The amount of people in this world who don’t get comedy is beginning to frighten me.

James Gunn, a writer/director/actor, has started a web series entitled PG Porn with his brothers, Sean and Brian, which is all about copying the porn movies of the 1980′s, but without the sex.  Yes, you read that correctly, there is no sex in the series.  It stars real life porn actresses Aria Giovanni, Belladonna and Sasha Grey with mainstream actors Nathan Fillion and Michael Rosenbaum.  Each short film is constructed to be like a 1980′s porn film, just minus the sex so you can concentrate on the riveting stories.  If the first episode is anything to go by, they will end badly… just see for your self.  (Please note there is NO nudity or sex in this clip, but it does feature some rocking porn-style music… if the embed is not working, go here, it keeps going down for some reason.)

While I personally found this highly amusing, it seems that Theresa Darklady Reed of the Huffington Post didn’t.  Ms. Reed calls it “…another example of violent misogyny self-righteously disguised as humor” and “The Gunn brothers apparently consider violence against women to be not just acceptable but sexy…”.  While Ms. Reed claims to “get” the joke, it is fairly obvious she doesn’t.  James Gunn has defended his series against this argument and informed readers of his MySpace blog that in future episodes there are more deaths, but they aren’t always the women.

This is another case like the recent situation of Paramount having no sense of humor about South Park or a couple getting angry over being featured ina  Saturday Night Live sketch.  In no way did I take this little film to be a case of “misogyny” or violence against women.  The Gunn’s have gone on record as saying how this would also technically be rated as PG if it was a film because Hollywood is far more relaxed on violence than it is on sex.  I would also say that for this to be considered an a case of violence against women, it would have had to be intentional on the part of the construction worker as opposed to what was obviously meant to be taken as an accident.

Did he shoot her in the head with the nail gun out of anger?  No.  Did he show remorse afterwords?  Yes.  Would a cop arrest him for manslaughter as opposed to murder?  Yes.  Was it an accident?  Yes.

Why is everyone taking comedy so seriously all of a sudden?It is meant in humor, it is obviously humor, sure it may not be for you, but does that mean you have to try to make it into something it isn’t?  If this was a case of “misogyny”, does this mean women are completely off to being made fun of now?  Does every female character in every story now have to live no matter what?  Apparently so since women dying, even by accident, is now considered an endoresement of violence against women.

… I think my head hurts now.

Again, it seems police have nothing better to do than make stupid arrests.

io9 first pointed out the story and followed it back to its source at NBC LEX18.  18-year-old William Poole, a student at George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester, KY, is currently sitting in the Clark County Detention Center. Why is he there?  Well, it seems he wrote a story for his English class about zombies attacking a high school.

Yeah, you read that right.

For some unknown reason, Mr. Poole’s grandparents went through his writing journal, and coming across the zombie story, they turned it over to the police.  Under Kentucky law, any threat against an event or school is a felony, and so he is being charged second-degree felony charge of “terrorist threatening”.  The police also raided his home and found materials “that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.” Prosecutors got a judge to raise his bail from $1,000 to $5,000 on Thursday based on it being a serious felony charge.

Of the entire event, Mr. Poole says, “”My story is based on fiction. It’s a fake story. I made it up. I’ve been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies.”

While I uderstand that threats of school violence need to be taken seriously… zombies?  Really?  Unless when the police searched Poole’s house found a small army of zombies living in his basement, I have a hard time believing they had much on the kid.  And, yes, yes, I know it has been written about endlessly that kids suspend their civil rights in a school setting, but they have no right to write a story involving a school and fantasy monsters attacking it?

I’m not so naive as to think there aren’t large chunks of this story missing, such as:

• Why were his grandparents prompted to read his journal?
• Does he have a history of being disturbed?
• What were the other materials found in his house?
• Did any other writings in his journal pertain to violence at the school, or was it just the zombie story?

Barring those questions, I can’t believe a story about zombies would be viewed as anything more than a science fiction/fantasy story.  Unless there has been a rash of zombie attacks lately that I haven’t heard about, they are still mythical.  Add in the fact that zombies are enjoying a recent upswing in popularity in pop culture, a kid writing a story about zombies (something popular) attacking a school (the only thing he really knows at this point to draw life experience from) makes perfect sense to me.

