Barry Does What Breaking Bad NEVER Could...
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- čas přidán 7. 06. 2023
- Breaking Bad and Barry, two critically acclaimed TV shows, both feature anti-hero protagonists that captivate audiences. However, they tackle the "Anti-Hero Paradox" differently, leading to contrasting outcomes. In this video, we delve into the heart of this paradox, exploring how these shows navigate the delicate balance between critique and glorification.
Join us as we analyze pivotal scenes, such as Margot Robbie's captivating portrayal in The Wolf of Wall Street, to understand how narratives can inadvertently romanticize the flawed behavior of their anti-hero characters. We then compare the pilot episodes of Breaking Bad and Barry, exploring their similarities and divergent central questions of whether anyone can "break bad" and the possibility of redemption.
Throughout its five-season journey, Breaking Bad takes us on Walter White's transformation from a meek chemistry teacher to a ruthless criminal. Despite the character's ultimate downfall, the show still asks us to empathize with him until his last breath. On the other hand, Barry takes a different approach, confronting the dark truth of its protagonist's psychopathy head-on.
As we examine the compelling evolution of these shows, we witness Barry shifting its focus away from the anti-hero, actively holding him accountable for his actions and exploring the lives he has shattered. In Barry's final season, the narrative completely decenters the protagonist, leaving us with a thought-provoking conclusion that challenges traditional storytelling norms.
Discover how Barry's brave narrative choices differentiate it from Breaking Bad, ultimately subverting the Anti-Hero Paradox. Dive into this engaging video essay to explore the intricate dynamics of these shows and understand how one artfully navigates the line between critique and glorification.
Written & Edited ----------------- Dylan Gregory @TheWritersBlockOfficial
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#barry #barryseason4 #billhader #hbomax #breakingbad #bettercaulsaul
#antihero #barryfinale #barryending - Krátké a kreslené filmy
Which do you prefer: Barry or Breaking Bad???
It's dangerous out there, take this
🗡
Man hope thats an og zelda sword not a tears of the kingdom sword. Ill only get 3 hits before it breaks if its the second
Barry
Barry is way more rewatch able
tough choice
I liked how by the mid point of season 4 Barry became less of a character and more of a force of nature where everyone simultaneously ruined their lives at the mere fact he broke out of prison
Man, I need to do a video just talking about the importance of midpoints. One of the most overlooked aspects of storystructure
"it takes a psycho" is probably the best episode of the series imo
facts
@@TheWritersBlockOfficialYou need to watch Mr Inbetween tbh
Breaking Bad & Barry are kind of inversions of one another; one is about a man seeking a life of crime to escape his boring, unfulfilled life, and the other is about a man in the crime world wanting to get out and have a normal life.
Thats a great point!
Yes. If you can’t see Breaking Bad in Barry, then you obviously didn’t watch Barry. Not Breaking Bad.
This is how I framed The Sopranos. A protagonist who is seeking humanity while the other is discarding it. Barry definitely fit into that for me
@@g0nk_droid I agree, very powerful. The fact that the comedy in their criminal life gradually faded out as they went on seem very fitting to the message.
but it isnt because the last 2 seasons hes just straight evil they fucked up the entire show
I respect the ending of Barry more than I like it. If you look at Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, they both make the audience empathize with the protagonist who does abhorrent things. But they don’t condemn them. Walt and Jimmy had to have everything collapse around them in order to recognize how their actions were really just a way to get past their… past (or their regrets). They regain their lost humanity at the very end so that, while they can never be forgiven or redeemed, they can move on and accept some level of responsibility.
Barry doesn’t get that. He’s an awful murderer who cannot be forgiven or redeemed, but at the EXACT moment he recognizes how he needs to accept responsibility both for Cousineau and himself… he gets a bullet to the head. I respect the hell out of that choice, but it left me cold and felt more like a message than a genuinely satisfying conclusion to an excellent show.
