Amazon with Abe: Fleabag

Fleabag: Season 2, Episode 2 (B+)

I’ve been waiting a long time to watch this show. I didn’t watch it when it premiered because I was saving streaming television for later in favor of other weekly fare, and was going to wait until I had caught up on all the other shows I had yet to watch before getting to it. Because of its exceptional Emmy showing, I opted to save it for last after all of the other Emmy episodes I watched since this is most definitely a show I do like and was thrilled to finally be able to see. It didn’t disappoint at all in this second of its six submitted episodes for Best Comedy Series consideration. The opening was fantastic, with Fleabag in church making the priest laugh before telling him she doesn’t believe in God and forgetting about the miscarriage she didn’t have. Googling what happens when a priest has sex wasn’t going to get her anywhere good, and now she’s just going to obsess over this attraction. Interrupting her speech to Martin to congratulate herself for how well it was going before she messed it up with the last word was a great instance of why this show is superb, and I continue to enjoy the interactions between Fleabag and Claire, especially when they’re supposed to be posing facing opposite directions for the Godmother to paint them. This episode also features one of the nominees this year for Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series: Fiona Shaw, also up for her role in another Phoebe Waller-Bridge-created series, “Killing Eve.” At first I found her therapist character, who appeared in a very minimal portion of the episode, to be a bit dry, but it quickly became clear that she was able to match Fleabag’s temperament and respond perfectly to shut down her every witticism and actually manage to give her some real analysis and advice in the process. I don’t it’s substantial enough for a win, but it was fun to see her here.