Rating: 
Summary: WHERE IS THE COMMENTARY??
Review: Ok...I admit..I am certainly an 'AB-FAB' addict...sort of...
I got the new 'SPECIAL' dvd, and of course I am thrilled with it...BUT...why is there no running commentary with Jennifer?? I so badly wanted commentary..I want to know ALL the fabulous details of the filming etc...as well as her own personal thoughts..That is one of the things I loved about the SERIES 4 dvd..all of that commentary.....(HUGE SIGH!!)....and could they not have put more than 15 minutes of bloopers/outakes...? A dvd is made for EXTRAS....extra this and extra that....this is what makes a dvd so "SPECIAL"...so I have to say as much as I love and adore 'AB-FAB' I am extremely disppointed (SOB SOB) that more was not put into this new dvd....as great as it is IT COULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER.....mmmmmmmmmmm maybe they might release..
'AB-FAB' "SPECIAL" EDITION....??? Here's hoping...
Rating: 
Summary: Better than some would have you believe...
Review: Okay, first: the people who have complained about the actual DVD transfer have every right to be disappointed. "Gay" should be widescreen, but is not on this disc. The theme songs for both specials are removed. And, worst of all, the box takes the special name "Gay" and redubs it "In New York." Insulting. So there's that out of the way.
As everyone else has said, "The Last Shout" is great. It's nice to actually have this available in Region 1. Pretty much everything works in "The Last Shout," even if the ending falls a bit flat.
I'd also like to say, though, that "Gay" is good as well. A lot of people (using phrases like "recycled vomit") have said otherwise. They say it's just jumping on the gay-TV bandwagon for easy laughs and "fabulous" atmosphere. And this is how it appears... until Eddy actually meets her son (spoiler alert). The real gag is that Serge, despite the gay stereotype, is possibly more boring than "dull-as-dishwater" Saffy. So Eddy's larger-than-life world view once again seems completely silly when compared with the pragmatism of her child... it's just the other one, this time.
No, "Gay" isn't as good as "The Last Shout," but it's not bad. I'd say it's better than most of Series 4, which, in my opinion, was the most inconsistent. Then again, it's not up to the superb quality of Series 5, either.
Rating:
Summary: Relatively Un-Fabulous
Review: Overall, this is still sublime comedy, but compared with other AbFab packages, this is at the bottom of the barrel.Although I miss the commentary and letterboxing of Series 4, my biggest complaint is the lack of theme song. One of the best things about "The Last Shout" is the theme-song version of "This Wheel's on Fire" sung by guest star Marianne Faithful. Apparently, Warner is too cheap to pony up for the song rights for the DVD, so that version (along with the regular version on "In New York" a.k.a. "Gay") has been excised. If you want to hear it, you can try to get ahold of a copy of the out-of-print VHS version of "The Last Shout." Let's face it - in relation to the regular "series" episodes, these "specials" are not quite up to par. "The Last Shout" was intended to be the series finale and/or a botched AbFab movie. While Part 1 of "Last Shout" rivals the early-series travel episodes for its French skiing adventures, "Part 2" is predictable melodrama - did anyone really believe Saffy would tie the knot with a character we'd never seen before? As for "In New York," this is perhaps the weakest of any AbFab production, down there with the awkward guest episode in "Roseanne"'s disastrous final season. This episode is actually titled "Gay," but for whatever marketing reason, is called "In New York," on this DVD. It is a shameless shout-out to AbFab's gay fans, but also a completely clumsy and dishonest stunt. First of all, Serge wasn't meant to be gay - in an early episode, Eddie, Pats, and Saffy discovered a stack of heterosexual adult magazines in Serge's American-Football-themed old bedroom (one issue featuring a young Patsy baring all). Secondly, once Eddie and Patsy arrive in New York, this episode dissovles into comedic purgatory, with Whoopi Goldberg (!) poorly playing a PFLAG-like counselor and the ladies engaging in an unwitting gay wedding. It's not funny or genuine to the characters or to the audience. I doubt the gay community was hollering for an awknowledgement as unfunny and forced as this. That being said, we are still talking about one of the best, most original comedies created in the last quarter century. Here's to hoping Series 5 will get the show back on track (although the idea of Saffy giving birth isn't sounding so promising, either).
