Sadie Sink's Abs: The Hard-Hitting Journalism We Apparently Deserve

So, the BBC just dropped Ab Fab stars Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley reunite for Amandaland. The press release is, of course, dripping with saccharine excitement about them joining some show called Amandaland for a Christmas special. And my first thought wasn't joy. It was a deep, soul-crushing sigh.

Here we go again.

Another trip to the nostalgia well from a network that seems creatively bankrupt. It feels like television executives these days have just one move: find something people loved 20 years ago, slap a fresh coat of paint on it, and pray the original magic wasn't just a fluke. It's a creative strategy built on brand recognition and a complete lack of new ideas.

Let's be real, Absolutely Fabulous was lightning in a bottle. It was genuinely subversive, hilarious, and captured a specific moment in time. Patsy and Edina weren't just characters; they were chaotic forces of nature. Now, we're getting them… adjacent? Saunders is playing the "on-screen sister" of Lumley's character. It's like ordering a steak and getting a picture of a cow. It’s close, but it sure as hell ain't the same thing.

The SoHa Problem

The show they're gate-crashing is Amandaland, a spin-off of Motherland. It follows a divorced middle-class woman named Amanda who is "forced" to leave Chiswick for... South Harlesden. Which she pretentiously rebrands as "SoHa." I had to read that twice. SoHa. It's a premise that already sounds like a parody of a parody, a joke that’s already been told a thousand times by comedians with more edge.

This is my problem with so much modern comedy. It punches down, or rather, it punches at a very specific, self-referential bubble of upper-middle-class anxiety. The trauma of moving to a slightly less posh part of London... give me a break. Is this really the most pressing material we can mine for laughs right now? It feels less like satire and more like a therapy session for people who worry about which brand of oat milk to buy.

And into this world, we're injecting the ghost of Ab Fab. Saunders' new character is described as a "ball of country-living, enthusiastic upper-class bluster." It's a bad sign. No, "bad" doesn't cover it—this is a five-alarm warning siren. That description sounds like they fed the original Ab Fab scripts into an AI and asked it to generate a "vaguely British funny character." It's a collection of adjectives, not a person. You can almost hear the hollow, canned laughter from a studio audience that’s been told when to clap.

What made Edina and Patsy work was their genuine, unapologetic awfulness. They were monsters, but they were our monsters. They weren't just blustering caricatures; they were a razor-sharp critique of celebrity culture, consumerism, and aging disgracefully. Trying to recapture that by putting them in a spin-off about neighborhood branding is like trying to start a forest fire with a wet match. It's just... sad.

A Legacy on the Line

I get it, the first season of Amandaland apparently got good reviews. Critics called the two leads a "dream comic double act." Fine. But bringing in Saunders and Lumley feels less like a confident creative choice and more like a desperate marketing ploy. It’s stunt casting, plain and simple. It’s a way to get headlines and trick old fans into watching a show they’d otherwise ignore.

This is the tightrope walk of every reboot, reunion, and spin-off. It’s a gamble with a beloved legacy. For every Better Call Saul that brilliantly expands on its source material, there are a dozen Joeys that just leave you feeling empty and embarrassed for everyone involved. The risk here isn't just a bad Christmas special; it's the potential to dilute the memory of one of the greatest comedies ever made. It’s like watching your favorite punk band from high school reunite to play a corporate gig at a software conference. The notes are the same, but the soul is gone.

Then again, maybe I'm the one who's out of touch. Maybe this will be a triumph. Perhaps seeing Saunders and Lumley spar again, even as different characters, will be a joy. But the odds are stacked against it. History is stacked against it. The entire television industry's lazy, risk-averse creative model is stacked against it. They say they're "delighted to be joining the fabulous Amandaland gang." My cynical translation? The check cleared, and it's easier than writing something new.

And who can blame them, really? Why bother creating something original and risky when you can just re-sell people their own memories at a premium? It's the entire business model of Hollywood and, increasingly, the BBC. I just wonder what happens when the well runs dry. What will they reboot when they run out of things to reboot? Offcourse, by then, none of the current executives will still be around to answer for it.

Don't You Dare Tarnish It

Look, I want this to be good. I really do. I want to be proven wrong. I want to sit down this Christmas, watch these two legends on screen together, and laugh until I can't breathe. But I'm bracing for the worst. I'm bracing for a watered-down, focus-grouped, nostalgia-bait product that uses the legacy of Ab Fab as a cheap marketing hook. Please, for the love of all that is holy, don't screw this up. Don't make us regret ever loving Patsy and Edina in the first place.