2x01 Episode 1

[9.3/10] The thing that has really impressed me about Fleabag so far is the way it manages to be both an exaggerated reality type of show, giving us outsized dialogue and situations that are just ridiculous enough to tickle one’s funny bone, while also including some really well-observed and well-written truth about intra-family tensions and personal difficulties. That push-and-pull between real world struggles and heightened TV silliness gives it a distinctive flavor and makes it alternately hilarious and hard-to-watch, a good space to be in.

That’s definitely true for an episode like this one, that is basically one awkward, at times harrowing family dinner, explored over the length of the episode. There’s not much plot to this one until the last five minutes or so. Instead, it’s just well-written dialogue, great interpersonal relationship work, and a sense of letting all these well-formed characters bouncing off one another and that being enough to sustain the episode. I love the confidence in the work that shows.

(And hey, since at times Fleabag feels like a much grubbier version of Gilmore Girls in its tone, there’s some big “Friday Night’s Alright For Fighting” energy to this one, with touches of Rachel Getting Married to boot.)

I also love where this episode puts Fleabag after the events of last season. It builds her up and shows her having recovered a great deal from those events, while still leaving the rifts and wounds with her family in place. This episode is more or less about how that set of ill-feelings and unpleasantness doesn't go away just because you’ve improved your life.

But she has! She’s exercising! She’s not using sex as a coping mechanism for her pain! The cafe is doing well (“it really is” she says with an infectious smile)! She’s even moving past her tortured guilt over Boo. Despite the absence of her family in her life, she’s doing well!

So only the reintroduction of the family can bring her back down. The introduction of her wiping a bloody nose and declaring this a “love story” is a hell of an introduction, but it sets up a great night of awkward dinner conversation and subtle digs and jibes that build to a perfect crescendo.

Every character works superbly here. The godmother still delivers her restrained barbs toward Fleabag and seems a little too handsy and flirty with the handsome young dinner guest with them. Martin is still an ass who accuses Fleabag of making everything about herself and seems to almost gloat about having escaped discovery of his worst misdeeds by blaming her.

And then there’s the “famed Hot Priest.” Despite having heard his name bandied about in TV-lover circles, I didn’t really know what to expect from this character, but I really like him as an addition to the milieu. He has a quick wit, a self-deprecating edge, a loose demeanor, and he’s seemingly the only person at the table who actively considers Fleabag or treats him with any respect. The chill priest angle is intriguing, and the exchanges he has with Fleabag are the rough-edged sort of charming that make you want to see more of the two of them together.

At the same time, the scenes between Fleabag and the people she’s actually related to are just as good. Her scene in the back of the restaurant with her dad is as good as the one we got in last season’s finale. It[‘s interesting to see the continuation of the theme that, away from their significant others, Flebag’s dad and sister have an easier rapport with her, they’re more understanding of her, and hell, even want to see the best in her. There’s the sense that despite the dad’s still-funny verbal shyness bordering on incoherence, were it not for the godmother, these two might understand and even like one another.

It’s even better between Fleabag and Claire. The two have such a well-formed sisterly relationship. It’s the perfect mix of combative and loving. Despite the bad blood between them, it’s so heartening when Fleabag realizes that Claire is having a miscarriage, and basically wants to use her powers of acting out to get her sister to go to the hospital. It is a harrowing revelation, one that the show takes seriously as the major, psychologically devastating event that it is, while still finding the humor in it. Fleabag claiming that she herself had the miscarraige, and the two of them arguing about it in coded language at the table, is great. The fact that it ends with the pair of them in a cab together going to the hospital is the strangest kind of sweet I can think of, but damnit, it’s sweet.

It’s also great when things reach a fever pitch. The physical confrontation between Fleabag and Martin once Martin goes too far, leading to a series of broken noses and other bloody outcomes, once again nicely walks the line between comedy and drama. It’s cathartic when she cocks him after one more smartass remark, and the chain of chaos that goes on afterward is outstanding.

Beyond that, the little comedic touches are fantastic. The running gag of the “needy waitress” pays of big time. The Godmother cutting off the few times that Fleabag’s dad actually wants to speak is telling and funny. And I loooved when The Godmother blanched at Martin calling the engagement an “older wedding.” The Priest himself was full of amusing asides and wryly cutting lines.

Overall, this was one hell of a season premiere for the show, one that mixes the laughs and the uncomfortably real dysfunctional family dynamics in one astonishing package.