If I were to rank television priests from worst to best based off of job performance, it would be as follows:
Worst: Father Peter, Derry Girls
- obviously having a significant crisis of faith, temporarily leaves the priesthood for an affair with local hairdresser, and clearly cannot appropriately communicate with teenagers.
Mediocre: The Hot Priest, Fleabag
- look, I was rooting for him and Fleabag as much as anyone else- but! He clearly has some issues taking care of himself mentally and physically, and definitely is dealing with some job dissatisfaction. He is, however, very clearly passionate about the faith, which is certainly a step above Father Peter.
Best: Father Brah, Crazy Ex Girlfriend
- okay, so he may be-canonically- frequently stoned. But, by and large, he sets healthy boundaries and behaves professionally, even with those in his immediate peer group (e.g. Josh & Valencia) He helps Josh understand that sin is predicated on actions, not thoughts (which is esp important since it becomes clear later that Josh clearly deals with religious guilt/intrusive thinking), gives Paula and Scott not-half-bad marriage advice, and helps address the workplace conflict between Darryl and Bert. He’s rarely, if ever, dogmatic, and though he helps address the needs of everyone in the community, he never tries to convert anyone. The only strike against FB is that he agreed to marry Rebecca and Josh without doing any premarital counseling first. Seems like a serious lack of judgement, but we’ll let that one slide.
