"Inside of me there's a thin woman trying to get out," complains the ever-suffering Edina. "Are you sure it's just the one, dear?" asks her mother. When anyone raves about Sex and the City, you need only to remind her that the Brits did it first--and better--with the creation of the brave say-anything show about sex, drugs, and the battle of the bulge. Absolutely Fabulous is a groundbreaking, off-the-wall comedy from the early 1990s, which began with a skit from The French and Saunders Show, about a moral, uptight daughter and her extremely loose mother. Ab Fab has taken this to the extreme. Edina (Jennifer Saunders) is the queen of excess. Her clothes are outrageous, her attempts at weight loss comical, and her efforts at motherhood (her daughter, Saffron--played to perfection by Julia Sawalha--is a practical-minded, reliable teenager) are uneven at best. Eddy's best friend is Patsy, a promiscuous Ivana Trump look-alike who always has a cigarette between her lips, a drink in her hand, and a fine-looking man (or boy) in her bed. The entire show lasted for three seasons, and all are included in this set. From organizing an orgy to a brush with poverty to the death of Eddy's father, nothing--and we mean nothing--is sacred in this show. Without a doubt, Ab Fab is one of the greatest television satires created, although keep in mind that it's strictly for adults. --Jenny Brown
