Fleabag (2016) Review: Laughing Through the Fourth Wall

Is Fleabag worth watching?

Yes. Fleabag is a modern masterpiece, a comedy so precisely written and performed that it can make you laugh and ache in the same breath, and its second season is among the finest runs of television ever made. Phoebe Waller-Bridge turns the simple device of talking to the camera into a portrait of loneliness and grief, and every one of its 12 episodes counts. The only real caveat is that its frank sexual humour and emotional rawness will not suit every viewer.

What is Fleabag about?

The unnamed heroine known as Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is a sharp, self-destructive young woman in London, running a struggling guinea-pig-themed café and trying not to think about a painful loss. She drifts through casual relationships, clashes with her tightly wound sister Claire (Sian Clifford), keeps her distance from her awkward father, and trades barbed politeness with his partner, a passive-aggressive artist played by Olivia Colman. Throughout, she turns to the camera to share jokes, asides and knowing looks with the audience.

Fleabag was created and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, adapted from her own one-woman stage show, and is a British series in English. This review covers the complete story: two seasons, 12 episodes, first broadcast from 2016 to 2019. The second season introduces a priest played by Andrew Scott, whose arrival reshapes the whole show.

The look to camera as a confession

Fleabag’s great formal idea is the aside. In the early episodes, the glances and quips to the audience are simply funny, making us complicit in her mischief. Gradually, the device reveals its darker purpose: talking to us is a way for her to avoid talking to anyone else, to narrate her life rather than live it. The show uses its own structure to explore dissociation and loneliness, and the effect is both clever and moving.

Waller-Bridge’s writing is astonishingly economical. Scenes are short, dialogue is packed with jokes and every comic beat also reveals character. The series can pivot from a crude punchline to a moment of raw grief without a seam, and it never feels tonally false.

A cast that matches the writing

Waller-Bridge’s own performance is extraordinary, full of tiny shifts between bravado and pain. Sian Clifford’s Claire is the perfect foil, brittle and repressed but capable of fierce love, and the sisters’ relationship is one of the most truthful portrayals of siblings on television. Olivia Colman makes the father’s partner a gloriously awful comic creation, polite on the surface and poisonous underneath, and Brett Gelman is memorably unsettling as Claire’s husband.

Andrew Scott’s priest is the second season’s masterstroke. He is funny, conflicted and unexpectedly perceptive, and his scenes with Waller-Bridge crackle with chemistry. Their story turns the series into a chamber piece about faith, desire and what it means to be truly seen, and it won the show a haul of major awards, including Emmys for comedy series, writing and lead actress.

The first season’s rougher edges

If there is a weakness, it lies in the opening season, which is more of a raw provocation than a finished work. It is sharp and often brilliant, but its episodes are more scattered and its supporting characters thinner than they become later. Some viewers may find the early sexual comedy abrasive before the show reveals the grief underneath. Stick with it: the payoff, especially across the second season, is immense.

Who should watch Fleabag?

It is for adults who appreciate dark comedy, sharp writing and stories about grief, family and loneliness. With just 12 half-hour episodes, it can be watched in a weekend, and it rewards rewatching. It contains frequent sexual content, strong language and themes of guilt and bereavement.

If it wins you over, try these:

• Baby Reindeer, another British series adapted from its creator’s own stage show, darker and even more confessional.
• Derry Girls for British comedy about family and friendship with a big heart under the jokes.
• Inside No. 9, whose short, precisely built episodes swing between laughter and horror.

Viewers outside the UK can find more of its neighbours in the Prime Video catalogue.

The verdict

Fleabag is a near-flawless tragicomedy, formally daring, riotously funny and quietly devastating. Its first season is rougher than its second, but taken together these 12 episodes form one of the defining television achievements of the century.

Rating: 5/5