It has been a few months now since the end of the Fleabag and I feel quite confident in saying that, like the rest of its audience, I am still not over it.

Fleabag perfectly encapsulates the ideal of the flawed, human female protagonist, and managed it without being condescending, without being sexist, without relying on cheap jokes. It was both poignantly sad and relatable, and sharply, painfully funny.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is an amazing writer and hilarious performer, and her character of Fleabag is far too relatable for a lot of young women. She brilliantly captures the essence of what it is to be near the start of your adult life, struggling to meet the expectations of those around you and of society at large, feeling the pressure to do things a certain way.

Fleabag is presented as a delightful, complicated contradiction of personality traits: kind and selfish, loud and awkward, at times unpleasant and cruel but always, deep down, a character we root for. This is, surely, the essence of what it means to be human; it is absolutely refreshing to see a character so fully fleshed out, so developed and nuanced and preposterously believable.

Her attitude towards her sexuality is very representative of the experiences of many young women; there is the pressure to own it, the genuine desire to seek it without shame, and the complications it can bring. This is a refreshing and welcome change from the usual representation of women who enjoy sex, who are often presented as morally ambiguous, or women who find sex difficult, who are often presented as frigid.

As I have written before, there is a real lack of female protagonists who manage to really capture the feeling of what it is actually like to be a young woman. Somewhat refreshingly, Fleabag makes you root for a character who is, at times, incredibly difficult to like- just like all humans.

Perhaps most important of all, Fleabag does not offer us a traditional happy ending. Her romance with the Priest is sweet, sexy as hell and, ultimately, doomed. Their romance ends, not because of any dramatic cheating or huge argument. The ending feels unresolved and tragic, and arguably, far more realistic. When relationships end, it is often for these more subtle, less tangible reasons.

Fleabag started in 2013 as a stage show, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge recently performed it once more for a limited run. There is no denying that she is an amazingly talented, funny woman, and an absolute inspiration.

If you haven’t seen Fleabag, you absolutely must get on it. If you have, perhaps it’s time for a rewatch.

Cole/@lordcoledemort