Rating:
Summary: Cheers.....thanks a lot.....!!!!
Review: Six years span the two 'special' episodes that are included on this Fab disc and they're finally here and almost worth the wait.
The material is hilarious, as usual, and the out-takes...most of which are from 'The Last Shout' are not only just out-takes but extended/alternate and deleted scenes. The out-takes from 'Gay' are relegated to a mere few minutes....Damn!!!
Doesn't matter though...what is here is great. And a welcome completion to anyones AFBAB dvd collection. The aspect ratio isn't all that disturbing....as a matter of fact.....coming from someone who has been pro-widescreen since the early days of special VHS letterbox editions of films.....it didn't matter to me at all....but if you need something to be disappointed in....that would be it.
'The Last Shout' is broken down into its proper televised 2 parts...with part 1 running 42:56 and part 2....42:24. 'New York' or 'Gay' clock's in at 54:10. Both 'special' episodes include footage that for some reason failed to make air when BBC America ran them at their debut times. And, of course, the bleeped language is intact. You have the option of selecting which episode to view OR running the whole thing. The out-takes run 13:43. That's about it...No commentary...No optional language selection. Bare bones....but anything ABFAB is hardly that!!!
The guests that appear on the 'Gay' episode range from the cute as hell Rufus Wainwright to Whoopi Goldberg. Graham Norton gives a nod to Patsy's past and Debbie Harry/Blondie does most of the soundtrack culminating with an appearance at a New York club singing "...if your memory serves you well..." Hardly singing 'Wheels On Fire' as you may have read in previous reviews. Josh Hamilton, who if you haven't seen in 'Urbania'...DO!!!, is perfect as 'not-at-all-fabulous' Serge. The collection is complete...that is until Series 5, YAY!!!!, takes its bow later in the Fall. If you love ABFAB....you need this disc. So....go get it......load up your multi-disc player....pour some Boli....and have an Absolutely Fabulous Weekend chock full of laughs!! Cheers, Sweeties!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: NO EFFORT PUT INTO THIS DVD
Review: The BBC now, by hooking up with Warner Bros. to distribute thier material, has learned how to be completely lazy when releasing a DVD: The picture of the New York episode was not cleaned up before digital transfer (grainy and color fades), the "bonus" material is the same set of bloopers on the VHS version of The Last Shout, there is no commentary mode, and bloopers from the New York episode are approximately 2 minutes. BUT...they now have my $20, so the last laugh's on me.
Rating:
Summary: Are you ready for this Sweetie?
Review: The girls from Ab fab are back!!! A new DVD containing the two Ab Fab movies sweetie...The New York Special and The Last Shout, with audio commentary and outtakes!!! The New York Special entitle "GAY"- Jennifer Saunders, in an homage to her gay fans, has brought Serge out of the closet and created a one-hour special around his reunion with his ridiculous mum, Edina Monsoon. Not only do we get to see Debbie Harry of Blondie perform the AbFab theme "This Wheels on Fire", Edie and Patsy get married by Whoopi Goldberg, we get to visit fashion week, location shots at many familiar gay landmarks in NYC and cameos by many gay icons. Also includes the rest of the ab fab gang, Buddle, Saffy, and grams In "The last Shout" we see Edina floating with a dolphin in a pool located in her bedroom for spiritual cleansing. She contacts Patsy, who has been renting an apartment conveniently located above a liquor store, to get ready for her job interview. Patsy does get up, but only so far as to walk into a pub. And guess what...Saffy has a boy friends. Will she Marry him, and will Edina aprove of him? A must buy for any ab fab fan
Rating:
Summary: How lame could "Gay" be? Extremely
Review: The New York special "Gay" is extremely weak. What makes it worse than just mediocre is the use of Whoopi Goldberg... the queen of unfunny comedians. Who let her into this special? They ought to be fired twice. It was Ab Fab in search of actual gags... horrible. Most everything flopped. Like at least one reviewer mentioned, Mo Gaffney is actually funny in this special (which is a pleasant surprise). Of course, Jane Horrocks as Bubble is fairly good, and she's just as good in her other appearance. ;) To be fair, most people are going to get this for "The Last Shout"... and that's worth the price BBC/WB asks for, but it's still not as good as the good old days. Perhaps it's on par with series 4. Buy it if you must, but shake your fist in complaint because "In New York/Gay" is some of the worst drivel produced for television.
