Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Special (The Last Shout/In New York)

Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY SPECIAL (THE LAST SHOUT / IN NEW YORK
Review: "LAST SHOUT IN NEW YORK" WAS WHAT THEY NAMED IT...ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!! THE NAME OF THE SHOW TOTALLY FITS EVERY EPISODES MADE.I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF EDINA AND PATSY.THE CLOTHES ACCESSORIES ARE AWESOME.I AM 25 AND I HAVE WATCHED ABFAB SINCE IT AIRED. I WAS DESTITUTE WHEN THEY TOOK A BREAK. PLEASE KEEP ON GOING!!!5 STARS!!! I WOULD LIKE TO FIND SAUNDERS&FRENCH PRODUCTIONS DVDS ALL OF THERE WORK.

I LOVE YOUR SHOW,
ILONKA KELLY
MY ADDRESS
721 NORTH DOVE POINT
CRYSTAL RIVER, FL
34429

PHONE #
[phone]

Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY SPECIAL (THE LAST SHOUT / IN NEW YORK
Review: "LAST SHOUT IN NEW YORK" WAS WHAT THEY NAMED IT...ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!! THE NAME OF THE SHOW TOTALLY FITS EVERY EPISODES MADE.I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF EDINA AND PATSY.THE CLOTHES ACCESSORIES ARE AWESOME.I AM 25 AND I HAVE WATCHED ABFAB SINCE IT AIRED. I WAS DESTITUTE WHEN THEY TOOK A BREAK. PLEASE KEEP ON GOING!!!5 STARS!!! I WOULD LIKE TO FIND SAUNDERS&FRENCH PRODUCTIONS DVDS ALL OF THERE WORK.

I LOVE YOUR SHOW,
ILONKA KELLY
MY ADDRESS
721 NORTH DOVE POINT
CRYSTAL RIVER, FL
34429

PHONE #
[phone]

Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY SPECIAL (THE LAST SHOUT / IN NEW YORK
Review: "LAST SHOUT IN NEW YORK" WAS WHAT THEY NAMED IT...ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!! THE NAME OF THE SHOW TOTALLY FITS EVERY EPISODES MADE.I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF EDINA AND PATSY.THE CLOTHES ACCESSORIES ARE AWESOME.I AM 25 AND I HAVE WATCHED ABFAB SINCE IT AIRED. I WAS DESTITUTE WHEN THEY TOOK A BREAK. PLEASE KEEP ON GOING!!!5 STARS!!! I WOULD LIKE TO FIND SAUNDERS&FRENCH PRODUCTIONS DVDS ALL OF THERE WORK.

I LOVE YOUR SHOW,
ILONKA KELLY
MY ADDRESS
721 NORTH DOVE POINT
CRYSTAL RIVER, FL
34429

PHONE #
[phone]

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag
Review: Absolutely Fabulous: The Last Shout is wonderful.

Absolutely Fabulous In New York is not.

So (and this is just a guess) marketing titans at BBC America, realising the depth of inferiority of the latter, have cut & pasted it onto a DVD mini-collection with the former, in the hopes that having-to-buy-one-with-the-other will see some sort of a return on the high-budget high-celebrity low-humour "New York" episode.

I'll handle each section separately.

"The Last Shout" sees Eddy and Patsy off on another holiday, this time to Val D'esere, to ski and to escape Saffy's bombshell - she's getting married. Sick of "bearing the burden of the Passive Destiny", militant feminist Saff has decided to bow to peer pressure and accept her well-to-do society boyfriend Paolo's offer of marriage, and Eddy, upon realising his social standing, employs a sneaky Patsy and all the PR connections and money at her disposal to give her a wedding she'll never forget.

Along the way she learns to snowboard, meets God (a wonderfully perfect Marianne Faithfull), and finally comes face-to-face with another God - or is it Lacroix, sweetie?

The brilliance of "The Last Shout" is in the simplicity. It's not choc-full of celebrity cameos, nor does it rely on the glamorous locations and jet-set lifestyle for laughs. Saunders' script crackles and sparkles with the good old Ab-Fab brand of upper-class vulgarity and excessive sang-froid, and in places, is the best work she's ever done. Patsy meeting Paolo's Mother still makes me laugh out loud even now, and Eddy's scenes on the hunt for a church and a Lacroix frock for her daughter's big day have lost none of their comic value.

Performances are fantastic; Saunders and Lumley are far, far better here than in the disjointed Series 3, and we get to see a rare, 'girly' side to Saffron that Julia Sawalha must have relished playing.

All in all, "Last Shout" is a classic, timeless moment of Ab-Fabbery, and one that no fan should do without.

And now the bad news.

