Fleabag, flat whites and everything else on the Got To Like list
Leopardprint is for all people, all the time, and you’d better get used to it
You may feel there are things that you’re obliged to like or you’ll risk looking like a sad, out-of-touch person, and you would be right. These are all items on the Got To Like (GTL) list.
In the recent past, the GTL list was perfectly manageable and not that important. Broadchurch.
Blue Planet. Pomegranate molasses. Louis Theroux. They were all on it, but they came and went and you were free to take them or leave them, whether it was Nigella’s new cookery programme or David Beckham. Back in those soft list days, you might easily have said:
“Line of Duty, what was all that about?” Or “Phoebe Whatsit-bridge… remind me who she is again.” Or
“Hamilton – it was OK, I suppose.” Even a year ago, it was perfectly acceptable to go off-message and dump on the GTL list (with the exception of anything by Jez Butterworth).
Now it’s different. Now you have to like everything on it because it’s a test of your alertness and modernity, and if you don’t, you might get left behind. The trouble with this – as you’ll probably have worked out – is it creates unrealistic expectations, and in the worst-case scenarios, puts you off the thing in question altogether.
Avocado on toast, for example. Loved it once, now every time you eat it, you feel like a lemming. Same with wisteria. Used to be a thing you might have draped over the front of your house, now it’s the world’s favourite Instagram opportunity.
This is what’s on the GTL list for this week:
Fleabag. There have always been the “I can’t believe you’re not watching” TV series, now the mood is more “I can’t be friends with you if you don’t love this” – and the new series of Fleabag is a case in point. You have to love Fleabag unreservedly. It is the brave man or woman who hesitates in their appreciation of every aspect of the show, who flinches in the flinchmaking bits, or worries that it’s too dark. You’re not loving it the way you loved Peep Show. You could make a cup of tea during Peep Show. You are loving it with reverence and awe. That’s the law.
Leopard-print. You can’t get away with saying leopard-print is “not your sort of thing” any more. It’s everyone’s sort of thing, that’s the whole point. Lady Gaga. Theresa May. Leopard is for all people, all the time, and you’d better get used to it. Kind of ruins the impact of it, but that’s your GTLS for you.
Fiona Bruce. Don’t we love her on Question Time?
She is just as good as Dimblers. Might she even be better? Yes, she might. The unthinkable has been thought and now it’s prevailing opinion. She is better and we love her.
Flat whites. This is now the sophisticated coffee drinker’s coffee. You might want a frothy cappuccino, but that’s not the one to like. That’s the Angel Delight of coffees, and you’re supposed to have grown out of them.
Sally Rooney. The world is undecided as to whether the first of her novels or the second is better. Either way, you need to be aware that everyone under 40 loves Rooney, and you need to have Rooney-awareness in the same way that you need an Ottolenghi cookbook, even if you hardly ever open it.
The Favourite.
Undoubtedly some people will have gone to this film and thought Whaat? Others will not have gone at all. Anyway, both those camps are keeping very quiet because it’s high on the GTL list and it stars list regular and now Oscarwinner Olivia Colman, who we absolutely love.
We’ll keep you posted.