Fleabag
September 23, 2016 3:54 PM   Subscribe

TV needs far more seething, devastating women like Fleabag - The creation of Phoebe Waller-Bridge (interview), Fleabag started as a finely tuned one woman play and made the jump to television, becoming "a precision black-humor mechanism" in the process.
posted by Artw (40 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite


 
It's so good. She's so good.
posted by Divine_Wino at 4:06 PM on September 23, 2016 [5 favorites]


She's great, show's great. It's so lazy to call her the British Lena Dunham (Guardian editors do it themselves in a sidebar link), who always seems like the antithesis of "seething" and "devastating".
posted by supercres at 4:26 PM on September 23, 2016 [6 favorites]


The New Yorker article (sorry, hadn't read it before making my first comment) sort of gets at why people make the comparison. But Emily Nussbaum happily does it without mentioning Lena Dunham and instead (hilariously, insightfully) compares Fleabag to another LD.
posted by supercres at 5:01 PM on September 23, 2016 [4 favorites]


I was going to FanFare this, but I think someone added it and I was hoping they'd proceed.
posted by fleacircus at 5:26 PM on September 23, 2016


The description on Amazon didn't grab my interest, but that New Yorker piece makes it sound like something I would definitely like. I'm looking forward to giving it a try, thanks.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:44 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


I like Girls probably a lot more than most people here, but that comparison is pretty daft. Girls is fundamentally pretty toothless when it comes down to it, especially later seasons where it makes efforts at being redemptive, whereas this thing very defiantly has teeth.
posted by Artw at 5:48 PM on September 23, 2016


Am I a bad person for liking this?
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:56 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


It reminds me a lot of Peep Show, in that invites the viewer to get an up close view of how a person's insecurities drive them to behave terribly.
posted by dortmunder at 6:15 PM on September 23, 2016 [5 favorites]


The description on Amazon didn't grab my interest, but that New Yorker piece makes it sound like something I would definitely like.

Same here. I've been scrolling past it on my recommended list for a while. Thanks, Metafilter!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:19 PM on September 23, 2016


Am I a bad person for liking this?

Yes.

All the best people are bad people.
posted by Artw at 6:19 PM on September 23, 2016 [18 favorites]


I guess I'd say it's more Broad City/Catastrophe, than it is Girls/Top of the Lake/Happy Valley.

It's more rooted in dirty jokes, but it doesn't give in completely to being as nasty and crass, which is what saves it. I think from about halfway on my laughter was like, "Ha ha, she and her sister are super damaged by their emotionally abusive family."

(Guardian editors do it themselves in a sidebar link)

I think I saw this on a t-shirt at a truck stop in Wyoming.
posted by fleacircus at 6:42 PM on September 23, 2016 [8 favorites]


I'm only two episodes in, but it delights me and horrifies me. Fleabag is such a compelling, vulnerable, honest character, and the performance Phoebe Waller-Bridge turns in is a glorious manipulation of the unreality of television - her asides to camera aren't just seamless transitions, they have you genuinely questioning the nature of direct address itself. She carefully builds a standpoint for the audience, then kicks it away with an arch of an eyebrow or another "Oh Christ, surely she's not going to... oh, God, she did" outrage.

I'm also thoroughly smitten with Olivia Colman in this. She's always been a delight to watch but there's something really exciting about seeing her be tedious and smug and nasty all at the same time. Oh, and the poor men, the poor self-obsessed emotionally manipulative shits. I see myself horribly reflected, and beg DomesticPartner7 "I don't do that, do I? Do I?!"
posted by prismatic7 at 6:56 PM on September 23, 2016 [15 favorites]


If you want to get away from the erroneous Girls comparison The Telegraph goes for Bridget Jones. Errrrr... whatever your frame of reference is, I guess.
posted by Artw at 7:20 PM on September 23, 2016


You may think you’re weary of septic comedies of human pain, feminist comics working blue, and graphic sex scenes

Actually, not at all. This looks fantastic, thank you for sharing. (Well, I've been waiting for a Thing to hook me back into TV, and I think this is it. Is it only viewable on Amazon.com? Anyone know how a Canadian gets to watch?)
posted by cotton dress sock at 7:25 PM on September 23, 2016


I believe it may also be available on iTunes for monies in some regions.
posted by Artw at 8:14 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]


Two astonishing performers
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:07 AM on September 24, 2016


I'm also thoroughly smitten with Olivia Colman in this.

