The Duchess attempts to recreate Fleabag’s appeal — telling the tale of an unlikeable 30-something-year-old woman trying to find her way in the world. While fans of Fleabag may enjoy The Duchess, but after a half hour it becomes clear that series star and creator Katherine Ryan (Episodes) is not the auteur Phoebe Waller-Bridge is. Even if you don’t like Fleabag, you can’t deny that Waller-Bridge captured some part of the zeitgeist with the Hot Priest (Andrew Scott, Sherlock) and the show’s attitude. The same can’t be said about The Duchess.
With The Duchess, it’s as if Netflix took a less intelligent Brianna Hanson (June Diane Raphael’s character from Grace and Frankie) gave her less money, a child, and a deadbeat ex. Considering Brianna is the least compelling character on Grace and Frankie and Katherine (Ryan) shares none of Brianna’s few redeeming qualities, The Duchess is essentially boring and one note. In the first three episodes, nothing meaningful happens and you’re left wondering how we got here.
Katherine Ryan’s creation follows Katherine, a body positive feminist sculptor. She is bratty, immature, completely terrible, and unsympathetic. When Katherine was a horny, delusional 20-something groupie, she hooked up with boyband member Shep (Rory Keenan, Peaky Blinders) and wound up pregnant with Olive (Katy Byrne). Roughly eight years later, she now hates that Shep remains in her life as he went from boyband member on top of his game to borderline homeless person who lives in a rundown vessel that can loosely be called a houseboat. Somehow, the two dysfunctional humans manage to raise Olive, who is the complete opposite and deserves to have better parents and be treated better at school.
Despite having two terrible people for parents, Olive is delightful and seemingly well-adjusted, but that’s mainly due to Katherine lying about her relationship with Olive’s father — saying that babies come from a fertility clinic where men give blood. These lies come back to bite Katherine when she forces Olive into a friendship with the mean girl at school, Mille (Beau Gadsdon). Millie takes advantage of Olive’s naivety to explain natural conception and that “blood” is her mum’s euphemism for semen. Outside of context, these seem like odd conversations for kids to have. However, Katherine and Olive want a baby to join their family and Olive is way too involved in the process.
The Duchess is deeply flawed, yet has potential. The show steadfastly stays in the present, but would benefit from flashbacks to explain why Katherine has an unhealthy, usually negative, attitude toward everyone in her life. Questions that are not answered at all or quickly enough include: What made Shep so desirable? How popular was his boy band? Why can’t Katherine accept her boyfriend Evan (Steen Raskopoulos, Top Coppers) as part of her family? Why does Evan like Katherine and insist on a bigger role in her life? And that’s only the beginning. We have no backstory, yet are left with unlikeable characters, who have an unrevealed history that is more interesting than the show as written. Additionally, chronicling Shep’s fall from grace would be a much more interesting show than another self-centered, angry 30-year-old who has no interest in growing as a person.
If angsty 30-year-old women are your thing, The Duchess isn’t the worst way to spend an afternoon. Everyone else should pass; your time is better spent rewatching Fleabag or Girls.
