Are we in the middle of the craziest presidential campaign cycle EVER? Check.
Is nearly every news headline you accidentally come across depressing, terrifying, or making you want to cry? Check.
Have you run out of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Catastrophe episodes, and you’re having palpitations over getting through the rest of the summer without Rachel Bloom’s Rebecca Bunch or Sharon and Rob? Check.
Fear not, friends, for help is on the way … in the form of a new(ish) delightfully on-edge Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Broadchurch, Crashing) and her titular, London-based character, Fleabag. And just how do I know this? First, there was the series’ — adapted from Waller-Bridge’s own “unbelievably … gloriously rude,” award-winning one-woman play — descriptors: “a dry-witted, sexual, angry, grief-riddled woman” “confused about feminism, how to be a good feminist … and how much sex women should or should not be having.” These elements in mind, Waller-Bridge expanded a short stand-up routine into a play, which was then adapted for a BBC3 series, and has now been picked up by Amazon. Again, we ask ourselves, WHY must great things take so long to get across the pond (rhetorical question, obvs)? But, never mind all that; the proof’s in the blood pudding, as they say. So, without further ado, here’s our new best friend … along with our other best friend, the endlessly talented OLIVIA COLMAN.
I mean, come on! Who doesn’t want this girl in her house?
And can you please join me in THRILLING over the three immensely talented women — Bloom, Horgan and Waller-Bridge — who’ve created, written, and are starring as headliners in their own series? Despite other worldly goings-on, I am so thankful to have them carrying me through the rough stuff.
Fleabag also stars Bill Paterson and Hugh Skinner; find it streaming on Amazon beginning September 16th.