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Absolutely Fabulous - Series 2 - Complete [1992]
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Ab Fab remains a landmark in TV since it was the first time that female comedians and writers had had the freedom and exposure to satirise problems close to their own heart, from their own perspective. With Feminist writers claiming that the ideals of feminism were dead in the 1990s and that female concerns were moving in the wrong direction--towards the "Laddette Culture"--and reports claiming that careers were taking a central role, forcing motherhood onto the back-burner, the series sought to embody and satirise these new supposedly "female" characteristics. As the show continued to grow in popularity both in Britain and the States, plans were made to transfer the formula to America. However, as with many other great British series, the content was considered too risky for American audiences due to the amount of sex and drug references. Thus domestic audiences breathed a sigh of release that their beloved Ab Fab would forever stay British to the core. --Nikki Disney
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Absolutely Fabulous was first broadcast in 1992 and became an instant hit. Originally a sketch on the French and Saunders Show, Jennifer Saunders saw its potential and created one of the most ground-breaking and debauched comedies on British TV. Centred around the hip London fashion scene the series follows Edina (Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley), two women who refuse to grow up and are constantly on a mission to lose weight, gorging themselves with cocaine and/or champagne, endlessly throwing parties (or throwing up at parties), and sporting outrageous outfits which were the height of fashion at the time--honestly sweetie! The superb comic performances offered star status to Julia Sawalha as Edina's straight-laced daughter and Jane Horrocks as the sublimely dippy Bubble, and re-invented the careers of Joanna Lumley and June Whitfield. Saunders meanwhile secured her status as one of the top female comedians Britain has ever produced. Although its consciously chic clothing looks a little dated now, its mad characterisations endure and the jokes remain as hilariously slick and apt as ever.
Absolutely One Of The Best Sitcoms Of The 1990s
Review date: 2006-05-04 Rating: 10 out of 10
Absolutely Fabulous had been launched from a sketch Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders had written in their third series of French And Saunders in 1990. It saw Jennifer Saunders playing Edina Monsoon, a neurotic fashion designer who does very little work and constantly puts upon her poor, frustated daughter, Saffron which in that sketch was played by Dawn French.
In 1992, that initial sketch was further developed into a series of its own with this time, Julia Shawala playing Edina's daughter, Saffron. Also in the casting was Joanna Lumley as Edina's scavanging best "friend", Patsy Stone, who also is in the fashion industry but does very little work, as the case with Edina. It was interesting to see Joanna Lumley escape her usual aristocratic image in favour of the foul-mouthed, drug-taking, chain-smoking, promiscuous alcoholic, Patsy and she plays the role superbly, really injecting life into the series. TV veteran, June Whitfield played Edina's completely batty mother which she plays to perfection whilst the multi-talented Jane Horrocks plays the blatantly incompetent Bubble, P.A to Edina. A perfect piece of casting here in what would emerge as the smash hit comedy series of the 1990's and an absolute masterpiece.
In 1994, a second season was filmed and was better than ever and fully in its swing (and prime). The rollercoaster dialogue is astoundingly razor sharp throughout each six episodes in the series.
Hospital opens the series where Patsy decides to brave all and go under the knife for cosmetic surgery, following her unhealthy obsession for wanting to look young. Funeral is played out almost like pure black comedy where Edina's father dies but unable to face her emotions refuses to go the funeral.....that is until she drinks several bottles of champaigne.
Morrocco is an absolute gem in the series and one of my own personal favourites. Pats, Edina and Saffron all fly off to Morrocco following Edina's promotional prospects for her new sunglasses design, laughably entitled, Pop Specs. After arranging an interview with Vogue magazine in the heart of a quiet, seemingly deserted town, they end up getting lost and also sell Saffy off as a slave. The comic timing and witty one-liners are delivered impeccably throughout this episode and indeed as the case with every other episode of season 2.
New Best Friend sees the special guest apperance of the British singer, Lulu whilst Poor is one of the ultimate classics of the entire four seasons to date. Edina is forced to cut-back on her extravagent lifestyle she and Patsy had been lapping up and during a shopping trick they get arrested for drunk-driving. Hilarious stuff!
The second series winds up with another comic gem, Fire, in which Patsy burns down Edinas kitchen and whilst all sitting down watching television in the upstairs lounge, they get locked in accidentally by Eddy's batty mother. Eddy, Pats and Saffy soon reveal some of their inner-most secrets. There are some hilarious comic moments in this episode and the dialogue completely sparkles all the way making you just want more at the end of the episode.
Absolutely Fabulous was the smash hit of the 1990's!
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Reviews
Superb as usual - the best Ab Fab series?
Review date: 2003-02-08 Rating: 10 out of 10
After the incredibly successful run of six Series 1 episodes, Jennifer Saunders' genius creation Absolutely Fabulous was back for a much-hyped second series. The wait was more than a year, but definitely worth it when the Series 2 opener, Hospital, was shown on 27th January 1994. Series 2 is perhaps the best Absolutely Fabulous series of the lot, and portrays the mother/daughter reversal role the best of all the seasons. Jennifer Saunders is brilliant as ever as Edina Monsoon, as are Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha as Patsy Stone and Saffy Monsoon respectively. There's an increasing role for June Whitfield as Edina's crazy mother, yet with this good news there's the bad that Jane Horrocks as Bubble (Edina's brain-dead office assistant) isn't is Series 2 as much as Series 3.
