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Fleabag

Started by Utter Shit, July 22, 2016, 05:01:14 PM

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Claude Balls

It starts tonight on BBC 2 - so normal people can now watch it. The MoS gives it 5 STARS fwiw - apparently it gets better as it does along.

Utter Shit

Giving it 5 stars seems absurdly generous but it's really good. I don't understand how it worked as a one-woman show though, would like to see it now just to know.

Just watched first episode on IPlayer and even Mrs 15percentfaster, a tough customer, was highly impressed.  It's one of those rare comedies on TV that isn't pitched at morons.

MojoJojo

Quote from: 15percentfaster on August 22, 2016, 11:38:28 PM
Just watched first episode on IPlayer and even Mrs 15percentfaster, a tough customer, was highly impressed.  It's one of those rare comedies on TV that isn't pitched at morons.

I thought you said your wife liked it?

(poor attempt at humour)

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Claude Balls on August 21, 2016, 09:45:14 AM
It starts tonight on BBC 2 - so normal people can now watch it. The MoS gives it 5 STARS fwiw - apparently it gets better as it does along.

Yes, Episode 5 was probably the best. Dripping in stilted malice.

Utter Shit

Episode 5 was almost too cringy and awkward for me. That scene in the living room with Olivia Colman was horrible.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

So, a pretty, porny, nihilistic version of "Miranda", then?  (with bra showing replacing falling down)

Quote from: MojoJojo on August 23, 2016, 12:01:39 AM
I thought you said your wife liked it?

(poor attempt at humour)

Sorry, I should have said Dr Mrs 15percentfaster

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on August 23, 2016, 11:57:46 AM
So, a pretty, porny, nihilistic version of "Miranda", then?  (with bra showing replacing falling down)

Massively less mugging.  It's actually rather affecting.

Queneau

Episode five didn't really make me laugh much at all. But I did find it good to watch. Will be interesting to see how this one ends.

yesitsme

Thought it a bit odd that a Under 30 Something programme would follow Dragon's Den but who'd have thought Doesn't Half Dragon Den (we're out of inventors now, Reggae Reggae Sauce was the pinnacle and we've been on a downhill slide since haven't we?) was an odd show to follow Robot Wars then for Fleabag to preceede Murder In Successville - oh I don't know.  Who knows what BBC2 schedulers are on, the Oxbridge cunts!

Anyway, Fleabag - the wanking man's Mrs Brown's Boys.

mrpupkin

Have ended up rather enjoying this. It's refreshing to see a sitcom that doesn't spell everything out, some of the best jokes are just subtle idiosyncrasies of character which tell the story without huge signposting. The relationship with her sister is really good and quite touching. Waller Bridge is great at those accidental tells of vulnerability beneath her character's façade, the little slips of the mask. The "aren't I just so NAUGHTY though?" looks to camera get a bit grating but there are less of them as it progresses. In fact there are less jokes overall but that's no bad thing once you're invested in the characters.  Shame we haven't seen more of her wet ex-boyfriend because he was really funny in his episode. Overall worth a watch even if you hate nothing more than successful-in-the-media London poshos being all alluring and stylish and waving their achievements in your face while you languish in your wank hovel bathed in the fetid stench of regret.

Quote from: checkoutgirl on August 15, 2016, 04:54:15 PM
Me neither. Shows about people with varied and interesting sex lives are alienating.

It is quite annoying.  People in shows get a massive amount of action, and I do not sympathise with their mishaps

yesitsme

Quote from: 15percentfaster on August 23, 2016, 03:23:40 PM
It is quite annoying.  People in shows get a massive amount of action, and I do not sympathise with their mishaps

Are there any good looking/wealthy/successful types who do get a lot of action with little to no effort out there who can vouch for the veracity of this show?

Mind you the same could be said for the ugly/on their arse/wasters out there.  They're never off it are they?

Once again it's one rule for the successful, good looking, minging bastards and one rule for those of us who fall somewhere in between.

Fuck my fucking luck.

See the bit where she asked the pissed girl if she wanted to go back to hers?  If that was a guy they'd be saying it was a 'bit rapey'  Y'know like 'they' do.

Once again it's one rule for the female sexual predator and one for the male.

poo

Thought it developed quite nicely. Looking forward to the next series.

BlodwynPig

Crushing ending. Although I felt a good decade or so too old for it to be monumental.

Beagle 2

Only just finished episode three but found myself roaring at parts of it. Brilliant stuff. It achieves that trick of making you feel for everybody in it even though they're all despicable dysfunctional cunts.

Beagle 2

Quote from: BlodwynPig on August 26, 2016, 02:11:11 PM
Spoiler alert
Crushing ending.
[close]
Although I felt a good decade or so too old for it to be monumental.

Gah... even that wants spoilering blods!

Queneau

The ending was pretty bloody great.
Spoiler alert
It was perfectly balanced and structured. I almost wanted her to jump in the traffic but I think that the way it played out worked well. The fact that she had taken so much shit throughout the episode before it was revealed what she had done to her friend meant that it was extremely hard to have any negative feeling towards her.
[close]
The only thing I would say is that the 'good looking' character never quite worked for me, especially in this final episode. Who talks the way he does and explains things the way he does? It just stood out too much.

thugler

Yeah him, and a few other characters here and there (the other love interest in earlier eps) are just a bit too kooky and cartoonish, but overall I thought it was pretty good and unusual.

remedial_gash

I didn't want to like this, I loathed 'crashing' but this was great - I didn't really watch the first episode, but sought out the others immediately. thought it was like a reverse 'naked' - In that he is a cunt and you gradually like him because everyone else is awful, and in this, while she is smug and a bit cunty you don't really learn the twist until the end.. powerful stuff. Double plus good. /kill me.

