolation tank. Saffy and her friends are getting ready for a school presentation. So Edina and Patsy decide to embarrass her by attending the presentation. Well Patsy is really after Saffy's hot study mate. At the school, the ladies are asked to meet with the headmaster and he turns out to be an old mate of the two.

Birthday - It's Eddie's 40th birthday --- do I need to say more. Well, the fun is we meet Eddie's two exes and their current mates. Mo Gaffney makes her first appearance and the mate of Eddie's first.

Magazine - Eddie has a boyfriend and Patsy is no longer the center of her life. So Patsy is determined to break them up but Saffy wants them stay together. We find out that Patsy actually has a job and we meet the members of the magazine.

Disc 2: Season Two
Hospital - Patsy, once again, is involved in a political sex scandal. She has sold her story to Hello magazine (UK equivalent of People.) But the interviewer makes a statement about Patsy's age, she flips. Edina is having a problem with her big toe and needs surgery, so Patsy decides to join her with some plastic surgery. The two wreak havoc on the hospital.

Death - When Eddie's father dies, she shops. In the end, she and Patsy show up at the burial in their usual state, totally smashed.

Morocco - Eddie is promoting a new trashy sunglass. And Patsy has put them in a photo shoot. The shoot is in Morocco, so party time. Saffy is study the area and she convince her mother to tag along. The girls are expecting a week of sex, drugs and shopping.

New Best Friend - Eddie's old friends are visiting again, this time with their new born baby. This time though, Patsy is not so tolerant and decided to prove that Eddie can be replaced. After Eddie finds baby puke and Lacrois don't mix, she goes looking for Patsy. This ends in a restaurant with Eddie and Patsy trying to impress each other with their new best friends. Miranda Richardson and Lulu make guest appearances.

Poor - When the exes compare notes, they both realize that they are both supporting Eddie and cut her off. So Saffy cuts off Eddie's extravagances. So instead of using a car service, Eddie buys a sports car. And she and Patsy go on their version of a Thelma and Louise spree.

Birth - Saffy and Eddie are awakened by the fire department to find out that their kitchen has gone up in flames. And Patsy makes a startling entrance. When the girls accidentally get locked in the living room, each remembers their birth.

Disc 3: Series 3
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:
Each season disc has 16 minutes of hilarious outtakes.

Disc 4: Gorgeous Little Things
How to be Absolutely Fabulous - This is a 25 minute special for the launch of Season 3 on Comedy Central. It is a great promo video.

Ab Fab Moments - This is a real waste of time. You have just watched 9 hours of Ab Fab and now you can watch 1 hour 17 minute clip show.

Modern Mother and Daughter - The original 8 minute French & Saunders sketch that Ab Fab was based on.

Let's Get Celebritied Up - 15 second read bios on the top guest stars.

Who's Who on Ab Fab - 30 second read bios on each of the recurring stars of the show.

It's a Fabulous World - 20 second read descriptions of locations that the show was set and filmed.

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!

Who could be more talented than Jennifer Saunders? She not only stars in but also writes this hilarious British comedy about two women approaching 40 who refuse to grow up. They are contrasted well against a ultra-straight 16-year-old daughter who plays a parental role with her mom.

At times this series is over-the-top; it reminds me a bit of Faulty Towers in that respect. But like FT, you simply can't find better British humor than this.

Sigrid Macdonald
Ottawa, Ontario

This "Absolutely Fabulous" boxset contains the bulk of the episodes from the show's first three years on the air. The last two episodes entitled "The Last Shout" is not on this set and aired in late 1996. However, if you want to begin your "Ab Fab" collection this is where to start. Not only are these episodes funny and hilarious, they feature the best in the "Absolutely Fabulous" shows. The series was at its peak during its first three years and its evident in the scripts. The shows were original, daring, and most of all comedic. Although other seasons of the series were filmed they pale in comparison to these magnificent shows. Jennifer Saunders, who not only starred as Edina but also wrote all the scripts, was at her zenith as a comedy script writer. Highlights are the episodes entitled "Fat" where Edina must try to lose weight as an old aquaintance from her past is coming to visit and she doesn't want to look like a cow; in "Death" Edina deals with the loss of her father, hilariously with Patsy, and the cementary scene is not to be missed as both ladies show up stoned and drunk; "Happy New Year" has the girls ringing in the New Year by going out to party, that is until Patsy's sister shows up and puts a damper on the evening; "New Best Friend" has Edina and Patsy going their separate ways when Eddie's old friends stay with her, much to Pat's chagrin. The funniest episode is the one entitled "France" when the girls go to a country cottage in France and deal with insects, a language neither of them can speak, and getting plastered at a winery! Believe me these shows are funny and you will have a stomach ache after watching the wild adventures of two middle age women trying to recapture their youth. As Eddie would say, "Simply devine darling!".

No review can reccommend this show enough. AbFab is simply the best television show ever produced, The only other contender for the title being Sex and the City. Owning it on DVD is the best, in each episode there is a line, a scene, or even just a piece of physical comedy that will have you backing up and watching it again, and again and again. Ab Fab, the best show ever produced.

I always heard that this was one of the best British sitcoms, but I only saw a few scattered episodes (probably from series 4 or 5). Series 1-3 are the cream obviously and my wife and I have been enjoying them immensely. I am especially surprised by the comedic talents of Joanna Lumley (Patsy), who I only knew as the gorgeous but dangerous agent Purdey from the New Avengers series. Jennifer Saunders is a howl as Edina and Julia Sawalha is brilliant as Edina's long suffering daughter Saffron. I love this show and now rank it as one of my favorites along with such wonderful Britcoms like "As Time Goes By," "One Foot in the Grave," Butterflies," and "Keeping Up Appearances."

Jennifer Saunders is one of the sharpest, funniest, wittiest writers I'm aware of, as well as a very gifted physical comic who is at least as manic as John Cleese. So she whipped up this program, surrounded herself with some brilliant actresses, and wrote some parts for them all that allow them to maximize their use of what they do best.

And really, what else can I say? Sharp, irreverent, witty, brilliant, and utterly hilarious. It's actually quite rare for me to watch a TV program more than once. I shall be watching all 18 episodes of ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS more than once. Because it is -- please forgive me for saying it -- absolutely fabulous.