What is up with stupidity and law enforcement lately? Lets see, lately we’ve had the 15-Year-Old Girl Could Be Labeled A Sex Offender for taking naked pictures of herself… Fashion Police Are Real In Florida wherein a guy was charged with probation violation for wearing their pants too low.  Is it any wonder our jails are packed beyond capacity and the courts are backed up for years?

So, to the folks in Kentucky, remember to keep any zombie stories you write off school property!  I don’t think you want to share a cell with Mr. Poole.

It’s episode 14… I am constantly amazed how fast these are flying by!

Little bit of everything in this one folks!

- How do you learn the things you know about? (You’ll understand once you listen to it)

- The new MacBooks… what was Apple thinking?

- Why do certain words scare people, and others don’t?

Here’s

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for those who wish to download it.

I’ve just about had it with HBO and their DVD shenanigans.

I’ve talked before about my love of The Wire, and I have picked up the DVD sets as they came out.  Before season 5 premiered, they ran three prequel stories that took place well before season 1 on Amazon.  These were not included on the season 5 set, but they will be in the complete series set… meaning those of us who supported the series for 5 years don’t get the spiffy extra.

I was a huge, INSANE fan of Deadwood.  I think it is quite possibly the three greatest seasons of television ever aired, but it was sadly cut short without any resolution to a few story lines.  HBO promised that they would produce two 2-hour movies that would finish it off, but those have yet to happen.  Now the complete series set is coming out, and, again, I have supported the show as each season was released.  As I am sure you guessed, the complete series will have some extras I don’t have, and normally I survive without them, but this time I am furious.  One of the extras will be a n interview with the creator of the series about what happened after the end of season 3 and what would have happened to each character.

… say what?

Not only did HBO cancel the series due to budget concerns, leaving us without a resolution, then they broke the promise of the movies.  Now they top all of this off by shoving a knife into my heart by saying that by my supporting the series all this time, I don’t get to know what happened to the characters.

Never mind the fact HBO charges far more for their DVDs than standard television sets, so we aren’t talking a $20 a season or anything.  Do they really think I am willing to pay twice for what will end up being a few minutes of footage?  Sorry, but it’s not going to happen no matter how much I would like to see it.

Sure the information will make its way online, but it is the principle of the matter.  Why does the fact that someone waits to buy the complete set at the end of the run gets what amounts to the ultimate reward ofor Deadwood fans, but those who supported all along get nothing?  Not only that, but they’re paying less than the person who supported the individual sets!  Currently if you go on Amazon, the three seperate sets would run you $159.99, but the complete series set is preordering for $125.99.  So, come in late, pay less, and you get the spiffy reward?  How does this make any sense?

The simple solution, and the one I’m sticking to, is that I’m done with HBO DVDs.  They have done nothing but spit on their long time fans series after series.  The Wire thing is almost excusable, but I can’t forgive them for the Deadwood situation.  No True Blood DVDs for me… no Entourage… all shows I love, but clearly HBO really doesn’t care about my support, so why should I really bother?

Today marks the second annual Blog Action Day.  While last year was about how to live a bit greener, this year’s theme is “poverty”.

When I first heard what the theme was, I struggled with it.  While I have lived at a lower income (think coupon clipping), I certainly have never been at the poverty level.  How could I possibly wrap my brain around something this complex and come up with a post that would do such a weighty subject the justice it deserves?  I went to my mother and asked her advice, and she said four words to me that turned on the light bulb for me: “Think about your grandfather.”

Dr. Lloyd Antonel, D.O. was one of your old time doctors.  Sure he could have made a lot of money over his career, but he was a doctor for the sake of being a doctor.  Long before I was born he was doing things that may sound insane now, but they proved how he was really there to help people.  One of the stories about him that is from my mother’s childhood is when someone in their neighborhood got injured and they immediately rushed the person to my grandfather not knowing what else to do.  He threw everything off the kitchen table and performed surgery right there in front of his children.  Today he would probably be hit with malpractice for not operating in a sterile environment, but back then he did what he had to do.