Now that you describe Walt's ending, I feel like Fuches is more similar to Walt than Barry is.
@@marcusholder6508 It is. The shot of Barry and Fuches staring at each other is a throwback to Walt and Jesse seeing each other fort the final time. Fuches got the ending Walt got.
i feel like you are forgetting barry as a character?? We see him weasel his way out of his consequences every single time. All of a sudden he says he’s ready to go to jail and you believe him this time? The truth is he was never truly going to accept responsibility for his actions. and i think that’s what the creator was getting at. Guys like barry and walter are evil ass people, this time wouldn’t have been any different. the only way for him to really reach some sort of conclusion where he gets a just punishment is a bullet in the head
@@broidk8291 Much like Walt, he's an irredeemable character, but Walt (and Jimmy in BCS) was able to correct a few mistakes on his way out and admit that he did it all for selfish reasons. No one is just evil, so it was disappointing to me that he was just discarded without the opportunity to truly recognize his own awfulness.
That's part of my problem with it, too: Barry doesn't have to sit with his guilt for longer than... 5 seconds? It's not justice, it's just an ironic joke to end the lead character. That's not what I want to see from such a well executed series.
I really liked Barry's ending, but I disagree with the idea that Walt and Jimmy escaped punishment. Walt's life and family were completely destroyed. Jimmy lost everything he cared about, including his job, his wife, and his joy. Forgiving or redeeming them misses the point. Walter had a chance to go out on his own terms, acknowledging his flaws and tying loose ends. Jimmy held himself accountable too. But these endings were necessary for their stories. Both are an exploration of the lengths we are able to get to unjustifiably sympathize with the enactors of horrible actions. Better Call Saul is a study of a character fulfilling his own prophecy. Both shows are tragedies about people struggling with their identities and causing unnecessary suffering while trying to prove themselves to the world and others. The characters needed to face the irony and tragedy of sacrificing their lives and loved ones in order to accomplish so and to reach the understanding that things could have been different.
I like the fact that Barry’s last thought was to turn himself in. He could have gotten away with everything, start over like he always tries to do but for a fleeting moment he realizes the right thing to do. In a way, he was redeemed. He stopped living for himself and decided to prioritize his morals and his family. He could have killed Fuches but decided to choose his family over settling the score. It’s much more subtle and grounded than an out right redemption but it’s still present. I like that the final scene is a fictionalized version of the events in the show, giving the audience a confusing mix of emotions and conflicting feelings. Should you feel angered that Barry wrongfully idolized, or glad that his son get to have a good view of his father post mortem. The show never really tells you how to feel, instead just showing the audience who these people are. We aren’t told to sympathize or hate Barry by the end, it’s all grey, just like real life.
tbh my interpretation is that Barry had already prioritized evil over his morals and family, and that's the reason he died. He was only at Gene's place because he wanted to kill him, and he only wanted to turn himself in because his family gave up on him, and so he had no options left in terms of redeeming himself.
@@Anunnamedtankhe was at Gene’s to find Sally and John
The final joke. That ending with him being idolized had me dуing of laughter, peak comedy, imo.
It's so interesting that Barry is remembered as a hero to the world but to us he's the villain, and in a way Walter White is the opposite- the whole world knows he's a villain but the narrative still kind of redeems him at the end.
Thats such an accurate and succinct way of putting it!!! They really are inverses of each other
kNoWs He'S a ViLlAiN
More accurately he's a hero who the highly propagandized to BELIEVE to be a villain.
@@AholeAtheist the guy who made and sold meth along with getting tons of people killed (some by his own hands) is just "propagandized" as a villain?
@@dyinggiraffe2922 Yes, you're very dumb. Hank is the real villain. And quite obviously so. Please go back to school.
