Mindless, depraved and so fabulous

About a quarter of the way through the first new episode of “Absolutely Fabulous,� tonight on Oxygen, the insufferably perky television personality Katy Grin (Jane Horrocks) appears on television to hawk her new book, “My Iraq.� That she never quite made it to Iraq doesn’t stop her from cashing in on the experience, or putting herself at the center of the story. As it turns out, she was supposed to be embedded with the troops, but was pulled under the tracks of a passing American tank by her ankle strings while still in Kuwait.

“I think, actually, we’ve got that clip,� says the host, cueing the footage.

You can always count on “Absolutely Fabulous� to home in on the notable inanities of the day, like a wobbly pigeon with a crust in its cross-hairs. And after a two-year hiatus, the writing team of Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French returns with eight new episodes of the merciless British comedy, which specializes in lampooning the current obsessions, pieties and hare-brained pretensions of the wealthy “creative� classes.

“Ab Fab� stars Saunders as Edina “Eddy� Monsoon, a jelly-willed, howling, bottomless pit of self-indulgent need (she’s a celebrity publicist) and Joanna Lumley as Patsy “Pats� Stone, her society Skeletor sidekick. Pats and Eddy are the original “bobos in paradise.� The yin and yang of mindless consumer depravity, the girls spend their days indulging in every fad, trend, treatment and toxic substance known to man. Eddy greets the day floating in her bathroom lap pool like a dead seal, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the legend “Let’s Save Lives.�

Now in its fifth season, “Ab Fab� is well-settled into its familiar groove (not unlike the lunchtime shoppers Patsy describes, the ones whose skeletal, Manolo-clad legs have worn trenches up and down Sloan Street). But as long as people spray tan, pad their bras with removable breast implants, drive Hummers through major metropolitan areas and spend their days excoriating celebrities while slavishly emulating their every move, the show is in no danger of running out of material.

The show resumes as Saffron (Julia Sawalha), the grim, long-suffering do-gooder of the family, returns from Iraq where she was not, as Eddy had hoped, a human shield, but a by-the-book humanitarian aid worker.

Ever teetering precariously on the cutting edge of inane faddishness, Eddy has done some extensive remodeling and moved her office -- as well as her not-quite-of-this-world assistant, Bubble (Horrocks again) -- into the second floor of the house. (“Everything is me, darling,� she tells a disgusted Emma Bunton, a.k.a. Baby Spice, one of her disgruntled clients.)

She has also convinced Patsy to leave her nebulous fashion magazine job to work as a celebrity stylist. (Bubble sums up Patsy’s new career with a whiny taunt, “I’m too rich and famous to pick my own clothes. You do it for me! Be my styyyylist!�)

There are some surprises in store -- Saffron returns from the gulf with big news -- but mostly, “Ab Fab� feels like its old reliable self; which is a good thing. At this point, it should be honored as a valuable -- if oblique -- public service. Eddy may be a birdbrain, but she has her finger on the slobbering id of the culture.

When Baby Spice turns down her suggestions to appear on “Celebrity Millionaire,� “Celebrity Weakest Link,� “Celebrity Rehab,� etc. etc., saying she wants “nothing with ‘celebrity’ in it,� Eddy sniffs disapprovingly.

“Well, you’re limiting yourself, frankly.�

*

‘Absolutely Fabulous’

Where: Oxygen

When: Fridays, 9 p.m. Premiere tonight.

Rating: The network has rated the show TV-PG (may not be suitable for young children).

Jennifer Saunders...Edina Monsoon

Joanna Lumley...Patsy Stone

Julia Sawalha...Saffron Monsoon

Jane Horrocks...Bubble/Katy Grin

Creators Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French. Director Dewi Humphreys. Writer Jennifer Saunders.