Why Helena Shaw From Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Looks So Familiar

In 2016, Phoebe Waller-Bridge created and wrote "Fleabag," which is based on her one-woman stage play of the same name. In "Fleabag," Waller-Bridge starred as the unnamed main character, a woman grieving her late best friend Boo (Jenny Rainsford), not being able to connect with her family, including her sister Claire (Sian Clifford), and struggling with self-loathing. Season 2 then sees Fleabag finding love when she falls for a priest (Andrew Scott). Notably, Fleabag breaks the fourth wall, giving commentary directly to the audience.

While Season 1 had its fans and critical acclaim, it was Season 2, which aired in 2019, of the series that skyrocketed Waller-Bridge to fame. The season was an absolute hit with critics, gaining a perfect Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes and leading to multiple Primetime Emmy wins for Waller-Bridge.

Waller-Bridge told Collider in 2019 that it took some time for her to come around to a good enough idea to pursue a second season of "Fleabag." After Season 1, she was working on "Killing Eve" (she worked as showrunner for the first season) and, during that time, she kept a notebook of ideas for another season of "Fleabag." Waller-Bridge continued, "I opened the notebook, and almost 70% of the ideas were about religion. I was like, 'This is strange.' ... And all of that energy collected together into this one character of The Priest, and Fleabag meeting a priest." Further, she knew that the priest would lead to seeing Fleabag open up in a different way than the audience had seen in the first season.

The writer-actress continued, "She couldn't hide from the audience ... because the audience now knows what her secret is. So, she had to open up in a different way, and that was challenging."