Fleabag (BBC/Amazon Prime 2016-2019)
Over the course of the 2010s, mature viewers looking for complicated characters dealing with grounded problems couldn’t really visit the movie theater, which was frequently overwrought with superheroes and cinematic universes. But television quickly filled that void, taking stories that would have been blockbuster events in the ’90s and ’00s and turning them into water-cooler television.
Perhaps no show better accomplished this in the 2010s than Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s brilliant dark comedy about a woman trying to figure out her life and build meaningful relationships with those around her.
The second season in particular, which finds our foul-mouthed heroine falling in love with a lovable “Hot Priest” (Andrew Scott) accomplishes what so few romantic comedies have been able to do over the past 10 years: tell a story with characters that feel real, while finding the right balance between humor, heart, and genuine sexiness. This is just such accomplished storytelling, with an ending that will leave your teary-eyed but ready to experience the whole show over again.
-Matt Taylor
