Just caught the second episode and it was a massive improvement over the first 'effort'.
I really liked the more subversive stuff - such as how the unpaid interns are exploited by the rich hags.
Shame there can't be more of this social commentary rather then pantomime dames screaming celebrity / designer brand names every 5 seconds for a cheap laugh, but then again, I don't think this sitcom is aimed at me.
Still, not bad and certainly watchable.
Subversion has always been a stock in trade for "Ab Fab". The whole thing is riddled with satire, both obvious and more subtle, of celebrity, media and consumerism. These new episodes play 'catch-up' a little and focus a little more on how the family and their relationships have progressed since we last saw them, but look at any episode from the nineties and you'll se just how scathing they can be - mind you, the Kardashian conversation from one of the recent episodes was pretty brutal! I think that Edina and Patsy are fairly close, in lifestyle and attitudes, to a lot of well heeled older women in the new series.
Of course, for those who aren't up with all of the in-jokes, there has always been the broader, slapstick of the series.
Think - until the early nineties, upper-middle/upper class women in sitcoms had been Penelope Keith types, with humour drawn from the absurdity of their 'respectable' rituals. "Absolutely Fabulous" peeked behind the closed doors of Notting Hill to reveal well heeled middle aaged women living in a broken family with drug and alcohol dependencies and dysfunctional relationships with children who had raised themselves - subversion indeed!
As for any question of subtlety, I challenge anyone to name a mainstream, successful sitcom, particularly from the same era as "Ab Fab" that is any more subtle - there are few even now. "Ab Fab" may not be very subtle, but it certainly has subtelties.
Anyway - it is clearly much beloved... as it looks like we will be getting another special next Christmas as well as the one being released for the Olympics. There is also a film being made and BBC bosses want a whole new series in 2013.
... and I'm just thrilled! 
Quote: ToddB @ January 6 2012, 11:22 AM GMTSubversion has always been a stock in trade for "Ab Fab".
"Absolutely Fabulous" peeked behind the closed doors of Notting Hill to reveal well heeled middle aaged women living in a broken family with drug and alcohol dependencies and dysfunctional relationships with children who had raised themselves - subversion indeed!
... and I'm just thrilled!
Todd, I appreciate that you are a massive fan of the show, but I feel you are imbuing this mediocre farcical romp with far too much gravitas.
I obviously don't find it as hilarious or insightful as your good self, (plus why would I want to peek behind the closed doors of Notting Hill? Rich people problems, ain't problems in my book) so I'll let you get back to enjoying it fully.
I just watched the 2 new episodes last night and really enjoyed them. However...
Laughter I agree was a little overdone in places. There was more than one point where I thought I'd missed something because I couldn't work out what people were laughing at. That's just a risk with bringing much-loved shows back though, not a fault of Absolutely Fabulous or its producers. Pity that some of those laughs couldn't be edited out, but heyho.
I'd also agree with sentiments that the shows were slightly patchy. Overall they were good episodes, but it did feel that there was a lot of less amusing fluffy filler with only a handful of big laughs scattered around them at times.
And so the nature of the show itself... Over the past 6 weeks I've watched the entire series from start to finish, much for the first time, and I found the first 3 series (1992 - 1995) to be notably superior to the latter. They really lampooned those ridiculous celebrity indulgences and new age fads, and seemed to really quite ruthlessly focus on and rip one particular one apart per episode.
Since the 2001 revival however, there's been far less of this focussed bite; instead it's a more general jab at the cult of celebrity and some of its excesses, hidden around the Monsoon family - which has become the focus, rather than illustrating the collateral damage as in the past. As I came to the end of 2004's White Box and prepared to settle down to Identity I was rather hoping the new episodes would revert to the old formula, but alas not. There were some great jabs at current trends, but the discussion about the Kar- whatever, whoever they are, felt like it had been dropped in at the last minute because Saunders realised she didn't have enough contemporary references in the script, rather than because that's the kind of thing the show was originally squarely focussed on.
Perhaps a revival special isn't the best place to rip a specific trend apart in the manner the early series did, but still a bit of a shame I thought. The Olympics episode ... well, potentially, that could be a return to form...
Yes, when Ab Fab started, its targets were more defined maybe, but they were still naming people here, and that Bubbles thing did a very good royal wedding skit in the first special. You could even say the ex prison girl was satirical too. A lot of what they do is sending real people or types up, but is it really satire or a kind of joining in indulgence, as I see it?
Is JS really a showbiz free entity living on an island without all the things she's satirising? No, she's just as much one of them. Most of the targets have always been women, and this is where the indulgence comes in. They're all getting airtime, none more so than the incredibly indulgent and camera loving JS herself. The so called satire element of Ab Fab has always been a bit of a con trick. It is funny, but a lot more so for women.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ January 7 2012, 11:23 AM GMTMost of the targets have always been women, and this is where the indulgence comes in. They're all getting airtime, none more so than the incredibly indulgent and camera loving JS herself. The so called satire element of Ab Fab has always been a bit of a con trick. It is funny, but a lot more so for women.
Does that mean that "Steptoe and Son", "Porridge", "Open All Hours", "only Fools and Horses", "The Young Ones", "Filthy, Rich and Catflap", "Bottom", "Men Behaving Badly", "Peep Show" and the seemingly endless list of male oriented sitcoms are self induglent for satirising mainly male behaviour, showing the male perspective and giving men so much airtime?
No - seriously? I think an argument could be made that they are - but this is accepted as the norm. When females do it - it is called 'Self-Indulgent' - bizarre, and in 2012 too.
On another point - "Ab Fab" must now be one of the longest running British (or even worldwide) sitcoms ever. Other shows may have had more actual episodes made - but how many others have run over a span of twenty years - this must be relatively unique. Someone on here should be able to tell me, perhaps?
I wonder where a new series would take them? 
Most sitcoms do not run for as long, but it's not nearly as rare as you might think. The obvious example is Last Of The Summer Wine on TV.
I wouldn't count it as a long runner. Too long a break between new episodes 1996 - 2001, 2004 - 2011. 20 years but with 12 years silence.
Excellent final figures
Episode 1 - 9.07 Million
Episode 2 - 7.97 Million
Were there only two episodes? I thought they'd done three?
The third one is going to show during the Olympics.
Congratulations, "Absolutely Fabulous" - winner of the best returning sitcom of 2011 in the BCG awards! 
Quote: ToddB @ January 6 2012, 11:22 AM GMTSubversion has always been a stock in trade for "Ab Fab". The whole thing is riddled with satire, both obvious and more subtle, of celebrity, media and consumerism.
Ab Fab? Subtle??????
Quote: Chappers @ January 24 2012, 5:11 PM GMTAb Fab? Subtle??????
Yes - you may have missed those bits.
The vogue shoot with Edina and Patsy was, well, 'Fabulous'. Be sure to check out the article in the news section. 
