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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eddy and Patsy get "special", April 16, 2004
This review is from: Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Special (The Last Shout/In New York) (DVD)
This DVD comprises the 2 ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS 'specials', "The Last Shout" and "Gay". "The Last Shout" - In the AB-FAB timeline, this special takes place after Series 3, when Jennifer Saunders was adamant that this was to be be last-ever AB-FAB story. Eddy and Patsy take a trip to the snowfields of Val de Ser, leaving Saffy at home with her stuffy new boyfriend Paolo Carlo. During their event-filled holiday, Eddy becomes convinced that she is Christ returned after having a near-death experience on a mountaintop where she visited God (Marianne Faithful). Patsy is evicted from her flat above the Oddbins in the Kings Road, and Mother has shacked up with some old friends in a grotty caravan. Saffy and Paolo decide to get married, leaving Eddy to plan the wedding of the century... "Gay" - In the AB-FAB timeline this story takes place after Series 4. Eddy discovers that her absent son Serge is gay and living in New York. Since she and Patsy are in town during Fashion Week anyway, she decides to seek him out. With the help of Goldie (Whoopi Goldberg), a lesbian marriage celebrant, Eddy and Serge are reunited...but for how long? AB-FAB fans will relish adding these stories to their collections. Always a fantastic show!
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing and slapped together DVD release., October 2, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Special (The Last Shout/In New York) (DVD)
For those of us that pre-ordered the DVD, you were probably unpleasantly suprised to find that Jennifer Saunder's commentary is NOT on this Disc. I know it's always a chance actually expecting what they say will be among the special features will acutally be present but this time they've gone cheap. Figuring if you like AbFab you'll buy anything no matter how slap dash it is. The commentary was the big selling point to me and now I feel cheated a bit. I'm even a bit ticked about the vaguely homophobic description of the Gay episode on the box. As other reviews have said, they went with a poor scan and pan instead of showing the *slightly* letterbox version. If Comedy Central could get it right, why not BBC video? Isn't that why we buy DVDs? The outtakes from both shows are on the disc and that's it for extra's. Also disappointing is the lack of subtitles (though I guess it's closed captioned if you have a TV that can display those). Comedically, definitely 5 stars and one of my favorites comedians. The DVD techinical quality? I give it 1 star. The season 4 2-disc set was excellent and filled with extra's, commentary, and no annoying 'pre main menu' commecials. Guess I got my hopes up after that. Frankly, this is an "Absolutely Miserable" release!
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What a disappointment! What did WB do to this?, October 11, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Special (The Last Shout/In New York) (DVD)
I love Absolutely Fabulous. I had never seen the NY special, so I've really been looking forward to this dvd. BBC screwed up by letting WB anywhere near it, I guess. The production quality is so sloppy and cheaply done, it almost spoils the entire special. Don't expect commentary, or more than a couple of minutes of NY outtakes. Bad conversion as well. Basically "Gay" was quickly tacked onto the "Last Shout" special dvd with little else added and little effort taken. AbFab fans deserve much more than this. I love this series and it hurts to say this, but I was even disappointed with the NY special itself. Parts are funny, but I was expecting more. I couldn't believe it ended so quickly; it seemed like it was just gaining momentum and getting interesting (after wading through some lesser, filler stuff), then it was over. Great, but not AbFab great. I'm hoping it's setting up the new series and we'll see more. Mo Gaffney is at her best here, though - some of the funniest bits are Mo's. Note: I watched again and realized that the West Hollywood spotlight review is right. I think a lot of the comedy is lost because of the botched transfer and close cropping. Really a shame. If you can somehow get ahold of a better version, Gay may actually be funnier than it shows on this DVD. Also an observation: If you're using the averaged number of stars given as a guideline, keep in mind that the vast majority of 4 and 5 star reviews here aren't reviews of this actual DVD. They were AbFab fans writing about the DVD before they even saw it; before it was even released. So, they may be reviewing Last Shout and Gay as they saw it on TV, but they are NOT reviewing this particular DVD. It's really different. Look at the reviews written after the actual DVD release date, 9/23, by people who actually have seen the DVD, as a better guide. I hope all future BBC/Warners dvd productions aren't botched in this way. I'm a die-hard AbFab fan, but if I'd known the quality of this dvd, not sure I would have bought it.
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