No movie or TV show is perfect.
But then along comes something like season two ofFleabag.
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Looks directly into camera: Did you really think wed choose another show?
No, but seriously.
The attraction cant be denied.
After a couple days ofGOT-ending outrage and disappointment,Fleabagtook over the TV discourse.
Nothing will ever be that good again.
It didnt even sound like hyperbole.
If I had to single out one thing, aside fromAndrew Scott, a.k.a.
the Hot Priest, its how unbelievably tight the show is.
There are just six episodes ofFleabag.
Each one lasts 27 minutes or less.
From the very beginning, it drops us into a moving car and never lets up on the gas.
This, Fleabag explains, breaking the fourth wall in her signature fashion, is a love story.
Oh, lordy, the Priest.
Life teaches us not to expect perfection.
No relationship is perfect.
No job is perfect.
No movie or TV show is perfect.
You get to have perfect.
A Closer Look at Fleabag
You know when youve done everything?
Here, it feels dynamic.
Its funny, filled with wryness, sarcasm, and repartee.
And remarkably very few words are used to say what needs to be said.
You know when youve done everything?
Fleabag asks from her spot at the table.
Many other characters have spoken directly to the audience before the way that Fleabag does here.
Its not like Waller-Bridge invented the idea.
But she may be better at it than anyone else whos attempted it.
Shes confident and direct in a way that feels personal.
Waller-Bridge and Fleabag are too clever by exactly the right amount.
Take the brilliant switch from the dinner scene to Fleabag on a smoke break.
She stares at us, and she doesnt have to say anything for us to know what she means.
Heres to peace, and those who get in the way of it.
Its a confessional scene of a different sort, and one thats equally sexy.
Waller-Bridge crafts every line with gorgeous precision, then wraps them in layers of meaning.
Hes surprised to see Fleabag in person and genuinely thought he had just imagined her.
First of all:whew.
That line is as good as kneel, and maybe better because its the precursor to it.
It shifts the energy and activates the molecules in the room.
But this is another confession.
I cant read aWinnie-the-Poohquote without crying, he says.
Fuck, he addsPiglet.
Whether he knows it or not, the Priest is explaining how much he values love and friendship.
Hes telling Fleabag that whatever is going on between them means something to him.
But hes also confessing that she has disrupted his own sense of peace.
By raising a glass in her honor, hes admitting that he likes it.
Thanks to Waller-Bridges dialogue, the Priest has already done the same thing.
He went that way.
It breaks your heart.
It makes things a mess.
This final scene inFleabagseason two reminds me a lot of that speech.
Its sad and brimming with humanity.
Its focused on two people declaring their love for each other while knowing they cant do anything about it.
It doesnt make things nice.
It breaks your heart.
After the wedding of Fleabags dad to Godmother, the Priest sits beside Fleabag at a bus stop.
They look into each others eyes.
Its God, isnt it?
Yeah, he responds.
In those moments, its so obvious that this was never going to work out.
One of the great things aboutFleabagis that it leaves a lot open to interpretation.
Thefox is one of those things.
My interpretation of it comes fromSong of Solomon, a book in the Bible thats quoted frequently at weddings.
The foxes are supposed to represent the things that may get in the way of a healthy marriage.
Neither of them have outrun their demons.
As the Priest says during his remarks at the wedding, Love isnt something that weak people do.
But those are just our sins our lust and greed and laziness talking.
For me, there was only one.
On some subconscious level, maybe thats what makes us admire this season so much.
Its what made her, and the series, intriguing.
In her to-camera asides, shes more often truthful with us than not.
Fleabag isnt honest with everyone around her.
She deflects and bends the facts during her therapy session.
Even when shes talking to us, she can be a bit glib.
But shes no longer hiding her flaws or a major part of her story from us.
Its as though we know each other better, and shes more comfortable showing us who she is.
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