The brilliance of Barry is that for 4 seasons you thought you were watching the protagonist desperately seeking to change, and failing. Only to discover that the antagonist Fuches, who did nothing but resist change, is changed. And then the coda of hollywood managing to misinterpret the entire narrative and present the villain as a hero, and the victims as villains. Everyone is undone by their own ego, and the Only person served by the lie is Barry’s son, who gets to grow up with a fiction that, perhaps, will make him a better person. The thing about real life is that no one gets closure. No one gets all their loose ends tied up. Everyone dies with things left undone, apologies unsaid, redemption unachieved, plans aft gang agley. No one gets to see the end of their own narrative. Any eulogies you don’t get to hear. Life only makes sense to us in retrospect thru the narratives we invent to try and make the story seem whole, purposeful, and worth it. And Barry ending with the make believe hollywood narrative embraced by Barry’s victims to make sense of the senseless is possibly the deepest meta commentary on the entirety of human storytelling.
Thats a brilliant way of putting it! Bill Hader has such a multi faceted understanding to storytelling. He knows the character from every standpoint - writing directing acting producing. I think the only instance of such a deep understanding in recent memory is Michael b Jordan taking over creed 3
BoJack Horseman does this well too. Granted it still portrays BoJack as usually an empathetic character (granted redemption is an important part of the show and BoJack is nowhere near as bad as Barry), but none of his actions are glamorized, he’s treated as a piece of shut who needs to improve himself and not a badass. When he does something wrong the show holds him accountable.
That show is particularly good in that regard!
Duuuude!!! You are so right about this
I mean, Bojack doesn’t do any of the shit Barry does, which makes him a lot easier to forgive. This said, BJH is one of my favorite shows for this reason as well. It’s SO good.
@@mrpickles3agreed
I love how with bojack you always see things from his perspective and it makes you empathize with him but then right at the end it pulls you back and forces you to acknowledge that he’s kind of awful and that he needs to be held accountable. You understand Bojacks perspective so you don’t realize how awful he is until you get the reality check
I like how Barry's glamorized film at the end of the show perfectly encapsulates how big a problem it is to have "based on a true story" on a film that never has a goal of reality but the simulation of it, which reminds me of the film Fargo because it has a similar point and I find more dna of the Coen brothers in the show personally with how it blends dark humor and intense drama. Also the ending of "No Country for Old Men" reminds me alot of when Barry died, by the way Stephen Root was in No Country, he was the guy who hired Woody Harrelson's character
Hader constantly cites the Coens as inspiration, the constant reappearances are Taxi Driver, Coens, and Unforgiven.
Wolf of Wall Street’s “glorification” is 100% intentional I think. You DO empathize with Jordan. You enjoy the spoils of his crimes with him. After all, what guy wouldn’t enjoy being rich, banging Margot Robbie, and partying with his friends all the time? This just makes the consequences of his actions shown in the final act of the movie hit that much harder. You were along for the ride with Jordan when it was all fun and games, willing to set aside any guilt in exchange for the ride. Now the ride has turned into a fiery wreck and both we the audience and Jordan are reaping the consequences of all that fun.
I'm aware its intentional. But that's the paradox. It ultimately undercuts the critique, but it's aesthetically necessary to the film as a piece of art. Wolf of Wallstreet is Amazing. I'm just saying that this paradox is an issue all Anti-Hero narratives have to contend with.
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I did not mean to insult your intelligence. I should have phrased it better. Of course the glorification itself is intentional. What I am saying is that I think the empathetic nature of stories like WoWS and BB is not so much a paradox but rather it is very necessary. I think even Barry does this. Even though Barry is evil, and he is the villain (or at least A villain), I can still empathize with him. Who hasn't done something they're ashamed of and, rather than take responsibility for it right off the bat, digs a deeper hole for themselves? Every person has done that. Barry is obviously an extreme example, since he is a murderer, but we have all done selfish things in the interest of preserving our own happiness/self-image. I do certainly agree with your statement that Barry does a better job of not glorifying the "action" or Barry himself. I just believe that the glorification in a movie like WoWS does not so much as undercut the critique, but is a completely necessary part of the critique. The first two thirds of that movie are a massive party, and the last third is the devastating hangover. For Barry, rather than John Wick or Bourne-esque action, the comedic moments form that cushion of denial and empathy. The characters of Barry are very human. They're quirky and awkward and make silly mistakes (not just the big kind). I think we mostly agree, just maybe not completely.
