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FLEABAG
May 17, 2019  | By David Bianculli

Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET

 

SEASON PREMIERE: Between Season 1 of this series, which premiered in 2016, and Season 2, which Amazon presents in a six-pack of superb TV today, a lot has happened. For one thing, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the writer and star of both this television series and the play on which it is based, has become an internationally acclaimed success, thanks to her more recent TV creation, BBC America’s brilliant Killing Eve. This one-two punch of flawless, adventurous TV writing may well be the most audacious and impressive debut since Aaron Sorkin burst on the scene, in short order, with both ABC’s Sports Night and NBC’s The West Wing. But Sorkin never starred in those shows, while Waller-Bridge does indeed take on the central role in Fleabag. And here, too, she’s ridiculously accomplished. She plays a single woman with a complicated family life and an unstructured private life, and a particularly multilayered and believable relationship with her sister Claire, played with equal fire and depth by Sian Clifford. Season 2 of Fleabag zeroes in even more on relationships – between the sisters and their widower father, the father and his new girlfriend (the sisters’ godmother), and, this season, the family priest. Everybody’s a delight: Andrew Scott as the conflicted priest, Olivia Coleman as the abrasive godmother, and Bill Paterson as the father. (Paterson played the psychiatrist in the miniseries The Singing Detective, so he’s a personal treat to revisit here.)  And this season, the guest stars include Kristin Scott Thomas as a successful businesswoman and Fiona Shaw, one  of the supporting stars of Killing Eve (she plays spy boss Carolyn), as a therapist. If you’re new to Fleabag, binge on the six episodes of Season 1 before diving into Season 2. It’ll be TV time very, very well spent. Oh, and one last thing: Throughout Fleabag, Waller-Bridge, as an actor, does the best and most conspiratorial occasional side looks to the camera – breaking the fourth wall – in the history of television. Perfectly staged. Perfectly timed. Perfectly delivered.

 
 
 
 
 
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