“Being proper and sweet and nice and pleasing is a fucking nightmare. It’s exhausting,” says Phoebe Waller-Bridge in a new interview with The Guardian. It’s just the kind of observation her character in “Fleabag” would make. The show’s creator and star explains, “As women, we get the message about how to be a good girl — how to be a good, pretty girl — from such an early age. Then, at the same time, we’re told that well-behaved girls won’t change the world or ever make a splash. So it’s sort of like, well, what the fuck am I supposed to be? I’m supposed to be a really polite revolutionary? It’s impossible,” she laughs.

Thankfully for everyone Waller-Bridge eschewed politeness and embraced frankness in writing “Fleabag.” The dark comedy’s titular protagonist doesn’t worry about being sweet, nice, or pleasing, and she’s riveting to watch all the same. As The Guardian points out, some critics have described Fleabag as “unlikable.” “I love her,” Waller-Bridge says. “I sort of saw that [reaction] coming because she makes mistakes and she’s sometimes dismissive and cruel. But for me, as long as she’s funny, you can get away with anything.”

Fleabag isn’t an especially virtuous person. But why should she have to be? She’s a great character. And would critics be paying so much attention to “likability” if the BAFTA-winning show centered on a male protagonist? Almost certainly not.

Check out more from Waller-Bridge, who is currently filming the untitled “Star Wars” Han Solo film and has a new series, “Killing Eve,” on the way, over at The Guardian. She explains why “while writing ‘Fleabag’ that there was no such thing as a slut, and [she] was just going to erase that from the equation.”