Summary: The acting class mourns Ryan's death. Barry is invited to a memorial and decides to act out a scene with sally. Fuches meets with Barry who tells him to get out of town. However, the Chechens break in and capture both of them. Barry is sent to kill an informant and Fuches is being kept hostage. Barry goes to the memorial instead and has a strong reaction to Ryan's dad mourning his son's death. Sally cheers him up so he ends up walking her home. Sally makes strong advances to have sex, but Barry obliviously denies them. A Chechen takes a picture of Sally. The police investigate Ryan's murder and discover a camera inside of the Chechens' car.
The Good: The comedy is what stood out most to me. While the first episode was more focused on the dramatic elements of the show, this episode doubled down on the dark humour. There were a number of great jokes here, all of which took full advantage of the dark tone of the series to create some of the best black comedy I have seen. I especially loved how the episode turned pretty dar and horrifying scenes into something lighthearted. Fuches getting his tooth filed is a very uncomfortable scene, yet there is a moment where Goran gets told to keep things quiet so he doesn't disturb his daughter's sleepover. It's a clever joke that made me laugh. The best joke of the episode is certainly when Barry is on the phone talking while Fuches is getting beaten by invading Chechens. The trope subversion of Fuches breaking a bottle to use as a weapon, only to get cut by the glass was hilarious. The continuation of the Chechen storyline was pretty well done. It made sense that the Chechens would attack Barry for what he did, and I like that the attack was both swift and aggressive. A mob wouldn't waste time, and I like that their attack on Barry and Fuches happened practically immediately. Barry was put on the spot when he was forced to choose between Fuches life and his decision to quit killing. It seems like Barry won't be able to simply drop his hitman career the way he wants to. The stuff between Barry and Sally was pretty solid. It's evident that they both like each other and their interactions have been fairly organic so far. Barry is socially uncomfortable and depressed, and in Sally he sees an escape from his miserable world. But I don't think he's looking for any kind of relationship. Sally on the other hand clearly just wants to have sex with him, and it's hard to gauge how much she actually values him with what little information we have of her so far. I'm interested to learn more. I'm also interested to see how she gets involved with the Chechens now that they are watching her. There was one standout moment in this episode. That's the part where Barry sees Ryan's father grieving for his son and starts feeling guilty and ashamed for what he did and what happened. It's clear that Barry hasn't ever been exposed to somebody who has grieved somebody they have lost, and the realization that Barry has been doing that to so many people is quite a shock for him. The Bad: The problem with black comedy is that it can completely destroy drama by making everything feel too lighthearted and jokey. The material in this episode could easily fit into a dark and serious drama, yet it doesn't really have an impact because there is a joke every 20-30 seconds that makes us laugh. This variation in tone is a problem that all black comedies suffer from, and it still persists here. In particular, I was taken out of the direness of Barry and Fuches' situation when the jokes kept getting thrown at us. I was enjoying myself laughing, but I wasn't feeling the high stakes of the moment as much as I should have. Some of the comedy felt way over the top. A lot of the scenes with the cops weren't very good, and I found the crying cop gag to be particularly unfunny and insulting to the audience. There were a few other jokes scattered throughout the episode that also didn't land for me. The Unknown: Is Barry on the camera? Will he be identified once the cops get it unlocked? Are the Chechens making an attempt to recover the camera? Has Barry really never dealt with grief and guilt until now? That seems strange for somebody who has killed so many people. Are the Chechens going after Sally next? What do they plan to do with her? What are their plans for Fuches? What do they want from Barry in the long run? Best Moment: Barry's reaction to Ryan's dad. Character of the Episode: Barry. Conclusion: Black comedies are really hard to judge. On one hand, this was really funny, so as a comedy it was very successful. But score this as a drama and it doesn't hold up nearly as well. In the end I'll settle with a middling score to show how this episode made me laugh more than most modern sitcoms, but it didn't quite live up to expectations on the drama front. Score: 64
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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