… but enough about me

Variety has announced that the American version of Absolutely Fabulous has cast its Eddie and Patsy.

Kathryn Hahn, from Revolutionary Road, will play Eddie, and 3rd Rock From the Sun‘s Kristen Johnston will play Patsy. (I was sort of hoping they’d get Jennifer Coolidge in there somewhere! Alas…)

I recognize Hahn, but I don’t know from where. I remember liking her, though. (Unless I’m thinking of Ana Gasteyer.) And I think Johnston could be a passable Patsy-esque character. But this show still worries me.

There is little in this world that delights me as much as watching the original three seasons, but it’s a classic. I love it now because I loved it then. I think AbFab’s time has come and gone. Even Jennifer Saunders should not keep it going in its original incarnation. Whatever gets produced here will have to be unrecognizably different from the original, and then what’s the point of doing it in the first place?

The characters of Patsy and Eddie relied on their memories of the free-wheeling ’60s and ’70s and the outdated vices and fashion sense they brought with them into the ’90s. New-Eddie is old enough to have a 15- or 16-year-old daughter, but only just. What will new-Eddie’s vice be? Too much Pac-Man? And Patsy’s? (Well, that could still be anything.)

Two things give me hope:

1. Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley are not playing the lead roles (though I don’t trust them not to make a cameo at some point).
2. Jennifer Saunders is staying on as a producer. I don’t know how involved she’ll be in writing, but maybe some of her wit and charm will rub off.

Fingers crossed…