Fleabag (2016-2019)

Photo: Amazon

I love to find new things that I feel define an era of my life, especially, when I need it the most, as if it's speaking to me. Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag isn't for everyone, of course, but it's certainly something everyone will enjoy. We follow Fleabag, or we presume it's her name, or a nickname, or a state of mind (one can never really be sure), but she seems to be a confident woman who owns a café that doesn't seem to be doing so well - turns out she might not be doing so well either. She's got a smart and successful older married sister - her sister's arsehole of a husband -  a father who's emotionally absent and together with her bitch of a Godmother (played by Olivia Colman, hello, oscar winner).

It's very dark, but funny and self-aware as hell. Besides, obviously, some sort of commentary on the state of women of late. Fleabag doesn't have her shit sorted, and she's at the start of her 30's, it feels appropriate. We've all grown up with the fairy tale like concept of marriage and babies and everything sorted by we're 30, when that couldn't be further from the truth. We're all out here hoping that maybe we can get our shit together so that we can live up to our own fanciful expectations. The same time it's not the 'oh look at me, I'm so cool and quirky alternative girl', but more the what the fuck is life sometimes? And Fleabag feels like a friend, responding to things happening by literally looking towards us the audience as if to say "don't you agree, obviously you do?" And we absolutely do, nodding along, like we're in on the joke.

It's a pity the second series was its final series, though it feels like the perfect ending of a genuinely good show that I recommend to anyone who wants to laugh and say what the fuck to themselves repeatedly throughout as well.

yes, the hot priest played by Andrew Scott