Fleabag (Season One)

I can’t imagine “Fleabag” working half as well as it does without Phoebe Walker-Bridge’s casual asides to us. Her character thinks she’s her own Statler and Waldorf, eyes alight when she’s found the perfect way to deflate the mood, but we’re smart enough to pick up that it is all deflection. A late aside, after a harrowing series of events, consists of her just looking at us, opening her mouth as if to explain herself, and quickly shutting it as she realizes she’s out of jokes. It is what gives this audacious dramedy its soul, and what soul it is.

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