Phoebe Waller-Bridge walked away tonight with an Emmy for writing as well as acting for her role as Fleabag on Fleabag. A show that many of us clung to in the early months of summer and cried over as we marathoned it, Fleabag has become something of a Twitter darling. We’ve all fallen in love with the Hot Priest (Andrew Scott) just as Fleabag has and we longed for the emotional connection that Fleabag has with the Priest (we’ll pretend our hearts weren’t riped out in the end).
But tonight we saw that it wasn’t just Twitter that loved Waller-Bridge’s one-woman show turned Amazon Prime series. From directing to writing and then on to Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her acting, the show was rewarded by winning in 4 of the 5 categories it was nominated for. (The show itself received 6 nominations in total.)
What is so special about Fleabag isn’t that it is a show about a woman trying to figure out her life (which it is) but rather that we all found something to understand within her. So often, these characters are forced to check off boxes but Fleabag is unapologetically unique in the kind of way that meant many of us found some way to find ourselves in her.
What I didn’t particularly like about the ceremony was a comment that Ben Stiller had in the beginning of the show when he said that Fleabag is about a sex addict. While the show is very sex-driven and Fleabag often is driven by her attitude towards it, it is never established that she is a sex addict. In fact, she doesn’t have sex any more than a male lead character would but, because she is a woman, it is apparently labeled that way?
Whatever the reasoning, I didn’t like that label. But I did like that the Emmys realized the brilliance that Phoebe Waller-Bridge brought to us with Fleabag and awarded it as such. Winning in 4 major categories? Amazing and she was nominated for her other show (Killing Eve) as well.
Is this the year of Phoebe Waller-Bridge? I hope so because, so far, everything she has given us is amazing and she’s also working on No Time to Die, the latest James Bond movie and the 25th film in the franchise. Oh and, I’m sorry, did I mention that Fleabag is also the Emmy winner for Outstanding Comedy? That’s right, long live Fleabag and may we always bask in the beauty that is Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her brilliance.
If you haven’t watched Fleabag, you should drown yourself in it for a weekend and then revisit it time and time again because it is something that will tear you in two and put you back together over and over again. (Spoiler, it leaves you in two pieces though so emotionally prepare for that.)
(image: Amazon Prime Video)
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