Starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag is a coy production that illustrates the eventful life of a cynical young woman. As she traverses the wobbly avenues of love, grief and loss, we are showcased how the past and present often interlace at times and that, sometimes, the only coping mechanism that wards off pain is a pinch of delicious dark humor. Our protagonist is ruthless with her snarky comments, her comically timed observations, her relentlessly apt critique of society, and her tendency to break the fourth wall. If one studies the trajectory of the TV show carefully, it comes to light how each character is specifically curated to bring out a certain aspect of the protagonist's personality. Whereas the sister and the hot priest symbolize her perennial capacity to love, the brother-in-law epitomizes her sassy, unyielding side. On the other hand, the best friend's character highlights her tendency to linger in the past. The father's character depicts how she finds comfort in her roots despite being jaded of their utility in the modern age.
I watched only the first episode and instantly loved it! This special sort of humor is always highly divisive. Either you love it or you hate it. In my experience for shows like Fleabag there's no such ratings like "quite entertaining and funny at times"! Phoebe Waller-Bridge is incredibly talented in so many ways, I can't tell what's more adorable about her work in Fleabag: the acting, the uncommon storytelling, the firework of weird gags...? Everything is fresh and unique.
Great blog Aimen!
Hey! A great blog indeed. I really loved the concept of how Waller-Bridge portrays the character's constant awareness of two levels of reality—the characters she's hanging out with and all of us in the audience—as though Fleabag was perpetually preoccupied with something like we're the phone screen she can't quite look away from, even when she's speaking to someone else. Furthermore, it seems at the start that we're watching a love story and indeed, she and the Priest flirt a lot, with incredible chemistry. But the story's beauty is in how it recognizes that the hardest part of love is sometimes realizing that you are worthy of being loved. Loving someone else is easy for some people, but loving oneself…
Interesting!
So, my only interaction with Fleabag has been on Instagram. The Hot Priest & the Protagonist are shown in montages as one of those unfulfilled love stories that's just filled with an acknowledgement of their interest in each other and their chemistry but the complication with their values at odds with each other. I scroll again and i find a few other montages and posts with a young/middle-aged couple in love but just caught up in a sad situation. Its one painful situation after another.
Its at these points where the point about reproduction of narratives comes into play for me. I haven't seen the show but the uniqueness of it is that it explores these stories form a female…
Hey Aiman!
Thanks for sharing. I have not seen fleabag but after reading this blog, I definitely will. I really like the way you have explained the symbolization that a character can serve. I believe, no matter what media product it is and how the characters have been sketched, there is a symbol and a message that each brings to light. Some explicitly while others less so.
From the clips we saw with Sir Hasham in the class and the way we discussed her addressing the camera directly at certain instances, it kind of did make me familiar with the sarcastic, judgemental, and slightly funny angle in the character. However, I felt the character to be a bit of an…