Rating:
Summary: How lame could "Gay" be? Extremely
Review: The New York special "Gay" is extremely weak. What makes it worse than just mediocre is the use of Whoopi Goldberg... the queen of unfunny comedians. Who let her into this special? They ought to be fired twice. It was Ab Fab in search of actual gags... horrible. Most everything flopped. Like at least one reviewer mentioned, Mo Gaffney is actually funny in this special (which is a pleasant surprise). Of course, Jane Horrocks as Bubble is fairly good, and she's just as good in her other appearance. ;) To be fair, most people are going to get this for "The Last Shout"... and that's worth the price BBC/WB asks for, but it's still not as good as the good old days. Perhaps it's on par with series 4. Buy it if you must, but shake your fist in complaint because "In New York/Gay" is some of the worst drivel produced for television.
Rating: 
Summary: panned and scanned version of widescreen show YUCK
Review: There are 2 problems with this disc. First, the commentary by Jennifer Saunders that was promised is missing, and second, "Gay" is presented in cropped format instead of the original widescreen as broadcast in the UK. This is stupid, as Season 4 was correctly released in widescreen, so why isn't this follow-up? If you want to see the entire picture, import the Uk disc which also includes the commentary. "The Last Shout" is fine as it was filmed before widescreen TV took over in the UK. Avoid the US DVD and get the UK one if you have a region free player.
Rating: 
Summary: Botched transfer on newest of the two specials
Review: There are two special episodes of AbFab on this disc, and first of all Warner Home Video should be thanked for packaging them together at a good price. BUT (and you knew it was coming) - the latest special, titled "Gay" on screen and "AbFab in N.Y." on the box cover art, suffers from a really bad transfer error. As you may already know, all of Season 4 and this newest episode were shot in High Definition (HD) by the BBC, and on the Season 4 DVD set those episodes were transferred correctly into anamorphic widescreen. While the vast majority of viewers won't benefit from this process just yet (until they upgrade their sets) HD widescreen material can be dealt with properly on DVD for standard TVs by slightly letterboxing the image (i.e. putting small black bars at the top and bottom of the screen image). Unfortunately rather than just letterbox the newest episode (and properly do an anamorphic transfer) they decided instead on this release to severely crop the sides of the picture to fill up the screen. While this would be OK with most TV shows, as they are shot with a "safe area" in mind, it simply does not work with AbFab because the director very boldly took advantage of the widescreen format to lay out his shots and character interactions. What this means for both widescreen and regular sized screen viewers is that in almost every shot where there are more than two people in the frame characters are now totally cut off on either side of the screen. You end up missing a lot of reactions by the actors to each other, and not seeing who they are talking to in the frame many times. The show really suffers for it comedy-wise, not to mention how cramped the scenes now can play. While this series may not sell a lot of DVDs for Warners (and, again we should note that it is a good thing that they do release it), it is really important to transfer episodes properly so viewers can see each episode as it was framed for broadcast. If they didn't want to spend the additional money to do the correct anamorphic transfer they should have at least letterboxed the newest episode so actors didn't get cut off the screen. This is a major disappointment in an otherwise well done package - which not only offers outtakes from the older episode from its original video release by the way, but also adds new outtakes from the most recent episode. While Warner Home Video will most likely let this disc slide, let's hope they go back to doing things properly for the upcoming new Season 5 episodes when they come to DVD.
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