I'd been putting off "Fleabag" for a while, trying to let the weight of expectation die down a little, given how critically adored it is. However, the first season really lived up to its reputation as a clever, witty comedy.
Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is a hedonistic young woman whose fractured relationships with her family have been caused by her inability to cope with the deaths of both her mother, and more recently her best friend. The café they co-owned is struggling and her relationship seems to have come to a permanent end. She struggles to make valid connections with anyone except us, the audience.
What can I say other than the show lived up to its reputation. It's funny, clever and vulgar at the same time. Fleabag is a great character, wonderfully played by Waller-Bridge and the rest of the cast a similarly excellent too, particularly Bill Paterson as her father and Olivia Colman as her wicked god/stepmum. There's no bad episode, but I particularly liked episode four, when Fleabag and her sister went to a silent retreat. I kept finding myself mentally comparing it with "After Life" probably just because I watched that recently too. I'm not going to compare the two in terms of quality but I will say that I think "Fleabags" subtler treatment on grief is more effective than "After Lifes" more on the nose version.
The only slight flaw is that It presents it's reveal about the reasons for Fleabags guilt over Boo in the final episode like it's a revelation, when you'll put two and two together well before that. Beyond that though it's a funny and moving comedy and Waller -Bridge is a superstar.