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Original poster

Fleabag - anyone else not get on with it?

86 replies

VictoriaReal · 09/04/2019 15:08

I tried hard to like Fleabag, and I normally love this and of thing, and love edgy comedy, pathos and female led stuff - but for some reason, although I could "appreciate" it, it never clicked with me.

I was thinking about it and remembered I didn't like Girls either (even though I watched all of it too) but Lena Dunham I just found unlikeable, and I know its deeply unfashionable thing to say butt I think I felt the same about Fleabag / PWB. It's not the whole "flawed character" type stuff that's an issue - as I say I normally like that kind of thing (E.g. I loved Saga in The Bridge who can be really unpleasant to people). I just wasn't rooting for the character and didn't care about her.

Am I the only woman in the UK to feel his way?

OP posts:
StarlingsEverywhere · 14/04/2019 20:19

I do find it odd when criticism of nepotism is pigeonholed as 'jus jellus'. It's a bit lacking in nuance.

StarlingsEverywhere · 14/04/2019 20:21

And I say this as someone who like Fleabag, and PWB. I'm quite a pragmatist and nepotism/privilege doesn't really bug me but it's naive to suppose any criticism of it is down to jealousy.

BlessedFox · 14/04/2019 20:24

@StarlingsEverywhere

I find it amusing when someone assumes they have nuance when really they don’t.

StarlingsEverywhere · 14/04/2019 20:35

Ok, whatever you say. The OP is jealous. Well done, you managed to pierce through her criticisms to her true motives with your razor-sharp intellect. You must be very proud.

BlessedFox · 14/04/2019 20:38

Thanks for making my point for me Smile

bellinisurge · 14/04/2019 20:47

I gave up on it about 15 mins first episode. I wanted to like it. But it was a woman with perfect make up getting fucked up the arse. I presume it improved or that wasn't tedious gratuitous in some way but i wasn't that bothered with the character so I gave up.

Original poster
VictoriaReal · 15/04/2019 09:46

Thanks @StarlingsEverywhere, I agree with your comments about nepotism. To be fair don't think @StarlingsEverywhere is fully recognising the endemic (and widely reported) problems of lack of diversity in the performing arts industry. It is simplistic to label it as jealousy. It's a huge issue and the statistics are depressing for writers and directors of colour or from working class backgrounds.

It's not to say Fleabag is particularly or specifically / uniquely at fault, and it was only another possible aspect as to why I wasn't 100% sold on the series, alongside personal taste and just 'not clicking with it' this time. This chat didn't start as a conversation to bash Fleabag, just finding out what others thought. So no need for spiteful troll conversations on this matter. But important I think to acknowledge lack of diversity as an issue in TV as an existing social issue and not about individual perception.

OP posts:
Original poster
VictoriaReal · 15/04/2019 09:47

Sorry @StarlingsEverywhere I think I was saying that @BlessedFox wasn't recognising this issue!!

OP posts:
PlatypusLeague · 15/04/2019 09:55

I have never liked it. It's cringey middle class trying too hard to be "edgy".

diddl · 16/04/2019 17:49

I loved the first series & the first ep of the 2nd-after that-no.

Priest was as annoying af.

Didn't he play Moriarty in the same way?

lucyinthefry · 16/04/2019 18:00

bellini. Gave up on it about 15 mins first episode. I wanted to like it. But it was a woman with perfect make up getting fucked up the arse. I presume it improved or that wasn't tedious gratuitous in some way but i wasn't that bothered with the character so I gave up.
Me too.

RuffleCrow · 16/04/2019 18:09

I'm not really getting the 'too posh' argument. What was she supposed to do, not write and not perform just because of an accident of her birth? If we use that logic none of us would be able to use our abilities for profit because just being a citizen of a developed nation puts you in the top 10% globally iirc. Biscuit

Bluesheep8 · 17/04/2019 17:55

I watched episode 1 of series 1 and abandoned it. Hideous imo. Reminded me of a very unfunny, unlikable Miranda.

2rebecca · 18/04/2019 22:32

Just finished watching it all as so many people raved and am very meh about it. Glad the priest escaped her as he was obviously more in to her than she was to him as she was continuing her casual sleeping around whilst supposedly fancying him. If he had left the priesthood for her she'd have got bored of him when he became clingy and dependent having left the job he loved and begun casually sleeping around again. She seemed very shallow. Sleeping around was her only hobby. if she hadn't been beautiful she'd have been stuffed.
The sister was a more interesting character although her marriage to the awful beardy guy wasn't believable.
Maybe showing a woman doing the guilt free sleeping around is some sort of progress though. I didn't get where the money came from as the father didn't seem to work or be assertive enough to finish his sentences so I didn't see him as a hero of industry. Why were all the men so pathetic?

Buxbaum · 18/04/2019 23:27

I can absolutely see that there are many reasons why Fleabag might not be your cup of tea but I am really surprised that class is one of them. I would love to know what a privilege-checked Fleabag would look like.

I’m also wondering how it would go down if a MNer were to observe that they were really trying to get into Shameless as they’d heard it was so good but they just couldn’t get past the fact that everyone is so poor...

CSIblonde · 18/04/2019 23:54

The premise was good. But to me the character seemed too self aware, intelligent & mature to be so dysfunctional. I was probably over thinking it. Her parents were the best bit. I spat my tea out a few times over their sex life comments.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 19/04/2019 00:01

Utter shite imo. Turned it off after the first 20 mins of first episode.

RuffleCrow · 19/04/2019 08:22

I think he's retired Rebecca and probably has early stage dementia.

I'm not really in a place to comment about why all the men were 'so pathetic' as sadly my experience of most men meant that I found this quite a realistic aspect. I recognise that I'm probably unlucky in that respect, however.

Snugglepiggy · 19/04/2019 08:44

Watched half of first series and really couldn't get into it.Fleabag just annoyed me.To the point when I see a photo of PBW I feel irrationally irritated.However did enjoy Killing Eve,but not desperate for another series.
Derry Girls however made me snort with laughter,and cry at the end.Different humour works for different people I guess.

HopeMatters · 19/04/2019 08:49

I liked it fine, but am baffled by the obsession over it. If it had gone on longer I might not have watched to the end.

MadisonMontgomery · 19/04/2019 08:52

I just found it cringey tbh, couldn’t get the hype at all.

diddl · 19/04/2019 09:09

"I liked it fine, but am baffled by the obsession over it."

I think that that sums it up well.

The first series was mainly curiosity for me to find out what had happened & why.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 19/04/2019 09:12

I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

To be fair, this is quite true.

Envy is wanting what someone else has, jealousy is fear that someone will take what you have. Nowadays the two tend to be used interchangeably, though, but Starlings is technically right.

Toooldtobearsed2 · 19/04/2019 09:18

God, it really is like Marmite, isn't it?

I just finished it in a binge last night and loved every minute of it. I understand the 'woman with perfect makeup being fucked up the arse' comment, but thought her character, with all its flaws, developed nicely.

One of the best I have seen lately, but we are all different😁

Lucky222 · 15/06/2019 01:52

Watched 2 episodes. Don't like the incest abuse references, normalisation of porn addiction and anal sex, as a feminist. Also, don't like watching characters without evident morals/ethics or some commendable aspects to their characters, which seems to be all of TV. I must be a 'moralising prude.' I don't care! All of our politics revolves around sociopathic types, does all entertainment have to as well??

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