I'm thoroughly smitten with Olivia Colman in everything, so am definitely planning to watch this on the grounds of her presence alone. Plus Waller-Bridge was great in the few other roles I've seen her in, and all my favorite feminist TV critics have given the thumbs-up, so I'm sold.
posted by karayel at 12:57 AM on September 24, 2016 [7 favorites]


Fleabag is just a fantastic piece of writing & acting. You can see that Phoebe W-B has been polishing it till it shines. Well, maybe shines isn’t quite the right word, but you know what I mean.

ALso, Olivia Coleman is just delicious: smiling sweetly as she turns the knife of her insults.
posted by pharm at 1:18 AM on September 24, 2016 [5 favorites]


Two astonishing performers

Only two! Humph.

I mean, both Phoebe and the woman who plays the sister are great, but Olivia Coleman is wonderful & the bloke who plays the sister’s husband is perfectly judged too.

Then there’s a lovely bit part from Hugh Dennis later on.

Only two. I ask you.
posted by pharm at 1:24 AM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


i found the final ep to be a let-down - it got too preachy. but overall the watch was really rewarding. and OLVIA COLEMAN... omg. so, so freaking great. i can't believe how much i hated her in this! (and yet, somehow, still want to hug her? amazing actress.)
posted by lapolla at 1:27 AM on September 24, 2016


It's really good - excellent cast all round. She nails the odd British fear of confrontation that allows monsters like Olivia Coleman's step-mother to fester.
posted by eyeofthetiger at 1:52 AM on September 24, 2016


I watched the first episode last night. I agree that the Girls comparison isn't right -- Broad City is definitely closer in feel, though obviously different as well.

I liked it, and I will watch the rest of the series. The acting is very good, and the series has a different feel than a lot of the improv-based comedies that seem to be prevalent.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:23 AM on September 24, 2016


I just watched the trailer for this on IMDB-- her expressions aside to the camera had me rolling. I'm absolutely adding this to my list.
posted by travertina at 7:05 AM on September 24, 2016


Even Hugh Dennis brings his A game, and I didn't even know he had one.
posted by Artw at 9:17 AM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


I found the abjectness too precious and the fourth wall breaking too cute.
posted by PinkMoose at 10:28 AM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


While initially attracted to the idea of this, all the comparisons to Lena Dunham and Girls put me off entirely. Thanks thread, now I'll defo check it out.
posted by New England Cultist at 11:34 AM on September 24, 2016


I've been crushed out on Olivia Colman since forever and have the impression that she's a really swell person IRL, which somehow makes her turn as the stepmother even more delicious.
posted by whuppy at 3:02 PM on September 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


I just watched the last episode, and I have a question. Is it really possible that her entire family knew the twist the whole time, and no one had the courage to pull her aside and ask, "there are a lot of people in the world you can fuck. Why did you pick your best friend's boyfriend ?" Are the English so conflict averse? I feel bad for laughing at any of the stuff that came before.
posted by dortmunder at 3:50 PM on September 24, 2016


Someone should do a fanfare full season thread so we can talk spoilers.
posted by bleep at 8:48 PM on September 24, 2016


I am the change I want to see in the world. Spoileriffic fanfare thread here
posted by bleep at 9:48 PM on September 24, 2016 [2 favorites]


(Chopped spoiler in reply to dortmunder: See the Fanfare post.)
posted by pharm at 2:07 AM on September 25, 2016


Jesus, dortmunder, why would you do that? Please don't reveal last-episode twists like that on the blue.
posted by mediareport at 1:48 AM on September 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thanks, Artw; I hadn't heard anything about this. We watched the first episode last night and thought it was great; that opening anal sex scene had me almost on the floor. It does have a bleakness that I'm getting really tired of in main characters, but it was definitely funny enough to keep us going.
posted by mediareport at 1:58 AM on September 26, 2016


