Shows Like
Shows Like Fleabag: Comedy Over a Hole
By Jordan A. · · Updated · 5 min read
Fleabag is twelve episodes long. Two series of six, on BBC Three, 2016 and 2019, grown out of the one-woman show Phoebe Waller-Bridge took to Edinburgh in 2013. That's the whole thing. People finish it in a weekend and then spend a month failing to find anything that does the same job.
The reason the follow-up hunt is hard is that Fleabag is doing three separate tricks at once. It's very funny line by line, it's structurally clever with the camera address, and underneath both it is about grief and a woman who thinks she deserves to be punished. Most shows that get recommended after it only do the first. What follows is sorted by which of the three you're actually after, and each pick says what it gives up.
Start with the ones Waller-Bridge made
Crashing (Channel 4, 2016, six episodes) is her earlier series, written and led by her, about a group of twentysomethings living as property guardians in a disused London hospital. It has the same rhythm, the same willingness to make its lead badly behaved, and none of the grief. It's lighter and less controlled, which is exactly what you'd expect from a first series. Six episodes, so it costs you an evening.
Killing Eve (BBC America and AMC, 2018 to 2022, four seasons) is her adaptation work, with Waller-Bridge as lead writer on the first season only, and the difference between that season and what came after is the clearest evidence of what she brings. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer play an intelligence officer and an assassin circling each other. It's the same appetite for a woman who wants the wrong thing, moved into a thriller. The last two seasons are a real decline and most people say so.
If you're here for the comic honesty
Catastrophe (Channel 4, 2015 to 2019, four seasons, twenty four episodes) was written by and stars Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney as two people who get pregnant after a week together and decide to try anyway. It's the funniest show on this page and the most honest about what long-term couples actually say to each other. It shares Fleabag's refusal to sand down its leads. What it lacks is the formal trickery: no camera address, no structural surprise.
I'm Sorry (truTV, 2017 to 2019, two seasons) was created by and stars Andrea Savage as a comedy writer and mother whose mouth ruins things. It's the closest American equivalent to Fleabag's specific gift for saying the exact wrong thing in a room full of parents. Much sunnier and much lower stakes. Choose it when you want the comedy without the ache.
Better Things (FX, 2016 to 2022, five seasons, fifty two episodes) is Pamela Adlon writing, directing and starring as a working actress raising three daughters in Los Angeles. It's barely plotted on purpose and it captures family texture better than almost anything. It shares Fleabag's interest in a woman holding a household together while quietly falling apart, over five times the running time. Start at season two if season one feels shapeless.
If you're here for the formal nerve
Chewing Gum (E4, 2015 to 2017, two seasons, twelve episodes) is Michaela Coel's first series, adapted from her own play, and it also breaks the fourth wall constantly. Tracey is a religious twenty four year old on a Tower Hamlets estate trying to have sex for the first time, and Coel plays her with a physical commitment that is genuinely startling. It's broader and cruder than Fleabag and much more joyful.
I May Destroy You (BBC One and HBO, 2020, twelve episodes) is Coel again, writing about a writer piecing together a night she was assaulted. It is the best thing on this list and by a distance the hardest watch. It shares Fleabag's structure of a woman narrating her way around a thing she cannot look at directly, and it goes considerably further. Twelve episodes, complete, no second season coming. Handle with care.
Russian Doll (Netflix, 2019 to 2022, two seasons) has Natasha Lyonne dying repeatedly at her own birthday party and restarting in the same bathroom. Under the loop it's about a woman avoiding her mother's death, which is Fleabag's engine in a different chassis. The first season is close to perfect at eight episodes. The second is stranger and less liked.
If you're here for the grief underneath
This Way Up (Channel 4, 2019 to 2021, two seasons, twelve episodes) was written by and stars Aisling Bea as an Irish woman in London recovering after a breakdown, with Sharon Horgan as her sister. It is the single closest match on this page for the comedy-over-a-hole feeling, and the sister relationship does what Fleabag's does with Claire. Very funny, and it hurts.
Feel Good (Channel 4 and Netflix, 2020 to 2021, two seasons, twelve episodes) is Mae Martin playing a version of themselves, a comedian in London working through addiction and a new relationship, with Lisa Kudrow as the mother. It has the same short-form discipline, twelve episodes and an ending, and the same habit of putting a joke and a confession in the same sentence.
Somebody Somewhere (HBO, 2022 to 2024, three seasons) follows Bridget Everett as a woman back in her Kansas hometown after her sister's death, finding a group of misfits in a church choir. It's the gentlest thing here and the most quietly devastating about grief. No fourth wall, no cynicism, and it earns everything.
Ramy (Hulu, 2019 to 2022, three seasons, thirty episodes) is Ramy Youssef as a young Muslim American in New Jersey failing at being good, in the exact way Fleabag fails at being good. Same structure: a person who knows the right thing, does the other thing, then narrates around it. The second season, with Mahershala Ali, is the strongest.
How to choose tonight
If you want the closest thing, This Way Up. If you want to laugh, Catastrophe. If you want to be wrecked properly, I May Destroy You. If you want more of Waller-Bridge herself, Crashing. Where each of these streams changes; the title page on BingeNext shows current US options.
If you'd rather not audition eight pilots, our TV recommendation tool takes a few shows you already love and comes back with picks, a reason for each, and where they stream.
Topics covered: comedy, british, character-driven, witty, dramedy, prime-video
About the author
Jordan A., Founder, BingeNext
Jordan A. is the founder of BingeNext and is responsible for every guide published on this site. He built the recommendation engine after one too many nights lost to the streaming menu. Dates, season counts and where-to-watch details in these guides are checked against official sources before publishing, and corrections are welcome at Jordan@Bingenext.com.