Fleabag

just started watching this. 3 eps in. enjoying it. i think i've spotted a plot point - she is the one who had sex with her friend's boyfriend, that provoked the suicide/manslaughter incident

Yeah that was covered in series one. I can't remember if he was Boo's boyfriend or just a guy she fancied

she's too good for this creepy priest! it can't possibly end well, I just wanted her to get out.

My feelings exactly

Anyone else think that this series is more of a drama than a comedy?

iirc S1 took a real turn around ep 4 where it was clear that it was aiming to be more ambitious than "just" a comedy. this season that ambition feels baked in from the beginning.

Just remembering the moment in the first ep of this season around the restaurant table where literally no one in her family had realised that Claire isn't a lawyer

Anyone else think that this series is more of a drama than a comedy?

i agree and i don't care. the first series was great, and this is even sharper.

I think the first series def tried harder to be a comedy (and succeeding). I'd say the new series is indeed drama, and that's great.

otoh I *literally* laugh out loud at this more than basically anything else that's on right now. her smashing the award within microseconds of handling it was sort of a hack gag but her performance and the editing completely sold it, for instance.

Yeah that was covered in series one. I can't remember if he was Boo's boyfriend or just a guy she fancied

― paolo, Wednesday, March 27, 2019 3:25 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh yeah sorry i was talking about the first series.

she does state that it was her boyfriend at one point

toh I *literally* laugh out loud at this more than basically anything else that's on right now. her smashing the award within microseconds of handling it was sort of a hack gag but her performance and the editing completely sold it, for instance.

My husband went, "Oh god, I can't, I can't, I'm sorry," and left the room when that happened.

I like the creepy priest.

Like he's not that creepy is he? His advances are welcome? I mean, he shouldn't be a priest, but that's a different matter.

It was creepy that he was turned on by her powerlessness and sorrow, and that he violated the sanctity of the Confessional to get off with her. I'm all in favour of priests having it away with consenting adult women, but don't make your move in the church, when she's just actually started responding to the priesty side of you.

Yeah I guess. I didn't read it as him doing that in a premeditated manner though.

this is an honest to goodness priest, not one of your protestant types?

I'm writing to the bbc

Xpost Trishy's description reminds me of the semi-romance Carmela had with Fr Phil in The Sopranos. Now that guy was certainly creepy!

the semi-romance Carmela had with Fr Phil in The Sopranos. Now that guy was certainly creepy!

Her calling him out on it is one of those scenes that has always stayed with me.

i was genuinely worried he was going to flop his priesty dick out or something - so was incredibly relieved when he didn't, which is sort of fucked up in itself

But yeah I hadn't considered the Fleabag scene as being Priesty not wanting to shag her until he felt he had some power over her. Good writing.

Twitter seems to be full of ladies who thought the whole thing was super erotic, so people's mileage obviously varies madly on this one.

Super erotic but super wrong

Like he's not that creepy is he?

Kneel.

It was her reaction to camera I found really amazing. A combination of “I got what I thought I wanted” and “I got totally let down on the thing I only just realised I really wanted” and “and he has fucked off too”

A lot of the creepy factor might be attributable to that slightly-too-long-eye-contact priest actor, who seemed at the season's start like he was well on his way to the first ever noncreepy role I've seen him in but then nope.

I couldn't really tell if it was "meant" to be creepy or hot or both but I'm confident she's got that covered

the whole parish sequence, starting with the distant echoes of "Jenny from the Block," was incredible

The priest is played by Moriarty? Yeah, nothing creepy about that guy.

very good, and niche, display name, tom

It was creepy that he was turned on by her powerlessness and sorrow, and that he violated the sanctity of the Confessional to get off with her.

She’d been googling sex, priests and celibacy - so she wasn’t exactly without agency and intentions (is this for the controversial opinions thread?)

And the ‘Kneel!’ may be been an innocent misunderstanding (was he asking her to call him Neil rather than ‘Father’?)

I thought the kneeling was going to be a prayer thing but the actuality was creepier, yes.

No direct personal knowledge of priests here, so I don't really know how i expect them to behave tbh.

was he asking her to call him Neil rather than ‘Father’?

lol I hadn't even thought of that double entendre!

omg

"just Neil"

The priest is also very obviously a high-functioning alcoholic which she doesn't appear to have clocked but is probably a big factor here. He is creepy but also kinda the only living character that actually gives a shit about her as a person, and I like the trick where he notices her every word/look to camera.

I'm hoping, and I think this will turn out to be the case, that there's never an explanation of "who" she's talking to.

I mean there's definitely an element of joined-the-church-to-get-away-from-something-awful-about-his-personality about him, and putting bottles on high shelves where you can't get to them later is not normal priesty behaviour.

I hadn’t thought of the Neil thing omg this changes everything.

There’s one moment in ep4 of then both swiftly looking at the camera (him a split second after her) that is exquisite.

i guess my take was that she's talking to "god" (which is us) in those asides

the "neil" note there is kinda brilliant too; i hope you're right

I groaned when he kept saying that, because I hope it's not that, because that's corny. I'd always rather Fleabag went creepy than corny.

putting bottles on high shelves where you can't get to them later is not normal priesty behaviour.

I originally thought he was doing this to hide them from Pamela, but you're right, he's clearly got a problem. Drinking M&S gin and tonics at 11am anywhere other than a train on the way to a hen weekend is not normal.

I find the priest's behaviour mega-creepy tbh

I mean there was the whole speech in the previous episode about how he gets women throwing themselves at him the whole time but it's never going to happen

then the "stop calling me 'father' like it doesn't turn you on just to say it" bit

and then manipulating her into an extremely vulnerable position and taking advantage of it

he's basically a PUA in priest's clothing

(which is kind of the ultimate version of 'peacocking' now that I think about it)

otm. all his little moves seem calculated to get a reaction from her right down to the winnie the pooh bit, it all feels horribly real

im a few episodes back (only seen the first episode of season 2) but was annoying me that a priest is going to marry a couple, neither of which is a practicing catholic? this doesn't happen

(if you're not practicing you have to at least pretend to, if one of the couple isn't catholic they have to go through a whole rigmarole)

I think PWB is Catholic?

Olivia Coleman's character seems to be a whole rigmarole kind of person. She would absolutely have them in church every week for a year in order to get in there.

the priest at the church my parents got married at refused to marry them at first because as my dad was a chilean refugee he was a "communist heretic". my grandad went round and intimidated him and it went ahead.

Sounds like he didn't understand how refugees work.