Does Fleabag get better?

[Keener]

I'd seen so many glowing reviews of Fleabag that when season 2 started with a great cast I thought I should go back and give season 1 a go first, so I knew the backstory. I just watched the first episode of season 1 at the weekend with DH, and we both thought it was very one-note. It just seemed like bleak, navel-gazing Bridget Jones without the weightloss gags, and while I generally like bleak, I found it unengaging and one-dimensional. (My strongest impression was what a wonderfully clothes-horsey body P W-B has, and how nicely a trenchcoat sits on her. Which was probably not the intended impression.)

Does it develop, and should we persevere, or is this one of those shows where, like Game of Thrones, you should recognise that if you don't like it after half an hour, or while Sean Bean is still alive, it's not going to grow on you?

[listsandbudgets]

I will watch this thread with interest as I also watched the first episode and could have written your post almost word for word

[LuggsaysNotaWomen]

I was a bit “meh” about the first couple of episodes. Thought it was just another vacuous take on a women of a certain age trying to “find love” with a bit of raunch thrown in for good measure.

I carried on watching and I love it now. It’s much more nuanced than BJD and I cried at the end of the first series. I think it’s worth sticking with.

[Keener]

Oh, interesting, lists, because I literally couldn't find a bad word on line about it. It gets something like a 100% approval rating on Metacritic!

[HelloDarlin]

I watched GOT once & all I could see was a load of extras in a field.
It just wasn’t my cup of tea... Different shows appeal to different people, I think.

[SoHotADragonRetired]

I think it's more than a bleak Bridget Jones, definitely. Just having a female gaze as the setting onscreen felt like something I hadn't even known I was thirsty for. It has a farcical edge but some bits hit deep (especially the bits with Hugh Dennis, who was amazing in this).

If you don't like it that's OK, it's definitely not an obligatory part of pop culture, but I might give it a bit longer and see how you feel.

[FloatingthroughSpace]

I think it's a very sad programme about how a woman is using sex as an escape from going inside her own head because she thinks she is pretty shit. I have watched episodes 1-3. I don't find it funny at all. I think I have established that there will be a twist and I think I know what it will be. But I am annoying like that. First time I watched the sixth sense I turned to dh and said "he's dead" when Bruce Willis "woke up" after being stabbed. Ruined the film for him, and me 😂

[Keener]

Thanks, everyone. Maybe I'll watch the next episode, and with air of being determined to be fair. Does Hugh Dennis's character recur?

[LuggsaysNotaWomen]

Not massively but he is in it a couple of times so far.

[imip]

I tried with season 1, but after two episodes ditched it for the same reason. So bleak it was unwatchable. I’ve seen the first two episodes of season two and it’s better. I hope it continues in that vein as the first season was abysmal.

[JaneR0chester]

It took me about 4 goes to finish the 1st episode - but after reading all the rave reviews (and also loving Killing Eve), I did persevere and by the end of series 1, I absolutely loved it.

It is an amazing piece of writing and fantastic acting. The characters are so nuanced and it's so rare to see such a full depiction of people, with no dumbing down to the audience IMHO.

For sure I'm not completely enamoured with Fleabag herself, but she's so vulnerable and human... I find it all gripping. I'd tough it out to the end of the seires 1 at least, they're only short episodes And yes, Hugh Dennis does come back and is pivotal, and I think I even cried during his final scene.

[SpeakUpXXWomen]

I turned it off after 5 min. Just totally grimmed out by concept of woman having a nice fourth wall chat whilst some guy is supposedly simultaneously DTD with her!

[PaulHollywoodsSexGut]

I really did not like S1 but binge watched it (when ill, bad move) and felt a bit “meh”.

I found the characters horrible, depressing and the whole thing bleak.

BUTTTTTTT the very very end caught my imagination enough to tune in for series 2 and it’s paid dividends.

Series 2 is a lot more “human” and a lot less “London rep theatre/TV mash up”.

Stick at it. The very very end pays dividends.

[SweetAsSpice]

Definitely keep with it. I felt the same. My DM and step dad raved about it and made me watch 5 minutes of it...I wasn't sold. But gave it a go in my own time and absolutely loved it.

[SpeakUpXXWomen]

The thing is that there is so much excellent tv on tap now that "stick with it" or "some good bits" just doesn't cut it anymore for me. There isn't time for half arsed or mediocre when so much excellence and originality abounds.

[Alconleigh]

I absolutely adored it and have watched Season One twice (second time with a friend who'd not seen it first time round). And am enjoying Season Two as well. I genuinely don't think I've seen anything like it on TV before. Having said that I can see it wouldn't be for everyone.

[groundcontroltomontydon]

I didn't rate the first series at all. Series 2 is much better. It's a bit dystopian Shirley Valentine for the millennial generation

[Megan2018]

I absolutely adore it - if you didn't get it on episode 1 then you won't.

It's obviously not your thing. It is however officially genius - the University I work at teaches TV production and scriptwriting and Fleabag is being used as an exemplar! So even in academic circles it is very highly regarded.

[Keener]

Maybe it was the combination of terribly middle-class glossiness and bleakness that I found so unengaging in episode one.

The scene where Fleabag and her sister (Claire?) are the only ones at the feminist lecture shoving their hands in the air when the speaker asks who would trade five years off their lives for a perfect body just didn't work for me because the most obvious thing you notice first about P W-B is that she looks like a catwalk model, all gorgeous and angular and tall -- she already has the type of body that our society thinks is perfect, so it sanitised the whole thing for me. DH said it would have worked entirely differently with someone like a younger Joanna Scanlan in the lead.

The thing is that there is so much excellent tv on tap now that "stick with it" or "some good bits" just doesn't cut it anymore for me. There isn't time for half arsed or mediocre when so much excellence and originality abounds.

This is true. But at least Fleabag is short. I can't be doing with the time commitment required to watch all seasons of Breaking Bad, even if, as I am assured, they are the best thing that has ever been on a screen, ever.

[Keener]

dystopian Shirley Valentine for the millennial generation

[longwayoff]

Ditto OP, double ditto Floating, 6th Sense, awful film. Will follow this thread as it seemed to me that one episode was one too many.

[longwayoff]

Keener, reorganise your life. Line of Duty and Breaking Bad are absolutely worth it. You'll be glad you did it!

[PaulHollywoodsSexGut]

Maybe it was the combination of terribly middle-class glossiness and bleakness that I found so unengaging in episode one

You have absolutely nailed it for me @keener

However as @longwayoff says do get into LoD. It’s a belter. But I’ve never seen S1.... that’s why I’ve had to do a fair bit of “filling in the blanks” via the medium of the Internet.

[Keener]

I am a TV commitment-phobe, longwayoff. Despite cantering through doorstop classic novels by the hundred, I am the televisual equivalent of Julia Roberts in Runaway Bride.

[AliceAforethought]

I watched one and a half episodes by myself and disliked it. But then DH and DD wanted to see it, so I watched again from beginning and really liked it! Must have been in a better mood. Haven't finished series one yet, but will continue to watch it.

Also, Breaking Bad was my favourite televisual experience ever!

[longwayoff]

you say that now, Keener, but two episodes into either will have you sending out for pizza because you can't leave the tv