Absolutely Fabulous
BBC America
8 or 11 tonight, depending on your hook-up
It's a shame the classic British sitcom's American version, proposed by Roseanne and to star Carrie Fisher, never got off the ground. Then again, how could it? Ab Fab's stints on Comedy Central, the Oxygen Network and now BBC America have created a hardcore following that would never accept anyone other than Joanna Lumley and series creator Jennifer Saunders in the leading roles. Nope, not even Princess Leia Organa. Saunders' Edina Monsoon is a blitzed out-of-her-gore PR agent who forces a frumpy middle-aged body into too-tight designer clothes. Life for her is one long, hazy, pretentious social event of which she insists on being at the center—and her desire is fulfilled in the most embarrassing ways. Along for the ride, swig, drag, toot, toke and perhaps boffing is Lumley's rail-thin, once elegant, now polluted fashion writer Patsy Stone. Just as you're catching your breath from the laughter brought by a Saunders gag, Lumley swaggers or stumbles or spectacularly face plants in such a way that you're close to needing medical attention. Series regulars watch the pair in disgust (Julia Sawalha as Eddie's straight-laced daughter Saffron), resignation (June Whitfield as Eddie's seen-it-all-before mother) and befuddlement (Jane Horrocks as Eddie's clueless assistant Bubbles). In this episode from Series 2, Patsy dozes off with a cigarette in her mouth, which sparks a fire that burns down Eddie's kitchen. Forced into a sitting room that gives them cabin fever, the pair plan a night out that also allows Saffy to “watch documentaries” (wink-wink, nudge-nudge) with her boyfriend. But Mother accidentally locks them all in the sitting room, where Eddie decides to open up to her daughter about sex and birth, which opens old wounds in Patsy.
Patsy (to Saffy): I resent you!
Edina: No you don't sweetie-
Patsy: Yes I do, I hate you! Just when my life hit a good patch, along you came you miserable piece of flesh. You should have ended up in the dustbin; the incinerator was too good for you! When I heard that Eds was pregnant I told her to abort! ABORT, ABORT. ABORT!!! I said, check it down the pipe and bring me-
Saffy: A knitting needle?
Patsy: A KNITTING NEEDLE!!! (Saffy smacks Patsy)
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.