My grandfather’s legacy of helping those who were less fortunate than himself goes way back, and he was the type of doctor that if you couldn’t pay him, you couldn’t pay him, or he would take payment in whatever you felt like you could afford.  He was once paid in chickens.  Another time he was paid in the form of a spider monkey… no, I am not kidding.  (The monkey hated my grandfather and would climb the fig tree in front of his office and throw figs at him… no one ever knew why as my grandfather had never hurt the monkey in any way)

As a child he had lived through hard times and he knew what it was like to go without food.  As he made his way through his career, and had made some money… and not more animals, he would donate food to shelters.  If he needed 10 pounds of onions he would buy 100 and donate the extra 90 to a soup kitchen.  One of his favorite places to donate to was the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix.  When he decided to “retire” from private practice he was out of work a full hour before St. Vincents snapped him to get their clinic into shape.

While this was a paid position he worked tirelessly and far more than they paid him for to help those he could.  He did get the clinic in shape, and as he had been a pharamicist before he was a doctor, he figured out how to build them a full pharmacy with donations of sample medications from other doctors around the city.  He worked on this for approximately 8 years before he simply couldn’t do it any more.

What does this have to do with poverty?  Well, it shows you that it isn’t always about money, but offering the talents and services you have in your personal arsenal.  Are you a doctor?  Volunteer at a clinic.  A lawyer?  There are numerous centers for free legal aid.  Plumber?  Help out a soup kitchen with their plumbing needs or those of the people who come in.  There is an endless amount of things any help center could use, and don’t think you won’t get something out of it.  My grandfather thrived in doing this, and sometimes he brought home as much food as he took to them due to them getting more food than they could handle.  (I swear that man’s fridge was always stocked to the top with convenience store sandwiches.)

There is no doubt that finances are tight for many Americans, but have you ever thought about just how much your time and talents are worth to those with less than you?

Would someone mind telling me why in the world how much someone weighs should matter to anyone but the person who is carrying it?

Case in point is professional dancer Cheryl Burke, one of the fan favorites from Dancing With The Stars, apparently put on five pounds over the summer.  She opted to take this summer off, her first time off in several years, and was not dancing her usual 7 hours a day.  Even with the “weight gain” (which was said to be mainly in her shoulder blade area) she still fit into her size 4 costumes.

In a recent article on the Chicago Sun-Times website, they went into great detail about how many nasty comments and blog posts have been made about Cheryl’s change in weight.  Apparently she finally went on Good Morning America (video link) and addressed the issue, saying that the comments had been very hurtful and she had some emotional moments over what had been said.  While I would say Ms. Burke needs to grow a slightly thicker skin, I do think any comments about her gain are just ludicrous.

Now you would think in an article about how she was hurt by the comments, and explaining her weight and size, people might take a hint not to say more, but, alas, this is the Internet.  (spelling and grammar mistakes are all of the commentor from the)

Cheryl needs to look at herself in the mirror and pictures. Her butt and thighs are huge. She needs to compare with other coworkers or people who are the top of the game that not the right look for professional dancers. It does not matter how good she dances because your appearance does not appealing to watch it. People who turned to be huge and fat are all said that same things like she said. Honestly, she is fat with humounous butt and thighs. I like her but if she is keeping her fat weights right now or getting fatter, I probably my mind would gradually not going to be her fan anymore. She needs to be realistic that she is fat. Like one of the trainer, the blonde hair, not tall and chubby, she has exercised hard and makes a living out of it why she does not have nice body but because she keeps on exercising hard for her carrer that why she does not turn to be big butt and thigh like she was born to be which is the same like Cheryl. Cheryl is in public eyes. She needs to want to look good or the best herself, nobody could make her do it. She is fat if not like a pig but she would if she keeps on denial it and gets people to cheer her that it is okay and good to look like now. They do not tell the truth or in the eyes of the beholder. Well! be honest she is getting fat and fatter. If she or anyone who was born with big butt and thighs then they should live with it, right! WRONG!!! Look at the trainer who has the same generic problems like Cheryl but she beats it by working out A LOT and diet. No pain, no gain! It is her choice! It would be sad that she would choose to let go and be natural (FAT). Britney Spears at least she has 2 kids. Cheryl, if you let yourself go and keeps denying the truth and feel hurt and does not listen to any criticism then you have a chance to be like STAR JONES before her diet and plastic surgery with a lot of scars everywhere. People does not want you to be better than them.
Good Luck!

Okay, first… wow.  How about some people worry about actually talking like they’ve gotten an edumakation before commenting on someone elses “carrer”.  All that aside, I go back to my original comment about why should anyone’s weight matter to anyone beyond the person carrying the weight?  Obviously it shouldn’t, but this has become a real problem in the United States where young girls are constantly bombarded with “be thin, be thin” imagery and comments. Is it any wonder that anorexia is a problem here?