You just described the perverted Michael Cohen perfectly.
The Goodfellas paradox
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I personally don't think it undercuts it because of the first scene and the ending, the first one introduces us that Jordan is so powerful the filmmaking is at his mercy, even changing the color of the car; and then the final scene tries to be very blunt and works well to communicate what Jordan was trying to sell the audience!!
Mmm idk about this one. What Walt was doing wasn’t to redeem himself, he never expressed remorse. He was just honest about who he was. He told skylar he did what he did for himself, but he never said to her he regretted it. He blamed the nazis for hanks death, not himself so he evaded accepting responsibility. He was a hero when he turned himself in to the DEA, but Gretchen and elliots interview snapped him back into his hatred. The finale is not about him being a hero, but reverting to his villainy with no remorse. He simply wants to conclude his story as the antagonist he’s accepted himself to be. He dies looking back on his glory days as a meth cook in satisfaction, not regret. He has not changed his ways, he regrets nothing, he simply concluded his story the only way he knew how: using his genius to “provide” for his family and tie up all loose ends remaining. If you look at how his family is left emotionally too, it’s not very good. Holly will grow up without a father, and probably know he was a terrible person, Skylar will have to hide from the public forever and be known that her husband was a huge drug kingpin, and Walt Jr never gave his father any forgiveness and will probably leave a huge hole in his heart knowing his dad was a monster. He did not redeem himself or change his ways, he fully accepted who he was. He didn’t try and set things right he just indulged his criminal fantasy. It was about him accepting that he had broken bad all those years ago, and he stops pretending he’s something he’s not. He didn’t redeem himself, he damned himself and took great pleasure in doing it.
Exactly. He even says it at the end. I did it for me. 💪
Even saving Jesse at the end was selfish. Walt was still trying to manipulate Jesse in his last moments
Felina still glorifies his toxic masculinity by making him look like a badass and not accurately as a pathetic manchild which is what Walter is. So it's still a badly written finale that contradicts the theme of the show
@@nardopol0 they still make him look masculine.
@@diamond7099 Breaking Bad had a badly written finale... okay buddy
I've never heard of this show until now. I gotta watch it now.
Please do! It's super engaging. Especially good as a binge watch since the changes in tone feel more natural all together. Whereas week to week it can feel like a season's tone gets old
Right? What even is Breaking Bad?
Oh man do I envy you for getting to experience Barry for the first time!
It's is one of the best shows ever done, Bill Harder is a genius. He wrote, directed acted, is amazing
Yes you should it’s soooooo good!
just binge watched all of barry in two days. honestly think i prefer it to breaking bad. hank's tragic ending was the hardest ive ever cried to a tv show. absolutely beautifully written, it feels modern but not in a pandering to young people way but in a really legitimate way. the emotion it evoked in me is absolutely incomparable.
Hank holding the statues hand is perfect
Noho Hank, or Hank Schrader? /s
@@alexgrissom3513 Noho Hank Hahaha :="))!!
nope. Breaking bad is miles better
To me, the ending of Barry and Better Call Saul are two sides of the same coin. The ending of Barry tells the audience that people can't change. Barry is a murdering psychopath, Sally is self centered, Gene is too prideful, etc... While the ending of Better Call Saul says that people can change, it just requires enormous sacrifice.
Except Fuches changed significantly, and Barry didn't need to get revenge on him since he forgave him. Barry had also made the decision to turn himself in right before he was killed. This video has seriously cherrypicked the story to make it's point, and does a terrible job making it unless the person watching has never seen the show.
