Fleabag Season 2 Review: All You Need Is Love
In Fleabag Season 2, the driving melancholic overtones of Season 1 are replaced with a reassuring sense of hope as the show’s creator and star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, focuses on the ups and downs of love.
She says it herself on Fleabag Season 2 Episode 1, “This is a love story.” It’s also not just about the romance between the series’ sarcastic, sardonic, searching protagonist and a foul-mouthed, slightly alcoholic, hot, funny priest (Andrew Scott). All of Fleabag’s main characters deal with matters of the heart during Season 2.
But, first, back to The Priest. Forget The Thorn Birds‘ angst-riddled, ambitious, and, let’s face it, pedophiliac Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain) whose love for the lovely Maggie Cleary (Rachel Ward) metamorphosizes from affection to a burning desire and forbidden love that spans decades. Who has time for that kind of epic romance in modern-day London?
Female hearts will flutter for Scott who, like our heroine, proves being acutely self-aware isn’t always a blessing. Catholicism and priests have taken quite a hit when it comes to public perception, but we still tend to view the clergy as something other than human: or at least our expectations of them lean towards unachievable.
The Priest decimates those pre-conceived notions immediately. He has his own family, his own past, his own existence prior to committing himself to his calling to help and guide others. He sees what’s coming and simultaneously tries to stop it while being swept up in the inevitable.
The Priest: Celibacy is a lot less complicated than romantic relationships.
Enter Fleabag, whose own father has fallen down on the job, and you’ve got a very superficial understanding of her attraction to The Priest. Their attraction and chemistry are almost instantaneously palpable, but their lurking desire for one another — pretty out in the open from the start — takes a backseat in order for the two to establish a deeper bond.
Sex isn’t even The Priest’s biggest challenge to overcome; it’s the agonizing prospect of falling in love and making it work.
Fleabag isn’t great at intimacy, and at times, she treats The Priest’s genial attempts to get to know her as an unwelcome interrogation. At the core, she’s dealing with intense doubts and self-loathing; not just about Boo (Jenny Rainsford) but about her life in choices in general.
When Fleabag finally lets down her guard, viewers see a woman who is full of contradictions. She should address the audience because she’s so complex and contradictory, Fleabag can’t be confined to a two-dimensional space.
Fleabag: I just think I want someone to tell me … how to live my life, Father, because so far I think I’ve been getting it wrong.
When Waller-Bridge breaks the fourth wall and speaks to us, The Priest picks up on something. To him, her mind and attention simply disappear for a split second, and he becomes obsessed with figuring out where she goes.
His awareness not only catches Fleabag off guard but us as well. This forces her to be present and at the moment with him, unlike other paramours who take zero notice when she dissociates herself.
Fleabag Season 1 introduces the main characters and gives us enough information to understand there’s the potential for some rich backstories. Season 2 builds on that foundation very well. Perhaps, it’s Dad (Bil Paterson) who emerges from the sophomore season the most evolved.
After Fleabag Season 1, Dad is easily dismissable as a weak, absentee father, easily overpowered and manipulated by Godmother (Olivia Colman). He actually sees his daughters very clearly for who they are and is aware of his failings as a parent, a husband, and a human being.
Dad: I love you, but I’m not sure that I like you all the time. Sorry.
There are two very revealing conversations between Fleabag and Dad that let the poor man off the hook for supposedly abandoning his grown daughters.
Colman is brilliant at making Godmother the most aggressive, passive-aggressive person to grace the small screen in recent memory.
There’s a slight thaw in the frost between Fleabag and Claire (Sian Clifford), but friendship will never overcome sibling rivalry. But as Claire’s life unravels, Fleabag is present in a way no one else can or will be, and Claire expresses a begrudging appreciation.
Claire: You’ll always be fine, you’ll always be interesting with your quirky cafe and your dead best friend. You just make me feel like I failed.
Hopefully, Fleabag Season 2 will sever the ties between Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s singular voice and Lena Dunham’s Girls. Why is it necessary to quantify the work of one female artist by comparing her to another?
There’s a new, lingering, bittersweet feeling running throughout each episode of Fleabag Season 2, replacing the in-your-face sadness of Season 1. All we can hope for the title character is she someday figures out happiness isn’t guaranteed, but it also isn’t completely out of her reach.
What did you think of Fleabag Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Fleabag Season 2 Episodes 1-6 are now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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Jennifer Lind-Westbrook
Jennifer has been working as a freelance writer for six years, contributing to BuddyTV, Screen Rant, TVRage, Hidden Remote, Gossip On This, and PopMatters. She prefers binge-watching old episodes of The Office (British and American versions) to long walks on the beach. She's still holding out hope that Happy Endings will get a revival.