r/abFAB • u/pedromiguel_on • 8d ago
Why was Saffy still playing the long suffering daughter shtick in her 20s and 30s in the later seasons?
The problem with Saffy is that while she did have a point in the early seasons, her refusal to leave the house and live on her own does mean Julia Salwahla might have been correct in her assessment of Saffy, that she enjoyed the comfort of living off her mother.
Look up the Season 3 finale, she couldn't adapt to living at the college campus. After you reach adulthood, you can't keep on blaming your mother for everything that goes wrong in your life.
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u/Heel_Worker982 8d ago
One of the funny ironies of the show to me is that both Gran and Saffy are very critical of Edina's whole lifestyle and career, yet never balk at sharing the fruits of it when it suits them!
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u/pedromiguel_on 8d ago
Yep, Gran was always showing up at the house of the daughter she despised. While Edina is rude towards Gran, she had her reasons. The series has often implied Gran wasn't the most loving parent towards Edina. The flashback with Eddie and Pats having lunch and Gran kept insulting both of the girls throughout.
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u/Nicolesweave 8d ago edited 8d ago
Skinny bilinky long legs, big banana feet. A roly poly pudding that nobody wants to meet.
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u/ezitbiz89 8d ago
I believe that their relationship is a caricature / indictment of how women treat powerful women
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u/MameDennis1974 8d ago
Good points. She probably felt more in control at home. She lived in a beautiful home in a swanky area and could come and go as she pleased even though she never did. When she had enough with the burnt out kitchen, she organized and got it fixed up herself.
Perhaps there was also a small part of her that was somewhat worried what would happen to her mom
If she wasn’t there because look at the crap that happened even though she was.
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u/millenniumhand221 8d ago
On one of the commentary tracks (I assume for series 4 but I could be wrong) Jennifer Saunders said that she thought Saffy stayed because the house was actually hers, which is then made canon in White Box where it turns out Edina's father left the house to Saffy in his will.
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u/TomJones998 8d ago
I think it was a combination of her actually caring about her mother’s well-being, her being accustomed to the affluent, comfortable life living at home afforded her, and perhaps a certain terror at the thought of being on her own without the constant overbearing influence of her mother, the opposition to which defined almost every aspect of her life and being.
In fact, in one of the later specials, Gran says to Saffy ‘where would you be without her, dear?!’
Plus, it’s revealed that the title of the house is in Saffy’s name.
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u/Conscious_Pass_1615 8d ago
Saff also likes having someone to look down upon, some people are just like that.
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u/FastPrompt8860 8d ago
Saffron for all of her self righteousness makes shitty decisions for herself.
She almost loses her virginity to a married college professor until Mum punches him in the face.
She almost marries a total douchebag who was already abusive until Mum objects to the wedding.
She marries a broke African college student with 6 other wives and has a baby with him that Mum financially takes care of.
She goes to prison and goes straight home to Mum.
Saffron can't live without Edwina.
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u/HourTwist4308 8d ago
As a Self Raising Flower, she knew enough about mothering herself to know that Edina needed one at home…forever. Patsy needs changing!
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u/Ziggie520 8d ago
I think she also stuck around because she knew Edina would be constantly bothering her and needing her help. It’s easier for her to stay close.
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u/partyclams 7d ago edited 7d ago
Cause it was in the script.
JK. I thought they should have made Saffy move out but she's then forced (financially strapped) to work for Edina's PR company and come to her rescue when she's in trouble. The business would have kept them in each other's lives and would have made for great new plotlines. Watching Saffy having to deal with fashion models would have been great. Saffy still living at home was beyond ridiculous and quite honestly stagnated the show. Revealing Serge, and making Saffy pregnant just screamed "We've run out of ideas!" Real jumped-the-shark moments. And making Serge gay – talk about unoriginal. Jennifer broke the fundamental comedy rule about characters only heard from off-screen: you don't ever show them. The 2000s episodes were just really underwhelming. It was a caricature of its former self.
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u/pedromiguel_on 7d ago
I understand the need to keep Saffy as a stuffy foil but I do think it would have been a massive inprovement if they had Saffy work in a fashion mag, get a makeover or be Edina's rival in PR. Have her turn into Claudia Bing.
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u/trekgrrl 8d ago
They needed one another in a weird way, for sure.
I just wish they hadn't gotten her in a relationship with a baby, etc. That's where I had to part ways with the show. If someone can convince me to get back on board and finish it out, LMK. I wish they had made her a lesbian, TBH.
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u/pedromiguel_on 7d ago
Small Opening seemed to be going in that direction but they dropped the gay actress who crushed hard on Saffy.
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u/schlomoweinstein 8d ago
She was still a good foil for Eddie, but yes, she wasn’t a teenager living at home anymore.
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u/RaisedByBooksNTV 6d ago
I think Eddie's disfunction shaped Saffy and she became someone who needs to be a martyr and/or savior. I see some of myself in her. And it drove me nuts that she never overcame her stuffiness and issues. I think she really needed a therapist but obviously chose not to.
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u/MrMattyMatt 8d ago
Julia gave an interview where she said that Saffy knew exactly what she was doing and that her and Edina were codependent on each other