HBO series Barry takes another surreal turn in its final season, while Netflix’s Queenmaker impresses with its Succession-like drama
- Black comedy Barry, in its fourth and final series on HBO and HBO Go, sees the ex-US marine-turned-assassin, turned actor, seek divine approval for his actions
- Meanwhile, on Netflix Queenmaker – which has elements of Succession but with less profanity – guarantees a feast of deceit, misdirection and skulduggery
Following the misadventures of reluctant hitman Barry Berkman feels increasingly like a guilty pleasure: that of cavorting through someone else’s nightmare, but knowing you can leave – and leave behind everyone stuck in it – when it all becomes too weird.
Whether mere prison walls can contain him, however, is a moot point.
The existentially troubled, depressed Barry, reluctant upsetter of people, has been betrayed by his acting teacher and sometime friend Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler); organised-crime boss and former ally NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) is feeling less than charitable; Barry’s girlfriend Sally (Sarah Goldberg) has forsaken him; and the FBI would like a word.
And the psychological drama of Barry’s life takes another surreal turn with a radical reinvention that has him subscribing to Pastor Pat’s Podcast, as he seeks divine approval for his actions and criminal tendencies. Redemption? No, just more self-delusion.
Though not directly responsible for every corpse, Barry anchors a maelstrom that sucks in increasing numbers of victims as the series swirls towards a potential bad-dream conclusion. And if he is sucked down to the depths of Hades he can hardly complain.
Killer looks
It is often said that the world would not be in such a frightful mess if women were in charge.
Pitching corporate greed, corruption and obscene wealth against workers’ rights, social justice and disappearing local communities, Queenmaker is a powerful good-versus-evil morality tale.
The root of that evil is the Eunsung Group, a chaebol – or family-run conglomerate – with interests in land grabs and redevelopment, shopping malls, duty-free sales and the unscrupulous treatment of workers, especially its part-time female employees.
Eunsung is the epitome of the big, bad, real-life corporation that pulls today’s political strings.
The family is led by vindictive matriarch and Eunsung chairwoman Son Young-sim (Seo Yi-sook), who is prepared to threaten, blackmail and eliminate anyone jeopardising her empire.
Her long-standing protégée, fixer and all-round troubleshooter is Hwang Do-hee (Kim Hee-ae), who makes every problem – including embittered staff – disappear. But their relationship turns toxic when the truth of the family’s vile nature belatedly dawns on Do-hee in the first of the series’ shocking action sequences.
Its viscerally jarring scenes of confrontation help make Queenmaker a verifiable binge-watch. But the true main course is the battle for supremacy that begins when Do-hee abandons the corporate dark side to become mayoral campaign manager for her sworn enemy: coarse lawyer, people’s champion and “rhino for justice” Oh Kyung-sook (Moon So-ri).
Their initial clash – like those between Kyung-sook and seasoned politician Seo Min-jeong (Jin Kyung); and pampered, bitchy chaebol offspring Eun Chae-ryeong (Kim Sae-byuk), victim of “intermittent explosive disorder”, and her smirking sibling Eun Seo-jin (Yoon Ji-hye) – is a worthy supporting act for the protracted dirt-digging, back-stabbing headline event between the two female leads.
Theirs is a war that reduces even chairwoman Son’s arrogant, sleazy, womanising son-in-law Baek Jae-min (Ryu Soo-young) to a cartoon villain.
With its elements of bitter corporate-excess drama Succession, but with less profanity, Queenmaker guarantees a royal feast of deceit, misdirection and skulduggery.
