Fleabag

After catching up on this thread: I don't find Moriarty physically appealing at all but he was very charming and hot in Fleabag. They had great chemistry together. I had assumed he was a high functioning alcoholic from the first episode when he kept pouring wine into their glasses and the tequila and I assumed she knew this too, especially from the first G&T break. I thought the asides basically crossed over to emphasize how kindred they were and not that she was speaking to God or Boo.

A very mild Guardian backlash, after innumerable articles about 'genius' status:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/apr/20/fleabag-posh-girl-television

I kind of agree (as trailed on the controversial opinions thread) - though because of the quality, not really a problem imo until the last episode - which went full Richard Curtis.

that's the second accusation of going "full Richard Curtis." because of a speech and an offscreen airport dash, presumably? seems a bit harsh.

I am very jealous of PWB's hair. My hair would never be able to look like that. It ends up looking Ramona Quimby or "french".

Speaking as a non-posh boy from a functional non-posh family, I found Fleabag pretty relatable.

That said, I'm up for a good deconstruction of Fleabag from that angle, but this wasn't it. Calling it "an unexamined fact" that the "Godmother gets to actually be an artist without also having to take on a telesales side hustle" seems super blind to the huge implied contempt for that character?

Watched series 2 in one sitting. not sure I'm as enamoured of the conclusion as everyone else. There were a lot of comments out there about it being brought to a completely satisfying conclusion, I think the actress who plays Claire said it was 'poetry'...eh. It does bring everyone other than Fleabag herself's story to a satisfying conclusion, I suppose, but the stuff with the priest was messy, and I didn't feel that it came to any conclusion whatsoever in the end, nor did I think she'd found any kind of peace or respite. Is that just me?

just finished the first season of this remarkable show don't worry i'm shielding my eyes from all of the posts above this one

s2 is just as amazing

It’s better!!!

Def! You're in for a treat Brad.

i think s2 cemented it in my top 10 shows all time

I WAS ALL ABOUT THE PRIEST CONFESSIONAL SCENE

"wrong" sure but it was hot af

welp i finished it and i'd love to share my thoughts but i can't stop crying

frankly i do not understand any of the complaints

i loved how s1 had such a snappy pace on the surface but dealt out the deeper character stuff slowly.

but s2 just has me so giddily spun.
and homo ii otm: confessional was where it’s AT

the priest was so hot

RIGHT

aghast @ talk upthread of Hot Priest being “creepy”

ilxors have stones for eyes do u not see
Andrew Scott was the best thing about Sherlock & part of that is acting but also he’s hot

and cheeky!

anyway :D

frankly i do not understand any of the complaints

What complaints? I don't think, in the annals of television, there's ever been a series which has received as little criticism.

I thought the priest was hot, the confessional scene was the peak of s2 (and disappointed by the rise of the ilx new puritanism). But Idisliked the final episode a lot. Still complaining about it.

tom i was referring to the complaints in this thread

Yeah, I didn't understand the complaints either really. Maybe another actor couldn't have pulled it off but that wasn't what happened.

Although I kind of thought this piece from a real priest was nice, how he concentrated on the professionalism.

https://religionnews.com/2019/05/29/the-priest-in-fleabag-is-not-cool/

that article otfm!!

the priest felt v close to home for me which is what made me so angry with him. you could see it all coming a mile off, and while she clearly wanted him to Be A Naughty Priest for her, he could tell she was vulnerable and acted irresponsibly & selfishly while using all the trappings and glamour of his supposedly v responsible & selfless position. it's how he let himself be turned into her fantasy that was seedy. he and fleabag were similar & equal enough personally, & while its understandable for her to blur that connection with his pastoral, even divine role, using that role to get what he wanted was a betrayal of himself as a priest. she gets to play a helpless lost soul (which you could see as a kind of dishonest betrayal of herself) seeking his guidance, offering herself up to him (vulnerability is hot, sure). he has to dirty the distinction, if it ever really existed, between his personal desires and his religious calling; he has to corrupt himself (which is arguably hot in a fallen angel way but much darker). it goes some way to pointing towards an inherent problem with the notion of the clergy. if it were just hot it wldn't be so good: it's also deeply compromised & dishonest & unstable

yes, otm

am i wrong to think that in the finale a few of the characters were picking up that they were trapped in a fictional structure? ex. the godmother's "i always just call you darling," martin's speech about being born with a shitty personality

if you were so inclined you could also fold the resistance to and ultimate embrace of the "running to the airport" cliche into that I think

yes i was absolutely thinking that too

also every use of the statue throughout both seasons was exquisite, it's kind of a delayed payoff machine

They made the statue bigger in series 2.

ogmor i dont disagree but it was still v v hot, fuckedup-ness and all (and i wonder why i am single?)

it was v hot, it was a v recognizable portrayal of two people falling in love with each other but which circumstance and individual weakness inevitably subvert

which, hey, gotta say that resembles... all of my relationships

i continue to read the mugging to the camera, the priest's recognition of that and additional moments of existential clarity and terror as an awareness of audience/author as god

the priest interfering with the fourth wall breaking was a really great way of depicting the intensity and intimacy of their connection too

I concluded she looks like Bran Stark warging to other characters when she does it. everyone else was too polite to mention it.

no one in this show is polite

Everyone is too self-involved to notice!
Priest is more open & perceptive & genuinely interested in Fleabag

I fully expected a hookup with the priest as soon as he was introduced but the way it happened had me mumbling "oh noooo"

The character was real enough to me that I wanted him to both be able to be a good priest and have this fling, but somehow compartmentalize the two aspects of their relationship. That it felt like a real violation.. that's good storytelling!

I haven't heard anyone say much about the story arc with the banker, but it might be my favorite subplot. Started as kind of a cheap set-up, and ends with something that wasn't telegraphed from the start.

The evolution between the two series was really well done, in a way I haven't seen in many shows. When you think of Fleabag as the point of view character, the shallower characterization of nearly everyone else in the first season echoes her own perceptions as she's stuck at a higher level of, let's say fucked-upness, and season two immediately sets a different baseline. As viewers we're seeing things about people that she's noticing, and she's operating at a more functional level than her family in a lot of ways.

i couldn't watch s1 cos the other characters were so completely stupid. i just had to stop.

started a rewatch of s1 cuz id forgotten it -- the dude who plays harry's performance when she "surprises" him in the shower in ep2 is fucking amazing

harry genuinely one of my favorite characters

a lot of it is in that performance

the shower surprise scene was so good

it made me wonder what else she'd done to harry any time he started to get too close

he plays a similarly sweet, baffled character in W1A

the sex scene w/them where she ends up just masturbating and flinching when he touches her is amazing

There's lots of stuff, characters, situations in S1 that just are not believable even within the world she's created (I know this is a bugbear of mine, as Tracer might remember with regard to Motherland) but the guy with the teeth, the extremely handsome boyfriend, for example, are barely characters and are not believable. The worst example was at the Sexhibition where the stepmother makes her be a waitress with a tray full of glasses of champagne. Just not believable as a situation. That could never happen.

In S2 the outrageous elements were things you could believe could happen. That's only a minor reason why it worked but it did help.

Ha I do and I agree with all that but doesn't she again get pressed into service at a party in a similar way in S2? Sorry brain = sieve, I'm struggling to remember exactly. The church fair?

The stepmother making her serve drinks at the exhibit seemed totally believable! She was already a "server" at her cafe and it's one of those jobs that people assume you do for free for friends and family.