Fleabag season 3 : Phoebe Waller, the incredibly talented creator of Fleabag-
Amazon recently acquired Bridge, and the two companies have agreed to collaborate on new television content that will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
Why Isn’t ‘Fleabag’ Getting A Third Season?
Table of Contents
Will there be a new season of Fleabag in that new content?
Unfortunately, no. Season 2 ended with a bittersweet finale, indicating that Waller-Bridge is done with the character.
However, Waller-reasons Bridge’s for leaving the character behind are intriguing and sincere; she lacks a new angle for the fourth wall breaks.
Waller-Bridge, like Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, is charismatic enough to stare directly at the camera and communicate with the audience while maintaining the fiction’s reality.
She has all of Spacey’s charisma but none of the other baggage.
Fleabag had an enjoyably intrusive, almost perverse quality to it because the viewer could see the character’s happy-go-lucky facade deteriorate over time; her friends couldn’t see the sad face behind the smile, but we could.
“…at first, she invites you in with complete confidence that she can persuade you that she is perfectly fine, hilarious, and living a wonderful life.
But by the end, she’s gotten too close to the camera and wants to push you away.
After my confession at the end of the first season, I don’t look at the camera again. That connection is no longer there.”
Waller-Bridge had planned to leave the first season as is, with the special relationship between the character and the audience seemingly broken for all time.
That is, until a flash of inspiration struck her: what if she broke the fourth wall with someone else?
“First, the camera knows her secrets, so my relationship with it will be different; second, the idea of someone else seeing it and what that would mean for her will be different.
I was ecstatic when I got that idea, and I felt like I could start writing again.”
Season 2 was even tighter than Season 1 (and with episodes under 30 minutes, this is a show that doesn’t waste a scene – Netflix should take notice).
The idea of an intruder “breaking and entering” the fourth wall was intriguing, and it was a far cry from the way Claire Underwood’s camera-gazing was handled in House of Cards.
Andrew Scott’s “hot priest” began to notice her constant distraction, much to her discomfort, and it was a fresh, original take on the concept.
The only character who could see past her, see the person behind the party persona, was the hot priest, and this intrusion peaks during a surreal scene in which both characters stare at the camera at the same time, making the audience feel as uneasy as Waller-character. Bridge’s
But, after conceiving Fleabag as a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Festival, then developing the concept into two spectacular seasons of television, Waller-Bridge has made the un-American decision to end the show at the height of her popularity, saving the character from the slow death that The Simpsons and Friends have experienced.
Waller-Bridge said after winning a string of well-deserved Emmys:
“It’s like, ‘Oh dammit, maybe I shouldn’t have waved goodbye,’ even though it’s so nice to hear that so many people enjoyed it.’
[However], it does feel like the storey is finished… Going out on a high note feels right.
This is the pinnacle of achievement. It seems like the ideal way to bid farewell.”
Perhaps we should be grateful that the character isn’t returning; there aren’t many perfect shows out there, and Fleabag, with its superbly observed and cast characters, was never dull, with each episode proving to be immensely entertaining.
We may, however, get a third season in the future. But not in the near future.
“I think it’s over, but I have a fantasy of bringing her back when I’m 45 or 50 years old.
She underwent the most significant transformation over the past two seasons, beginning as someone who despised herself and ending as someone who believes she can love and forgive herself.
I’m going to have to respect that arc and let her live for a while.”