Series 2 opens with Hospital. At the beginning of this superb episode, we see Patsy arrive at Edina's house being followed by the press after she's caught up in a sex-scandal. She's all over the papers and her reaction to the suggestion that she's 47 years old is hilarious! She goes mental! Hello! magazine want to do a photoshoot of Patsy, so she has to try and look 35; the result is rather unexpected...walking like a skeleton and eyes that appear to be closed are the highlights. Of course, Edina has to buy tons of new "things" for her living room after hearing Hello! are coming, including an eskimo papoose! Absolutely Fabulous constantly takes the mickey out of the stuck-up and snobby fashion world we live in today. The ditzy Hello! magazine interviewer who doesn't even know what she's doing is another side of the fashion world mickey-take by Jennifer Saunders - this being that most people who work in fashion have nothing to do. Death is the next episode, and probably the most disturbing one of all the series. Edina's mother tells her that her father is dead, and she just doesn't care! "What, did she finish him off?!" she says to her daughter Saffy about her mother. Edina takes a trip to an art store to buy some "things," saying that "It all looks like bo***cks, so it must be worth something!" to the shop assistant. The episode is very funny, but a bit disturbing. In the episode Morocco, Edina and Patsy take a trip to Marrakech to get away from it all. A good episode, but not a highlight.
New Best Friend is another excellent episode in which Edina's old friends come to stay at her house. The last time she met up with them, they were incredibly minimalist - white rooms, white clothes, etc. Edina wants to makes her house look as tidy as possible for when her two old friends arrive, but Patsy's jealous and she falls out with Edina. Trying to act as if they have friends other than each other when they find themselves in a restaurant alone are the highlights. But now Edina's friends have a baby! Their lives have totally changed, and the mother is hilarious in the situation-type comedy scenes where everything that can go wrong do, especially when she hears her husband with Edina...you know, doing stuff on the baby monitor! Absolutely hilarious. Poor is a favourite episode for many fans of the show. Edina's ex-husband has threatened to stop his money income to support the family and she's furious. She has to cancel food orders from Harrods and is forced to go to a supermarket! She has no idea what one is, so you can expect the mayhem and chaos she and Patsy will cause when they have to drive themselves there! They get out of their car and hurl abuse at a driver who dares to hoot their horn at them, expect assistance at the supermarket, park their car on the pavement outside Harvey Nichols, and are forced to visit "The Car-Clamp Club" to try and get the damn thing off their wheel! The ending results with Edina and Patsy in court, facing charges of driving without a licence, driving without insurance, not wearing a seatbelt, having no tax-disc displayed, driving over the legal speed limit, driving under the influence of alcohol, allowing another person to drive your vehicle under the influence of alcohol, in the region of £5,000 of parking fees owing, £6,000 of damage to property, charges of assault and abuse, and shoplifting while the charges of attempted murder and robbery are dropped! Birth is probably the best episode of Series 2 - and a superb series finale! Saffy has a man coming round to her house, but she doesn't want Edina and Patsy to know. When the three are locked in the living room by Edina's insane mother, they are forced to put up with each other. In these desperate situations, Patsy's worse nightmare is confronted - she'd rather die than be locked in a room with Saffy. Edina and Patsy try to help Saffy with her "first sexual experience" with a Cosmo Sex Quiz - hilarity ensures. Edina tells Saffy about her birth and how beautiful it was. The news pleases Saffy, but of course it's a pack of lies. Patsy (telling that the first few years of her life, she was locked in a room!) and Edina's flashback to their births are also superb.
OVERALL GRADE: 10/10
I can't stress enough how superb Absolutely Fabulous is. This truly is the greatest British comedy ever. A lot of people love it, but some people think it's gross - because of its drugs, sex and drink references. But this is what real life is like - people live their lives like this and to ignore it would be ignorant. The DVD extras are not exactly amazing, but the "15 Minutes Of Out-Takes" is superb. Jennifer Saunders is a genius, and the acting in Ab Fab is amongst some if the best I have ever seen. Buy Series 2 of Absolutely Fabulous now - you won't regret it!
something missing
Review date: 2001-10-30 Rating: 8 out of 10
i adore ab fab. series 2 is my favourite series, 'death' is my favourite episode and my favourite 'moment' is when Saffy thinks her mother is getting all deep and meaningful but all she's doing is quoting lyrics from the Madonna song 'Like A Prayer', so you can imagine my horror when i discovered this scene had been cut from the dvd.why????. what other classic scenes are we being deprived of ?
Great eps, poor DVD
Review date: 2001-10-26 Rating: 8 out of 10
Ab Fab is one of the best sit coms ever made and the DVDs are the poorest ever made. Quirks in both sound and vision are present, sometimes the DVD pauses and skips over whole lines at times. The audio sometimes hops from one speaker to the other. But the eps are as good as ever. Only get this if you have an infinite patience.
ab fab 2 is more hilarious and outstanding than series 1
Review date: 2001-09-27 Rating: 10 out of 10
Jennifer Saunders, well known from "french & saunders" and Joanna Lumley, last seen in Ben Elto`s latest comedy act again as two nervous, bitchy women, who try to solve their problems in drinking, smoking and just having fun. But this lifestyle causes again a lot of troubles which bring the protagonist`s in hilarious situations.
The second series is as brilliant as the first and even better.
Go for Ab Fab 2- you`ll love it!!!
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Benjamin Soames
Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503101428
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Full Screen, PAL,
Release date: 2001-10-01
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 176 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1994-07-24
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Original Language)
Brand: Generic