Absolutely incomprehensible

"Absolutely Fabulous" is a British sitcom starring Jennifer Saunders (from French & Saunders), Julia Sawalha and Joanna Lumley. A young Naoko Mori has a supporting act.

The main characters are Edina Monsoon, her friend Patsy and Edina's daughter Saffron. Edina is a 40-something defrocked hippie, living a bohemian and completely meaningless life of drugs, New Age fads, fashion advertising and rank debauchery. Apparently, she still insists on voting Labour. Her friend Patsy is something of a leech, who probably never had a real job in her entire life. She's supposedly 47 but looks twice as old, despite plastic surgery. Saffron is the prudish, grey and boring teenage daughter of Eddie. Throughout the series, she is constantly harassed by both Edina and Patsy.

I honestly admit that I don't understand what's so funny about this series. Most of the jokes are incomprehensible. Do I socialize in the wrong circles? Is that why I don't get it? But then, you probably have to be insane to socialize with people like Eddie, Patsy and Saffy, LOL.

Despite not getting it (really), I nevertheless laughed myself through every episode. I'm not sure why. Maybe I *do* get it, at some subliminal level. Or maybe I laugh simply because the whole series is absolutely insane. I mean, what should we make of Edina's secretary Bubble? She's arguably the goofiest character ever invented on the movie screen. Or what about Jackie, Patsy's older sister who smoked opium with Che Guevara and Mao, and now wants to start a home for abandoned cats? Supposedly, Jacques Brel wrote his song "Jackie" in her honour (yeah, right). In one episode, Edina decides to start an advertising campaign in the projects using gigantic billboards saying: "CHEER UP, IT MIGHT NEVER HAPPEN". (I'm not sure whether this episode is included on this DVD, however. Check out some fan site.)

The funniest character of the show is, of course, poor grey Saffy, who looks and behaves as a spinster despite being only a teenager. The contrast between her and her hippie mother Eddie couldn't be greater. Saffy's friend Sarah is even worse. We're talking Salvation Army material. The constant brawls between Saffron and Edina, where Saffy is forced to act "mother" to the irresponsible Eddie, are the centrepiece of the show.

And yet, I still don't quite get it...

I'm not sure how the rate this show and its weird gallery of crackpots, but for old times sake, I'll give it four out of five.