Beagle 2

It's one of the best things I've seen in years. What an interesting character, I became completely conflicted about her by the end. I didn't see the twist coming, and when it did her behaviour all made sense - and I didn't really mind all the terrible things that had happened to her. I found her an annoying twat, a badass antihero, a ruthless piece of shit and a vulnerable victim all at the same time. Plus, it was really funny. So many brilliant touches like "I've been stung by a wasp" :-D

Even Hugh Dennis was great.

23 Daves

Quote from: hummingofevil on August 15, 2016, 07:35:40 PM
Not seen this so just going to leave a dickhead comment instead.

It's nice to see BBC3 smashing down the old-boys club comedy network by giving the Privately Educated, RADA Alumna, Phoebe Waller-Bridge a series or two. Well done them.

(Sorry if that is cuntish but having spent the last few days in Edinburgh and finding a fairly strong inverse correlation between shows I really like and the probable education fees of those involved I'm increasingly demoralised about the state of British comedy TV. Moreover it is increasingly fucking me off how the commisioning and agents thing is basically acting as a way of filtering out anyone talent who isn't their mates from uni). I quite like David Elms but that shite on Channel 5 he is in is actually on TV whilst Ideal got cancelled years ago. Bring back Ideal. I'm even happy Stewart Lee's show has gone but just give me Ideal. BBC3??

I came on here specifically to say something along those lines, actually - the show is OK. Waller-Bridge is a good performer, and there are a few laugh-out-loud moments in the two episodes I've seen so far.

But really... there's not a single character in this whole thing who isn't posh, whether it's posh and successful or posh and fucked up. That's not a reason to dislike the whole show in itself, but while I recognise some of the characters in it, and indeed the main character in particular, it really is a whole world which I feel faintly alienated by. And I'm an educated person with a reasonably OK-ish job.

It represents a London where only posh people live, and that's not the place I know. The only ordinary people who seem to get a look-in for the whole of the first two shows are there as fleeting irritants.

Would any of the above really matter if I thought "Fleabag" excelled, made me a laugh a lot and said something unique about everyone's neuroses and condition? Probably not. But it doesn't. It's just some more self-consciously dark comedy, really, with the odd good line here and there. It's an awkward Saturday column for Guardian readers turned into a sit-com.

hummingofevil

Well I'm actually 3 episodes in finally and am generally really liking it. Watching it with the girlfriend of 10 years and found myself pulling my hood up everytime something makes me feel a bit cringey or awkward; which has been a lot.

For that alone it gets big thumbs up from me as I like anything that makes me feel like a dick and gives me the cringe. Like reading my previous post.

Soz.

amnesiac

Saw ep2 on BBC2, loved it, went to iPlayer and binged the entire series, it's THAT good.

Yes, as a 46yo male I can't identify with a single thing but it didn't stop me enjoying it and appreciating some amazing performances EVEN by Hugh Dennis.

The final scene in ep6 is very emotional and if (as some said) you found her unbearable then you'll understand why she's so fucking abominable.

yesitsme

#55
i didn't have any issues identifying with any of the characters, I don't take a Stanislavsky approach to telly, I'll watch stuff about space and deep sea divers without having met anyone involved with either - I'm that intelligent!

However I sometimes feel with shows like this that I'm having the wool pulled over my eyes.  Take away the clever clogs, sexy, sassy, confident lead and you'rE left with nothing more than the desire to like this show because you feel you should like it and you'd like the woman in the show (or any woman) to come up to you and say 'C'mon Big Boy - let's roll!'

It's like buying an expensive shirt from a shop 20 years too young for you because you think the girl at the check out will be impressed.

She's playihg you like a chump mate.

However On the basis of the above comments though I'm going back to watch ep 2.  I'll report my findings duly.

mrpupkin

"Hey I reckon this new sitcom will be up your street, seems to be about a funny woman getting into all kinds of scrapes. Should be a rib-tickler!"

Six episodes later she's curled up in a ball on the sofa, crying her eyes out. "Everything's so sad" she says. "Everything's so sad".

Norton Canes

After a short Fleabag hiatus I watched episode four, set in the silent retreat, last night. Thought the wasp attack was a blatant rip-off of one of the Big Train monk sketches, until the pay-off a couple of scenes later, which was pretty good. Anyway PW-B has probably never watched Big Train.

Still struggling to get any emotional impact from it, the 'gut-wrenching' moments seem to come out of nowhere, they're artificial and gratuitous. They seem designed to instantly manipulate the viewers' emotions and in that respect, the show reminds me, rather unpleasantly, of Derek.

Utter Shit

Keep watching, it all makes sense in the end.

hummingofevil

Really liked the
Spoiler alert
excrutiating
[close]
family dynamic stuff in this and overall it was pretty good but for me the
Spoiler alert
twist
[close]
kind of ruined it. I was enjoying the underlying feel to the whole thing of
Spoiler alert
a woman who can go about her life being abut of a dick and carefree if a bit neurotic and inconsistent and this is okay.
[close]
. What I a left with is that this
Spoiler alert
behaviour is at best a consequence of her being ficked up  - therefore not normal - and at worst her sexual behaviour, far from just being easily erased led to THE DEATH OF HER BEST FRIEND
[close]
.

I do appreciate that it leaves us with confused and contradictory views about what happens and why I like how this itself reflect the way that most of us live in this constant state of not being able to do right for doing wrong and the many pressures put on woman particularly to be all things at all times but I was kind of enjoying it for what it was. Oh well...

Will there be more?