Fleabag Review

The aside to camera starts as a gag and becomes the whole architecture. In the first series it is a defense, a way for her to control how a scene is read, and the best decision the show makes is to render that habit legible as avoidance rather than charm. Then the second series introduces a man who notices her doing it, and a formal device turns into a plot mechanism, which is the kind of idea most writers get once in a career.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays it without ever asking to be liked, and Andrew Scott gives the priest a restlessness that stops the relationship from becoming a fantasy. Olivia Colman's stepmother is a masterclass in aggression delivered as encouragement, and Sian Clifford's Claire carries the sadder half of the series almost silently. The kitchen table scene that opens the second series is as well written as any half hour comedy has managed. It looks ordinary, which is the one real limitation, shot flatly on London interiors. Six hours total, with almost nothing wasted.