Review: "Absolutely Fabulous" Hasn't Lost Its "Identity" in Brand New Special

Jane Horrocks, Julia Sawalha, Jennifer Saunders, June Whitfield, and Joanna Lumley

Back in 1992, two ladies named Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone swept into the television landscape and through the sheer force of their Dionysian appetites became heroes for generations of gay men. Hard-drinking, hard-living and hard-shopping, these women represented life lived at its most selfish and unrepentantly shallow, providing a glitter-caked, pill-strewn fantasy life for the many of us dealing with considerable real-life pressures. Ab Fab was hilarious, vulgar, and proudly offensive escapism that openly embraced the gay community as partners in living life to its fullest, middle-class conventions be damned.

After five series and numerous one-off specials (the latest being 2003's "Cold Turkey"/"White Box" Christmas special), Absolutely Fabulous is back with three new episodes bringing Eddy, Pats and the gang up-to-date. And while the show's subversive edge may have dulled a bit over 20 years, it's great to see that its wicked wit and drug-addled heart are still in the right place.

I think it's pretty safe to say that by this point, you either like Ab Fab or you don't. If 20 years of episodes haven't done enough to convince you in either direction, this diverting but overall uneventful new installment isn't going to be the breaking point. I happen to like the show, so catching up with the characters was a nice walk down memory lane featuring a few unexpected turns but nothing to really upset the basic setup.

In "Identity", Edina (co-creator Jennifer Saunders) is still doing the PR thing, and with it being 2011 is of course besieged by all sorts of digital devices beginning with "i". The character comments several times on the fact that she's put on a few pounds over the years, but hey - she ain't no spring chicken, and she's had weight concerns since day one. I think she looks just fine.

Patsy (Joanna Lumley) is apparently still a fashion editor, although as one of the show's more amusing plotlines reveals she is far beyond retirement age and is due years of unclaimed pension. Lumley looks like she could have stepped out of an episode from 1996, so it's appropriate (and amusing) that the toll that age and years of booze and drugs have taken on her character have been almost totally mental.

And "totally mental" is, of course, the show's comfort zone. Aside from Patsy's identity loss concerns, the show's primary plotline involves Saffy (Julia Sawalha, looking lovely), who has just been released from prison (for unwittingly aiding asylum seekers with falsified papers) and is dealing with an overzealous former cellmate. Saffy's time in the slammer has earned her Patsy's respect for the first time ever, which is fun - but otherwise not much has really changed.

Gran (June Whitfield) is still dependable, passive-aggressive Gran, Bubble (Jane Horrocks) is still high-pitched and idiotic (I actually found her shtick to be a bit tired), and Saffy's gay dad Justin (Christopher Malcolm) is dependable as ever. Even Saffy's loony old mate Sarah (Naoko Mori) makes an appearance to welcome her friend home.

Eddy, modeling something from the Tron: Legacy line

Along the way we encounter the expected parade of hideous fashions, pop culture name-checks (most of them British), and joking jabs at celebrities (including a bit about Eddy getting eighty-sixed from a San Tropez nightclub for hugging Elton John while he was breastfeeding his baby). There's also an extended cameo by Sofie Gråbøl. Who is Sofie Gråbøl? Well, she's the Danish actress who played the lead detective on the original The Killing series. And while the reference may be lost on many Stateside viewers (myself included), the sight of Eddy mumbling fake Danish for an entire dream sequence more than makes up for it.

In a television landscape where shows like Shameless, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Archer are setting the bar for outrageous, vice-fueled comedy, Ab Fab may seem by comparison to be like a charming old Auntie who did lots of drugs back in her youth and likes to talk about it over tea. Maybe that's why enjoying the show's company again feels a bit like sitting down with an old friend. I for one am looking forward to seeing what the next two episodes have in store for the gang.

Pats and Eddy in their natural habitat (shopping)

Absolutely Fabulous ("Identity") premieres in the U.S. this Sunday, January 8, on LOGO (our parent company)