Commentary: ‘Black Mirror’ And ‘Barry’ Share A Similar Theme
by Frank Martin
Social commentary has always been an important part of storytelling. In the modern age, when society is heavily conflicted, there are tons of different stories that explore the nuances of society in many different ways. A big facet stories have been tackling recently is the nature of the media and celebrity culture. Of course, there are many different ways to approach the subject. Because of this, stories can be wildly different from each other and yet touch upon similar themes. That’s exactly what happened with an episode of Black Mirror and the HBO show Barry.
Spoilers follow.
Some of this commentary came through in Barry’s earlier seasons as the title character (Bill Hader) tried to make his way through Hollywood. However, the main points of the series did not come across until the closing moments and finale. After Barry is dead, a movie is made about his life. His grown up son decides to watch the film, but the story portrayed isn’t accurate to events. Barry is an extremely conflicted character and a debate could be had on whether or not he is a hero, a villain, a good person, or a bad person. But the film his son watches portrays Barry as a victim and an undisputed anti-hero. So his son has a skewed view of his father.
Something similar happens in the Black Mirror episode “Joan is Awful.” In the episode, the main character (Annie Murphy) becomes the subject of an actual Netflix show. In fact, events of the day that just happened are depicted in the show hours later. She is even able to watch herself — portrayed in the show-within-a-show by Salma Hayek — watching the program. Although this storyline is completely different from Barry, there is a similar theme running through both of them. In both instances, there is an unfair amount of weight placed on media. The show in Black Mirror is similar to the film in Barry in that they do not actually show real people’s lives, and these depictions have consequences. It just goes to show that great storytelling can take a theme and wrap their message for it in completely different ways.
Barry is now streaming on max and Black Mirror is now streaming on Netflix.