Do we remember in the episode "New Year" (Series 3), Eddy saying to Oliver "If you'd said that when you arrived I might've been impressed."? Well, that (excellent) line sort of sums up the "New York" special. Gay isn't a big deal anymore. Neither is Celebrity. So when you take 2 characters who hav kept their collective fingers nailed to the Zeitgeisty Pulse for the last 12 years and put them in a situation full of redundant ideas (the coolness of being Gay, the madcap and superficial world of the Celeb), then you have a recipie for disaster. Six or seven years ago this would have been cool, but now it's sadly lost in the stagnant mire of bilge-programming like "Queer Eye" and "American Idol".

Eddy finally discovers Serge's whereabouts, as well as his sexuality, and, thanks to a well-timed trip of Patsy's, decides to go to New york to see him and let him know she loves the fact that he's gay.

What we have here is a hodge-podge of redundant jokes (Bo's Tammy-Faye Baker drag is particularly annoying, Bubble seems pointless and Saffy's ote-taking is TOTALLY out of character), awkward celebrity cameos (Wooden Graham Norton, plainly unfunny Whoopi Goldberg) and a script that is as tired and maudlin as the storyline behind it. Laughs are few and far between: Patsy is now more a charicature of her former glorious self, and Eddy has become mere narrative for the antics of the rest of the crew.

The final reunion between Eddy & Serge is a wasted potential, and, much like the rest of the episode, is a few weak jokes mired in a sea of celebrities like Debbie Harry and predictable situations like Patsy fire-dancing.

A big disappointment, the nicest thing I can say about "New York" is that it's bundled here in the same collection as "The Last Shout".

Extras are poor, outtakes are run-of-the-mill fare, and audio/video quality is average.

Only to be considered for "The Last Shout" (which, thankfully, is twice as long as "New York"), this collection really is a very mixed bag of laughs and snores.

One for the fans.

Rating:
Summary: Correction--No Audio Commentary
Review: Although all the other wonderful things about this DVD are true including the Outtakes (which are always hysterical) and which are available for Last Shout and New York, my sources tell me there is no audio commentary

Rating:
Summary: Everything she touches turns to platinum
Review: Both of these specials are fantastic. I watch ABFAB all the time, it never gets old. When I first saw "Gay," I didn't think it was as great as the original episodes, but there are some very funny parts in it. I think Whoopi is perfect in her part and I always crack up when Eddy and Pats are in the office with her. The clubbing at the end is great. And, the part where Pats is reading the designers' names in the hotel room... Timmy Holefinger, Ellis, D...KNY (LSD). She's just clever in her own little way. I think some of these things only come out after watching the episodes 5 or 500 times. Anyhow, I will buy everything Saunders ever makes because she is a creative genius.

Rating:
Summary: Everything she touches turns to platinum
Review: Both of these specials are fantastic. I watch ABFAB all the time, it never gets old. When I first saw "Gay," I didn't think it was as great as the original episodes, but there are some very funny parts in it. I think Whoopi is perfect in her part and I always crack up when Eddy and Pats are in the office with her. The clubbing at the end is great. And, the part where Pats is reading the designers' names in the hotel room... Timmy Holefinger, Ellis, D...KNY (LSD). She's just clever in her own little way. I think some of these things only come out after watching the episodes 5 or 500 times. Anyhow, I will buy everything Saunders ever makes because she is a creative genius.

Rating:
Summary: The real deal about this DVD
Review: First, know this...No one has seen the DVD yet because it has not been released yet. Secondly, the press release in the U.K. stated that there will be commentary from Jon Plowman AND Jennifer Saunders. Note that Jon Plowman is the Executive Producer of this episode and Tristan Shapeero is the Director. At any cost, this is a fantastic special to own if you are a Ab Fab fan. Whoopie Goldberg is halarious in this and Serge is finally seen and Eddie and Patsy tie the knot. What is best to look forward to is Season five already being filmed. 8 episodes, the first 5 have been taped already, "Cleanin'", "Book Clubin'", "Birthin'", "Drinkin"' and "Panic". Saffy gives birth in the third ep. Enjoy!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and slapped together DVD release.
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: You're going to buy it anyway
Review: I am an AbFab fanatic. I wanted to see the episode where Edina finds Serge - especially after Jennifer Saunders said in the commentary on the Series 4 DVD that they never would do Serge because there was too much build up. I didn't care if it sucked. Seeing it was a need.

If you feel the way I did, then you should buy this DVD. I definitely don't regret buying. I don't plan on trying to sell it off. I might even be very reluctant to loan it to a friend. It is precious to me.

That being said, I gave this DVD 3 stars because only a fanatic would shell out money to buy it. There isn't a whole lot of extra stuff, and it's obvious that it's supposed to be shown in wide screen format. I don't know why they couldn't have done the little black bars thing, but whatever. You pay whatever you pay for it because you want to see Eddy find Serge. There's a brief section of outakes from AbFab in NYC after the outakes from the Last Shout, but it seems like a last minute addition and leaves you wanting much much more.