Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: July 6, 1958
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: It must be such a double-edged sword to have so much success playing the same TV character that it comes to dominate your entire career. On the one hand: all that success! Clearly you’re doing something right, but also it must feel like a bit of a life sentence to have to be playing that same character for the rest of your natural life. Credit the wonderful Jennifer Saunders, then, for carrying off this mixed blessing with an extreme amount of panache. She’s been playing Edina Monsoon of Absolutely Fabulous for over 25 years. This summer, Edina and Patsy will stagger into movie theaters with Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie. She’s going as strong as she ever has.
It’s impossible to get to the root of what makes Saunders’ performance as Edina so (pardon the pun) intoxicating. Her chemistry with Joanna Lumley’s Patsy is certainly a part of it. But there’s also the ferocity with which Edina dives into her bad behavior. Of the two of them, Edina is the one with a greater capacity for self-doubt and introspection, but time and again we get to watch her boldly power through that and onto the next gin and tonic.
Eddie is a mess, certainly, but there’s nothing weak-willed about Saunders’ performance. She’s a hurricane of profanity, substance abuse, verbal abuse, bad parenting, fashion disasters, and a stubborn determination to hang onto relevance with her fingernails.
