Fleabag + Faith/Ep1

I’m 2 years late to the BBC series known as Fleabag but then again, I’ve always been the last one to the party. It had been creeping onto my recommended videos on social media and I thought I caught sight of a character dressed as a Catholic priest in the video stills. Intrigued, I set about watching the 2 seasons and was amused at the references to the faith. There was the issue of celibacy, the line between friendship and romance, the tendency towards self-destruction and a hunger for connection in any shape or form. I started to see a lot of myself and people I knew in the character of Fleabag and thought I would take a stab at some analysis vis a vis, my Catholic faith and the intersection between mainstream media and religion. Be prepared for a short few pieces on the things that stuck with me the most. I’m down for a conversation on the series anytime, just hit me up!

The first thing that stood out to me was Fleabag breaking the fourth wall frequently. She gazes directly at the viewer as if to let us in on a secret she shares with us and that causes her to dissociate from her in person interactions. Oftentimes, it doesn’t occur to the person she is talking to that she’s talking to us too. She transitions between these streams of consciousness smoothly, without a hint of hesitation between sentences. She seems to inhabit this passivity towards her life, more of an observer rather than an active participant and I think we can all relate to this temptation to dissociate from the din of everyday life. We find ourselves tuning out from conversations frequently, our responses trailing off and sometimes forgetting our train of thought. It happens to all of us, but this is the first time I’ve seen it emphasised on screen. How often are we also lost in our own thoughts and ideals that we start missing out on the here and now? Like Fleabag, we choose to remove ourselves from certain situations because they are tense, awkward and anxiety-inducing. This was ever more obvious when Fleabag is drowned out by her family at a family dinner. Everyone is talking over each other and no one has stopped to ask Fleabag a single question - it’s like she is invisible. Fleabag instead engages us, adding a comment here and there about the conversation and confiding in us. Then something unexpected happens, the Priest (I love the fact that no one has any real names in this series, that opens up a whole new thread of discussion) looks her in the eye and asks - What do you do? Fleabag is understandably shocked and struggles to utter a reply - this is the first time anyone has picked her out in a cacophonous crowd and engaged with her beyond the customary pleasantries. Wow, how often do we feel like Fleabag too - yearning for genuine connection, above the noise of pleasant and comfortable formalities. Sometimes that is all it takes to yank us back from our temptation to become passive - the knowledge that we are seen and that people want to get to know us, for who we are, rather than what we can do. More on this in the next short piece :)