Fleabag (Season 1)

So I will give Amazon Prime some credit. I watched some shows on the platform before the past few months but I had varying degree of enjoyment. Shows like Man in the High Castle, Sneaky Pete, and Jack Ryan are by no means bad but they are just slow as hell and I couldn't bring myself to watch the second seasons of any of those shows (that might change with Jack Ryan). But since watching the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, I decided to give the platform one more chance and not only did I blow through The Boys in a day or so, I have moved onto Fleabag... and its fine.

Fleabag follows the story of a twenty-something woman living in London (played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge). The woman is never named and is only credited as Fleabag. The story mainly centers on her life in London, dealing with relationships, her family, and her job in the midst of a time of personal conflict and tragedy.

The show itself is a comedy... mainly. Like most high art television these days, a "great" comedy can't be a straight comedy it has to be a dramedy with some really hilarious moments and some really serious and sad moments as well.

And Fleabag actually does a pretty good job at it. Not only that, but it uses its time incredibly well. There are 6 episodes in the first season and they are all thirty minutes long. I blew through the first season in one night. A side note is that I'd like to one day look into why it is so much easier to binge watch 6 30 minute episodes culminating in three hours of television, than it is to watch The Irishmen.

But I really enjoyed how concise Fleabag was. I think Amazon has finally figured out how to make a show that doesn't drag and Fleabag almost flies by at an almost whiplash pace, but it was entertaining enough to have me sitting there for pretty much all three hours straight.

The show distinguishes itself with a main character who continuously breaks the fourth wall in order to give an extra layer of comedy as well as insight into the character of Fleabag and I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge does a really good job with that. She's very funny but at the same time you connect with the character very quickly.

I've read some criticism that the first season doesn't give a whole lot of motivation or connection to the character in the first season, and I could see that. The character itself is pretty sleazy as she goes from relationship to relationship causing a lot of wreckage in her path really just for the sake of messing with people. I'll explain why it doesn't bother me in a little bit, but overall, her character didn't bother me a whole lot because the show set her up as a rough around the edges character from the start. I knew what I was getting into and by the time I was starting to question why I was rooting for a character who breaks up with her boyfriend every time she wants her house cleaned, I started to see other relationships that redeem a lot of it. Again, I'll get to it, but I think the writing and pace of the show helps make up for some of the bad character traits that get fully explained until the end of the season.

The asides themselves are pretty funny and she transitions seemlessly from these fourth wall breaking moments right back into the action. My problem is not so much with her execution of them, its more how frequent they show up. There are moments of dialogue where she will interject and comment on almost every sentence of dialogue and then other times where she doesn't say anything at all. It feels disjointed at times.Furthermore, at times it feels like half the show is just her giving the Jim Halpert look into the camera smirk reacting to the silly things other people around her say.

What also helps is the cast around Waller-Bridge because there are some really talented people with really distinct personalities surrounding her coloring in her life. There is her sister Claire (played by Sian Clifford), her sister's sleezy husband (played by Brett Gelman), her father (played by Bill Paterson), her step mother/former godmother (played by Olivia Coleman), and a series of relationships and hook ups that she experiences throughout the show as sex is often a default for her to work through her problems.

The more charming moments are the ones between her and her sister Claire because they are vastly different and I get the feeling that a lot of people might identify or at least be able to recognize a similar dynamic between siblings in reality because this relationship is pretty well done.

But the relationship she has with her sister is where the idea that Fleabag is an unrelatable character doesn't really fly with me and it might have been the sibling relationship that helped me understand that early. Despite Fleabag being a rough around the edges character, you understand from the start that she cares about her sister, even when the relationship is cold. So I think above all, this was the relationship that I was the most interested in throughout.

The other characters are pretty fun, especially Olivia Coleman. She's been an actress I've always seen in shows, especially making appearances in British shows, before but it wasn't until recently that she started getting larger parts and being allowed to really shine and I'm really glad that's the case because she is a treasure.

One thing that might turn some audiences off is the emphasis on Fleabag's sex life as it does play a pretty big role in the show. The subject matter is pretty mature. Now I think a lot of it is funny and there's probably something to be said about the female experience as this was a show that Waller-Bridge wrote based off of her personal experience as a woman living in London so in my opinion its done well. But part of Amazon's new push to make a dent in streaming programs is to go no holds bar with their content like this and The Boys, so just a fair warning, if you're not entertained by a lot of sex jokes, Fleabag might not be for you.

I guess you might be wondering at this point what, if anything is the big criticism I have of this show and the truth is, outside of the unevenness of the fourth wall jokes, there wasn't a whole lot to complain about this show. But I guess the biggest note I have is how much it just didn't make much of an impression on me.

This might be totally an issue of personal preference but the main reason I stuck around with this show for the whole season was because the episodes were so digestibly short and there were only 6 of them. To me, it felt more like a three hour long movie rather than a TV show and one that I enjoyed, but probably wouldn't come back to just because its not my personal preference.

Now I have read some things that say that Season 1 is a little uneven and it really ramps up in season 2, so don't be surprised if one of these days I get bored and a Season 2 review pops up. But the emphasis is, if I get bored. I didn't not like the show, but I didn't enjoy it enough to keep going, despite seeing a lot of things I can say technically make the show well written. Overall, I can't give a full endorsement of the show because it just wasn't my preference. It might be yours though, and if it sounds interesting to you, I'd say go for it!

Have you seen Fleabag? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for TV shows and films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!