The Dark, Raunchy Comedy Series With 100% On Rotten Tomatoes, Stream Without Netflix

Fleabag is an easy show to stream. It has only two seasons, each with six episodes that run approximately 25 minutes each. You could kill this show on a Friday night. The series begins as a one-woman show by British comedienne Phoebe Waller-Bridge (to know her is to love her).

Originally, she had been challenged by a friend to come up with a 10 minute comedy sketch, and she invented Fleabag. 

Fleabag watches like a wild and raucous stream of insanity that moves fluidly from one moment to the next. We open up on Fleabag, the main character played by Waller-Bridge. We never learn her actual name.

She’s engaging in a romantic rendezvous with a late-night paramour, and she’s pausing to break the fourth wall and walk us through the entire encounter. It’s so very British in its stoic, practical explanation, and then she closes the scene with the most hysterical revelation. 

We find out in that first episode that her best friend Boo (Jenny Rainsford), with whom she opened a cafe, has died. Her sister, Claire (Sian Clifford), is dramatically different from Fleabag. The sisters’ mother is dead. Their father is dry and detached and in a relationship with their godmother (played beautifully by the typically dark comedienne Olivia Colman). 

Fleabag doesn’t ask much when you stream it, just that you suspend all expectations and disbelief. Our main character is a wild, free spirited woman trying to make it on her own in the world while also trying to find love. Still, she repeatedly returns to her boring ex-boyfriend, only to pick a fight and break up again. She’s not what you would describe as a “good person,” but she also could be me, or you, or her. 

I won’t ruin it for you. I’ll just say if you like raunchy comedy, give Fleabag at least the first five minutes, and you’ll want to stream the entire rest of the show right then and there.

This is what makes Fleabag so great to stream. She’s every woman, and there are so few shows today or at any time that give us a woman living, making mistakes, making bad choices, and then becoming disheartened by her own mess. Unlike the highlight reels or the shows that inspire us or encourage us, Fleabag reveals us to ourselves. 

GFR SCORE

We get so many male-centered shows like this, so many male characters that are inherently flawed yet lovable. Fleabag finally gives us a show to stream with a woman of the same magnitude. She’s fabulous and flawed and perfectly imperfect.

You want to cover your eyes as she bungles yet another relationship, says the wrong thing, or is dismissed by those who should love her. But you can’t. You have to be there for her, because in being there for Fleabag (on Amazon Prime Video), you can maybe gather the courage to be there for yourself too.