I am so the target audience for this, and my social feeds were full of people eulogising it - then I watched it and hated it. It made me so utterly miserable, I couldn't imagine choosing to spend half an hour of my leisure time on it. Not sure what I'm missing that everyone else is getting. Hoping it's not that it's just too close to home and I am in fact fleabag.
posted by penguin pie at 6:20 AM on September 26, 2016


Just watched the first episode on my computer in a hotel-room bed, and I laughed out loud as Ms. Wimp was trying to sleep. Can't wait to binge.
posted by Mental Wimp at 10:26 AM on September 26, 2016


Netflix currently is streaming Crashing, another Phoebe Waller-Bridge vehicle that I thoroughly enjoyed.
posted by megancita at 12:13 PM on September 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


"I was going to FanFare this, but I think someone added it and I was hoping they'd proceed."

That was me -- I requested the addition of three shows a couple of weeks ago that I knew I was going to watch but which I was uncertain there'd be enough interest to sustain FanFare discussions. Well, I knew that a whole-season thread would be okay, but then I hadn't watched all six episodes yet.

I watched the first two episodes right away, which I loved, and then got caught up in other things. Just this evening I watched the final four. I loved loved this.

I'm watching a lot of half-hour comedy-drama shows lately that hide a lot of difficult, poignant characterization underneath superficial, sharp-edged ironic humor and basically all of these shows are working for me. I'm very, very picky about television comedy, I abhor the classic broadcast network sitcom format, but these shows are making me excited about this kind of television in the same way that the golden age dramas have.

For the record, the half-hour shows I've been watching are: Fleabag, Atlanta, High Maintenance, You're the Worst, Better Things, Casual, One Mississippi, Lady Dynamite, Togetherness (canceled), BoJack Horseman, Catatostrophe, and Broad City. Broad City is lightest on the drama, I think, and One Mississippi is lightest on the comedy; BoJack Horseman is hilarious and ironic until it's unexpectedly devastating, Atlanta, so far, is very balanced and very impressive. You're the Worst has been unevenly brilliant and occasionally very affecting; Casual has been much better than I expected it to be. It's a bit too soon to judge Better Things, but so far I like it a lot. Louis C. K. has his finger in a lot of these pies, which is interesting because I've resisted watching his show. Of all of these, I'm most impressed and moved by One Mississippi, and my favorite is BoJack Horseman.

Anyway, some of Fleabag snuck up on me, as just this last week I just lost a twenty-five year, very closest friendship. Not to death, but to just that mundane and yet inexplicable shit. But I had a lot of feels during the flashbacks to Boo and Fleabag's simpatico and deep, deep comfort with each other and a lot of feels to the sense of loss, and guilt, and anger. And feeling fucked-up.

I don't really know that any of the comparisons to other shows really do Fleabag justice. For one thing, this really is a self-contained, beautifully evolving narrative. I feel like it really ought to be binged, at least maybe in two sets of three?
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:46 PM on September 26, 2016 [7 favorites]


I haven't seen Girls, but I'm a yuge fan of Broad City, and this is NOTHING like it. The most apt comparison I can think of is to the self destruction and tone in the British films Naked and Withnail and I.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 3:19 PM on September 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


Yeah, not like Broad City at all, but there is a bunch of significant stuff going on under surface madcap hijinks of BC. But also I think one of the linked articles mentioned BC, which I thought was weird.

I can't think of anything that really compares to Fleabag, though part of that has to do with the structure. The whole six episode series stands on its own, integrated, you can tell (in retrospect) that it was a play, although it doesn't in the moment feel stagey to me and it has a strong and natural episodic nature which just makes the eventual revelation of itself as a whole more powerful.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:10 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


What a great show that was. It felt like an updated Alfie
posted by mattamatic at 8:44 PM on September 29, 2016 [3 favorites]


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