And there was this portion of a comment by another user.

I really think most of the people who thinks it’s okay for a PROFESSIONAL DANCER to look like this is overweight themselves and defending her so as not to look so bad themselves. She’s not just a woman, she’s not a mom who just recently had children, she’s in a profession where her body is her one tool.

Well, guess what, I am overweight (something I am very up front about), and I will defend her because I think it is just pure insanity to call a size 4 woman “fat”.  Yes, I am trying to lose weight, but I am doing this strictly for myself, and no one else and I think everyone, no matter what their size or profession, should just be allowed to be themselves.  If they are comfortable, if they can work with the weight they are at, then it is simply no one elses business.

Honestly, the only thing I can figure is that these people’s lives are so sad, they have to find an excuse to tear down someone else, and if that is the case, I would much rather be fat than so petty.

Welcome to the fourth annual posting of this entry!  Long time readers can skip it, but as I keep adding more readers, it’ll keep getting posted!

Ah, Columbus Day, the day we set aside each year to celebrate a lie. It always warms my heart.

People tend to forget that Christopher Columbus wasn’t looking for North America when he landed here, he was looking for the West Indies. Quite the navigator there. He also believed, until his death, that the entire time he was in this area that he was exploring the Eastern coast of Asia.

Never mind the fact that he also took the indigenous people as slaves and shipped them back to Spain, against the Crowns wishes. Never mind that colonists he brought over here rebelled against him when the New World didn’t come close to what he described. No, no, all those things are just a-ok for a man we should honor with a governmental and banking holiday.

The biggest offense to me is that he was far from the first person to “discover” the Americas. (how does one “discover” a place that is already inhabited?) The Siberians crossed the land bridge with Alaska as early as 70,000 BC, and it was those crossings that gave us the Native Americans. There were numerous other occurrences of people coming to the Americas, but one of the most well documented was Leifur Eircksson in 1005 when he sailed from Iceland to North America and traveled down the coast. Gee, does that come before 1492?

Yet, history textbooks still hail him as the man who “discovered” America. Why is beyond me, but a friend pointed me to a wonderful book called “Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” (Barnes & Noble link) that spends an entire chapter delving into this very matter. Fascinating stuff.

If you want to credit Columbus with something, just say that he brought the America’s to the attention of Europe, but leave it at that.

Remember when I wrote aboutall sexual predators are over the age of 36?  It seems someone got an early start!

A 15-year-old girl that attends Licking Valley High School in Newark, Ohio is facing charges of possessing criminal tools and the illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.  Her crime was that she used her camera phone to take nude photos of herself, and she then in turn sent them to some of her classmates.  The students he received the images are also facing possible criminal charges.

The unnamed girl is facing could be sentenced to everything from probation to several years in a juvenile detention center. It is also up to the judges discretion, but she could be forced to register as a sex offender.

This is shockingly similar to an incident I wrote about in April of 2004 about another 15-year-old girl doing something similar.  That girl was taking cam photos of herself doing sexual things and sending them to men she met in chat rooms.  She was labeled as a sex offender, and under the law, she was forced to inform people in her neighborhood of how she may be a danger.  I always wanted to know how that discussion went, “Hi, I’m a sexual danger to myself… please be careful”?

While I certainly do not feel any teenage girl should be doing these sort of activities, I definitely feel that the punishments are not befitting of the “crime”.  This is childhood stupidity, why possibly destroy their lives over what amounts to stupid indiscretion?  Registering them as sex offenders?  Putting the camera phone girl in juvenile detention center for years would certainly not be helpful to this girl’s future.  Why not get her counseling?  Community service?  Probation I have no problem with, but the other parts just seem entirely over the top to me.

My other question would be why valuable court time and law resources are being taken up with such a case?  Perhaps it is time for lawmakers to put some new caveats into the sexual predator laws about if it is a child doing it to themselves?  The above linked news story mentions that prosecutors are seeing more and more instances of this, which means even more time is being taken away from other matters to go after kids who do what kids do… they do something stupid.

This reminds me of all the shoplift teenagers I caught over the years in the comic book store.  We would call the police, but we never pressed charges, we just made sure the cops gave them a good, hard scaring, and the cops would thank us for not forcing them to file out reports and more.  It worked for both sides, and we were both happy.  What about teenagers who get stopped for drunk driving?  They get some education classes, sometimes taken to a morgue to see what could have happened, but rarely do you go to detention or get registered.

