It's hard not to compare Hulu's This Way Up to Fleabag

Rolling Stone

"Is it doing Hulu’s new This Way Up a favor or a disservice to compare it to Fleabag?" asks Alan Sepinwall of the comedy created by and starring Aisling Bea. "The parallels are unavoidable. Both are British dramedies with a female creator/star. Both are about women with significant emotional problems, who tell inappropriate jokes as a defense mechanism when they’re feeling vulnerable (which is always), who make self-destructive choices when it comes to sex, and whose most important relationship is with their more successful and responsible older sister. There’s no Hot Priest here (though co-star Tobias Menzies could certainly play a Hot Priest if asked to), no guinea pigs, and no breaking of the fourth wall, but the superficial resemblance between the two shows is unavoidable. Even if I didn’t want to, it would be hard to write about This Way Up and its auteur, Aisling Bea, without invoking Fleabag and/or Phoebe Waller-Bridge at some point."

ALSO:

• This Way Up shows that British TV is doing an infinitely better job of scouting distinct voices and talent than American TV
• This Way Up is an amiable but aimless exploration of recovery
• This Way Up is a very low-incident series: There's no big mystery to unravel, like on Fleabag
• Creator/star Aisling Bea found inspiration in The Real Housewives, Love Island and Transparent: "I just realized what I loved watching was sometimes reality TV, with really deep relationships between women"
• Bea ended up working with Sharon Horgan after BBC's Dead Boss and Delilah, which HBO Max recently acquired