I found my favorite type of story villain

THE LOG: The overlap of SECRET LIVES OF MORMON WIVES, FLEABAG, and Facebook is good intentions in bad people.

The first time I saw Olivia Colman on my screen, I wanted to punch her.

In the Fleabag pilot, Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge, obviously) shows up drunk at her father’s house. Fleabag is not doing so hot. In fact, she has never known the joy of lukewarm. Bad dates, dead best friends, a guinea pig-themed café. Her dad, sheepish with outbursts, hides behind his live-in girlfriend, Fleabag’s Godmother (Colman).

From Fleabag: The Scriptures, the collection of the series’ published scripts. Yes, I was that girl in 2019. And thank goodness I was or I wouldn’t have any inserts here!

On the page, the conversation is tepid and pretentious, but Colman rubs an alcoholic sting into the kindness. The sharp smile. The sneering laugh masking the irritation. This is a battle between two women who do not get along but dart small cruelties at each other over most people’s heads.

I watched this with immediate irritation—a difficult trick. How did this happen?

This month, I learned why this rubbed me wrong. Godmother, an artist obsessed with her vantage, loves her martyrdom. She has to tolerate Fleabag against her will. She resents Fleabag for this social contract. When she drops these crumbs of kindness to Fleabag, Godmother validates her anointed sainthood.

This is the essence. A villain who kills with the knife of their good intentions. And I found these narrative archetypes in Silicon Valley in the aughts and contemporary Salt Lake City.

From the Fruity Pebbles episode at the Galentine’s party in season one, but what do I know. (Source: TODAY)

Let’s start in Utah.