I take sexual offenders extremely seriously, don’t get me wrong, but I feel the punishment should fit the crime, and I think this time they are wildly out of proportion to one another. Put her on probation, and if she does it during again during that time, then throw the book at her, but a one time offense? It just makes no sense to me.

It would seem Paramount is none too happy with the fall premiere of South Park that aired earlier this week.

-looks outside- Yep, the sky is blue.

Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily is saying that executives at Paramount or more than just a bit displeased about the content of the episode entitled “The China Probrem”.  It wasn’t the “A” story that had to deal with Cartman trying to stave off an impending Chinese invasion of the USA, but the “B” story that dealt with the other boys trying to cope with imagery of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg raping Indiana Jones.

Yeah… you read that right.

The kids saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull over the summer, and having been dealing with the guilt of having watched their favorite adventurer getting “raped”, and not doing anything about it.  Of course the rape was metaphorical for the disaster the script was, but at three separate points in the episode, we were shown Lucas and Spielberg actually raping Indiana in scenes that were homages to rape scenes from A Clockwork Orange, The Accused and Deliverance, as well as sending up all the scenes in rape movies where people will finally agree to helping the victims.  At the very end of the episode we were also treated to Spielberg and Lucas raping a Stormtrooper from Star Wars… it was a very uplifting episode.

There are others who are saying the rape metaphor shouldn’t have been used at all.  While I certainly do not find the traditional definition of rape amusing at all, how many times have people and writers said, “They raped my childhood…”, “They raped that character…”, “The government is raping us…” etc?  The word has taken on so many meanings in our lexicon, but did anyone stop to think that was what the show was trying to portray?  I heard many people say Indiana got raped by the fourth movie, so the show just took it literally, and people get worked up over it.  You have to selective sensitivity.

According to Ms. Finke, Paramount execs are not happy with parent company Viacom as they also own Comedy Central, and allowed this episode to go forward.  I would image a lot of their anger is because the DVD for the movie is coming out on October 14th, so having the movie picked on so publicly this close to release probably doesn’t thrill them.  Also according to Ms. Finke, Paramount is planning to keep quiet on the subject in public venues as they want the issue to go away, but since when have bloggers allowed an issue to die?

This isn’t the first time Paramount has been angry at Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the series.  Back in 2006 they were also displeased with them over the Tom Cruise/Scientology episode, “Trapped In A Closet”, as Cruise was one of their biggest box office draws at the time.  At that time they did complain, and the episode was pulled from the usual rotation after only one repeat airing.  I think it is rather obvious that the suits at Paramount need to get a much thicker skin about things.

South Park works because all subjects are equal fodder for them, and it is just about guaranteed that there will eventually be an episode that offends you/insults something you believe in. If the show was to consider Paramount properties off limits, how would that be fair? It wouldn’t.

It concerns me that comedy writing seems to be taking so many hits from various sides as of late. Earlier this week we had the Saturday Night Live video pulled from the web over two jokes at the expense of a couple involved in the sub-prime loan disaster.  Now we have South Park under fire again for making fun of another company in the Viacom family.  Are we suddenly seeing the rise again of the political correctness boom from the 1980′s and comedy writers are going to have what they can write about being dictated to them by committee and lawyers?

Comedy, and all of its derivatives such as satire, should enjoy the utmost freedom under the 1st amendment, but yet it seems there are many out there who feel it should have more and more restraints put on it.  Is it outright censorship?  No, but suggesting things shouldn’t be written about sure is a close second.

It’s episode 13… EEEK! Unlucky #13!

- Is the stock market an indicator of what will happen on Main Street, USA? Some very vague ideas of what you can do to quickly trim some expenses for yourself.

- A very brief review of a new coffee from Joffreys (I was drinking it as I recorded), called Coffee 2.0.

- Why are border agents detaining people for a sketch of a car? This story is just mindboggling.

- Not mentioned on the podcast, but thank you to David Kelsey for the shiny new logo!

Here’s

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for those who wish to download it.

Mark your calendar boys and girls, but it appears Guns N’ Roses may finally be releasing the eleven-years-in-the-making album, “Chinese Democracy”… only at Best Buy.

Er… okay… that’s… well, odd.

