Fleabag

I found the first series to be only slightly above average, but I enjoyed the second one to the max. The central plot involving the seduction of a handsome priest into sinful sex was flawless. All in all, I see it as a beautiful four stars and I secretly hope that the lovely Phoebe Waller-Bridge is planning a sequel. (2021-04-13)

Miranda was my first encounter with the specific format of a stylized confession game, where the protagonist sells her flaws, mistakes, and failures to the audience with disarming openness and purposeful ironic exaggeration. Miranda was, in an irrational way, annoying to me; I simply didn't accept her as a human being. I am undecided about Phoebe. Her cheekiness and cynical speeches do not provoke sympathy in me, and sometimes I wonder if the term "bitch" might be a more accurate expression for her tough character. On the other hand, I have always had a weakness for a girl with such vibrant sexuality and a tendency towards all kinds of perversions. Besides, the viewer will soon realize that her sarcasm often only conceals insecurity and low self-confidence. There are moments when her mask falls off and her extremely vulnerable sensitive inner self is exposed. Overall impression: 60%, keeping in mind that I am not and will not be a fan of this genre in the future. (2018-04-20)

The second season was a one-star improvement over the first one. I wasn’t really convinced by the first season, but the second one got rid of most of the flaws, so I was finally able to fully enjoy it. I found the protagonist likeable precisely for the qualities that annoyed the people around her. In fact, she seemed like the most normal character, unlike all the others whose lives followed clearly defined paths. Phoebe Waller-Bridge delivered an overall excellent performance and her character scored a lot of points with me. (2020-08-19)

Hot Priest Is the New Black. A strange portrayal among morally conflicting characters, when I want the main heroine to get killed in direct proportion to how much I want the series never to end. Simply put, the more of a rogue the Fleabag is, the more I love her. The more trouble she causes, the more I want her to rise from her current mess, and when she ultimately gets more sensible at the right moment, you can't resist. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has burst onto the scene of contemporary screenwriting stars and I only hope she remains like this among them. Occasionally inconspicuous, occasionally brilliantly funny, and occasionally so innovative that I wanted to applaud. Because it's not enough to just break the fourth wall lightning fast, here the breaking itself gets broken over time and it creates such a heap of audience enthusiasm and jumps from one character to another in such a way that I almost didn't realize I had gone through the entire series in less than a day. Moreover, it doesn't have time to repeat itself on this level, and while the first season is more about humor, the second delivers character growth on all necessary sides and knows how to cut into audience emotions so vividly that I was left astonished. The only thing running through my mind was my wish for the central character to find success somewhere. With anything. With anyone. I really like that Phoebe herself knows that it's not possible to climb much higher from this qualitatively well-crafted mountain and she wrapped up the storyline ideally in most places. The struggle to maintain quality would be unnecessary and maybe even futile here. As a result, I have a strange warm feeling over the fact that no new episodes are planned. I give a farewell wave with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face. (2020-06-23)

First-class timing of sharp cynical jokes and constant sharing of bold mockery directly with the audience will make the main character your best buddy (I couldn't think of a comedy series that is solely based on the relationship with the audience one vs. one, where another viewer could worsen the experience). My only issue was in the first season, where the whole setting and the characters in it seemed insanely morally resigned to me. They are neurotically driven by goals (sex, career, self-definition) that they consciously do not fulfill, but they do not consider any alternatives at all. They are simply relentless and love wallowing in it. The second season, led by the weirdly creepy priest played by Andrew Scott, who permanently seems as if he is on several harshly contradicting drugs at the same time, is capable of evoking a credible sense of lost love with all its quirks, even though one again has to reach it through sequences where Phoebe Waller-Bridge spends the whole day actively finding out under what circumstances a spiritual can break celibacy. (2024-07-03)