--- description: Creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays a heroine reformed in the masterpiece that is 'Fleabag' season 2, out May 17 on Amazon Prime. title: Review: 'Fleabag' Season 2 Is a Raunchy, Redemptive Masterpiece image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ae80308adfd8b2b/698949f1929fad23f8bf3356/fleabag-review-phoebe-waller-bridge.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Television](/tag/television/) ## Television Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _Fleabag_ Season 2 Is a Raunchy, Redemptive Masterpiece  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic May 16, 2019 1:01 PM CUT  In Fleabag’s second season, creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge comes to Jesus In Fleabag’s second season, creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge comes to JesusAmazon Studios  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic May 16, 2019 1:01 PM CUT The rules of Peak TV dictate that no successful miniseries remains a miniseries for long. In recent years, sensations like _Big Little Lies_ and _Top of the Lake_ have followed _Downton Abbey_’s road map from limited-series Emmy recognition to arguably unnecessary second seasons. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s 2016 breakthrough _Fleabag_—a ferocious British character study that stars the creator as a sex-crazed, guilt-ridden young café owner—didn’t seem to demand a sequel. But what could’ve been a cash-in from Waller-Bridge, the writer and producer behind BBC America’s sleeper hit _Killing Eve_, turns out to be a masterpiece. The protagonist known only as _Fleabag_ hit her nadir in Season 1\. Newly single, she mourned the loss of her best friend while self-medicating with sex. Her clumsy attempts to repair broken relationships with her disengaged father (Bill Paterson) and uptight sister (Sian Clifford’s Claire) only made things worse. The kicker was, they had an excellent reason to mistrust her. Coming to Amazon Prime on May 17, Season 2 opens with a bloody-nosed _Fleabag_ promising “a love story.” Set at a dinner where her dad announces his engagement to the smug girlfriend his daughters loathe (another perfect Olivia Colman performance), the masterly premiere finds our heroine reformed. She’s celibate. Her café is thriving. Yet it takes only one meal with her family—and the hot, foulmouthed priest (Andrew Scott) officiating the wedding—to threaten a year’s worth of progress. Catholicism becomes the unifying metaphor of 33-year-old _Fleabag_’s “Jesus year.” Angelic choruses dominate the soundtrack as she wrestles sinful impulses and attempts the good work of saving Claire from a bad marriage. Breaking the fourth wall is _Fleabag_’s signature; since only the priest notices these asides, could she be talking to God? Waller-Bridge isn’t proselytizing, exactly. The show’s humor remains raunchy, and the season’s secular patron saint is a tough older woman (the wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas) who credits her comfort in her own skin to the bodily liberation of menopause. The point isn’t that _Fleabag_ needs religion. True redemption, the show suggests, takes more than good behavior. It can only come from decades of reckoning with who we really are. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5590251/fleabag-season-2-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5590251/fleabag-season-2-review/"},"headline":"Fleabag Season 2 Is a Raunchy, Redemptive Masterpiece","datePublished":"2019-05-16T13:01:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:32:13.243Z","description":"Creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays a heroine reformed in the masterpiece that is 'Fleabag' season 2, out May 17 on Amazon Prime.","url":"https://time.com/5590251/fleabag-season-2-review/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ae80308adfd8b2b/698949f1929fad23f8bf3356/fleabag-review-phoebe-waller-bridge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ae80308adfd8b2b/698949f1929fad23f8bf3356/fleabag-review-phoebe-waller-bridge.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Fleabag Season 2 Review","caption":"Phoebe Waller-Bridg in Fleabag","creditText":"Amazon Studios","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5590251/fleabag-season-2-review/","name":"Fleabag Season 2 Is a Raunchy, Redemptive Masterpiece"}}]}] ```