Wouldn’t you think if you had been working on an album for 11 years, you would want it available everywhere possible?  Take me for instance, I’m not sure I even want the stupid album at this point, but the closest Best Buy to me is 90 miles away.  True, I can always order it from their online store, but that isn’t even the point, you are limiting your potential customer base and sales to one outlet.  The winner in this instance is Best Buy, certainly not Guns N’ Roses in the long run.

Now, here comes an even more interesting aspect to this entire thing in that Dr. Pepper, the soda company, may be giing away a whole lot of free soda.  Back in March they issued a challange to Axl Rose, the only remaining member of the original band, to issue the album by the end of the year, and if they did, they would give every person in the United States a free can of Dr. Pepper. Tony Jacobs, VP of marketing Dr. Pepper, told Billboard, “We’re waiting to hear about ‘Chinese Democracy’ just like all the other GNR fans, but if the rumors are true, we’re putting the Dr Pepper on ice.”

Hate to say it, but I’m betting on Dr. Pepper not having to give any soda away.  And as for the actual album… eh, I need to hear some tracks before I plunk down any money with Best Buy for the album.  Good luck Axl, I think you and your ego are going to need it.

It has once again become apparent that Hollywood has run out of ideas.  According to Variety, the Fox network is planning to remake one of the most successful British comedies of all time, Absolutely Fabulous.

For those of you unfamiliar with the original show, AbFab (as it is known to its fans) is the story of two school friends, Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley), who have aged less than gracefully.  No matter how out of touch they are with their own age, and what is truly cool, they have more money than brains, and cling desperately to trying to be “in” with people far younger than themselves.  All of this is done with the disapproving eye of Edina’s very prudish daughter, Saffron (Julia Sawalha).

The series was born out of a single sketch on the French & Saunders show, and ended up running for five seasons in England for a total of 37 episodes spread over 13 years.  When it was imported to America, it had an instant cult following for its crass and crude humor, and became a gigantic hit with the gay community.  (there were several hints over the five seasons that Patsy may not have always been a woman, but it was always kept very vague)

At the height of its popularity, Roseanne Barr put the wheels into motion to do an American version, and even went so far as to have Edina and Patsy appear in one episode of her hit series.  This import of the series was eventually killed off as Roseanne finally realized the humor was not going to import to a broader American audience all that easily.

Flash forward to 2008, and now Fox thinks they can pull it off.  Normally I would immediately write this off as a sure fire disaster, but sadly it is being spearheaded by Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of Arrested Development.  Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that I think AD is one of the most brilliant American sitcoms ever crafted, and if anyone can do dysfunctional characters, it is Mr. Hurwitz.  Then there is the second caveat keeping this from complete disaster, and that is the involvement of Edina herself, Jennifer Saunders, as one of the producers.

Even with those great talents behind the scenes, I have a hard time believing they will be able to bring this show to the USA and keep it’s charms intact.  Take the characters chain smoking for instance.  In the English version, several episodes revolved around the fact Patsy fell asleep in the kitchen with a lit cigarette, and the room was burned to a cinder, causing major renovations.  There was another episode that focused heavily on the fact that Patsy tried to quit smoking and it seemed nicotine had seeped out of her into the multiple patches she was wearing.  Certainly this will be dropped for the USA version, but that is unfortunate because their smoking is very much a part of who they are.  These characters WOULD smoke, no matter what the atmosphere in society is towards it.

Their binge drinking may survive as Karen (Megan Mullally) on Will & Grace was a heavy drinker (and fairly obvious she was an amalgamation of the two women from AbFab).  Their drug use will probably need to be toned down, as will some of Patsy’s sexual escapades.

In short, I think Roseanne had it right when she dropped the project all those years ago.  This, like so much British humor, will be difficult to import to America.  While Edina & Patsy are broadly drawn archetypes, they are played with loving subtlety by the actresses who inhabited them. No matter how vile they were, you couldn’t help but love them because you knew they did what they did out of stupidity.  American actors have a tendency to not be able to convey this sort of situation without slamming through it in a ham fisted manner. Also, our writers don’t usually grasp such things like that either.

With Mr. Hurwitz and Ms. Saunders involved, I hold out some hope this won’t be as large a disaster as some other British imports have been, but I won’t hold my breath for it being good either. Once again I am left to wonder why we must import so many of our ideas and concepts for television and movies. The mind truly boggles.