Earlier this year, Starkville’s Northland Cable service finally added Comedy Central to its basic cable package, giving overworked and over-stimulated Mississippi State University students relief from the harsh realities of frat parties and video games. Now, the previously underprivileged Bulldogs can enjoy their first season of “Absolutely Fabulous.””Absolutely Fabulous” is a zany British comedy about Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley), two middle-aged women trying in vain to recapture the glory of their youth and the prestige of modern decadence, or at least the image of modern decadence. If you’ve never heard of the show, try to envision a marriage (though a rather dysfunctional one) between the conflicting roommate parodies of “friends” and the oversexed, over-the-hill innuendo of “The Golden Girls.” Now, dub in the English accents, and you get the picture.
In a release from Comedy Central, Edina and Patsy are described as being “trend-chasing, booze-swilling, chain-smoking, pill-popping, celebrity-seeking, hard-partying fashion victims.”
Comedy Central aired the first of six new episodes of “Absolutely Fabulous” Nov. 12. The show has been running since 1992, but this is only its fourth season with Comedy Central. The network began airing the hit comedy in association with the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1998.
Edina is a divorc living in an apartment with her grown daughter Saffy. Edina often stumbles home late at night with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a one-night stand in the other. Saffy often finds herself embarrassed by her mother’s lifestyle, especially when she has company over. Yet, Saffy’s role is important as she tries with comic futility to keep her mother in check.
Patsy is the managing editor of a British fashion magazine, a position she proudly achieved by sleeping with the publisher. She lives with Edina and can often be found loitering in the kitchen with a slim cigarette in one hand a half-empty champagne flute in the other.
Alone, Edina and Patsy are engaging, but together, they are totally outrageous. In the first three episodes of the new season, the mischievous duo goes to ridiculous lengths to convince themselves that they are not in their 40s. All the while, they both say “darling” about as frequently as Austin Powers says “Yeah baby!”
First, Patsy injects “Paralox,” a new cosmetic stimulant, into her face to reduce wrinkles. However, when Edina takes it, her face becomes numb, as if she just had her wisdom teeth pulled. Later, Edina tries to enhance her bust size with an inflatable bra, only this one has a leaky valve.
Patsy and Edina’s vice for trends leads them to try everything from collapsible scooters to Marilyn Manson T-shirts.
“Absolutely Fabulous” airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on Comedy Central. With clashing characters, questionable fashion tastes and deliciously devilish antics, “Absolutely Fabulous” is British comedy at its best, or, as they would say, it’s a smashing good show, darling!