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.
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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.