Barry is so good! The finale had me stunned for a couple minutes, just thinking...
I watched it at like 1am a little bit sleep deprived and I was shook
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial lol, same. I almost woke my wife up cuz I needed to talk about it.
My girlfriend hasn't seen the show and I can't tell if I need her to watch it too or need to protect her from the intense feels. Such is the conundrum of art
I been on the Barry train since season 1, nice to see it getting the love it deserves!
Same. I came on right as the first season ended and each wait between seasons has been TORTUROUS
It’s so bad lmao
Great video! Honestly I might place both shows on the same level, I enjoyed them so much. Breaking Bad has so many iconic moments. And that final Barry episode has been stuck in my mind since it aired. You hit the nail on the head describing the shifts between comedy and drama as well as shifting attention to the ensemble rather than just Barry. I think those choices set up the scenarios of each character in the finale perfectly, creating a very clear picture as to what we the audience WANT to happen versus what NEEDS to (and eventually did) happen. I think it’s interesting that each character did end up at peace in some broken misshapen way e.g. Gene’s revenge further glorifying Barry, Sally able to become a teacher but still needing validation from everyone including her son etc. Fuches was the only one to find any real peace imo and that’s because he was the only one who really changed.
Oh my gosh you're so right about fuches. Interestingly, the show seems to care less about whether you're a criminal or not and more about whether you're honest with yourself. And in that respect it makes sense that he seems to come out the least punished in the final episode
Yeah, I agree but a lot of people disliked the ending to Barry.
I liked the ending cos it showed how the media twists things to suit the narrative. It only takes a moment..
Barry already suffered, he was he jail and lived in isolation for 8 years.
It's only recently we are being told of the sadistic sides of Abraham Lincoln, Gandhi, Winston Churchill who have been portrayed in history as heroes.
It was a good ending for Barry and the consequences it leads to. His son knows the truth but the portrayal makes his father look like a hero and that's damaging in the long wrong cos he's a kid who is yet to understand
long run*
He didn't suffer. I might have to watch that again but. All of his fantasies were that. The boring life. And a son. He got it. Caveat: drunk unhappy Sally. Other than that. He got it. Almost got it
I think Fuches got the ending Walt got and probably it was intentional.
He kinda redeemed himself, learned to give up wanting to control Barry, saved his kid like Walt saved Jesse (jumping over him amidst the gunfire) and then had a final goodbye stand off with Barry the same way Walt had with Jesse. But unlike Walt, and like Jesse, Fuches got to run off into the sunset.
Hader has been very open about the influence of Breaking Bad in his writing style and this whole sequence with Fuches felt like an intentional homage to Breaking Bad.
Actually I think noho hank got a walt ending. Fuches winds up much more like a Jesse oddly enough
Walt didn’t get redemption. He got killed by his own bullet, which wasn’t intended. He was going to die either way.
@@Junonino Felina still glorifies his toxic masculinity by making him look like a badass and not accurately as a pathetic manchild which is what Walter is. So it's still a badly written finale that contradicts the theme of the show
Very well put. As a huge fan of Breaking Bad, what consistently annoys me are the thousand of fans who worship Walter White as some badass hero and hate characters like Skyler who are actually deserving of our sympathy and understanding.
And this is down to the anti hero paradox you explained so well.
Bill Hader has spoken about the influence of Breaking Bad on Barry and so it's natural that he would want to do something that would be the next step in telling the story of the anti hero character.
Yeah. Its even worse with American psycho and fight club. TV offers more time to show the flaws in a less glamorous way. Film really struggles to critique its protagonists. If you structure the stories as a tragedy it can work better, but its hard to make a tragic anti hero. Tragic heros are much easier cause it's usually one central flaw as opposed to lost of them. You need time to unfold all the layers of flawed characters like Walt or Barry
I absolutely hate the way the fanbase treats Skyler. Walt murders dozens but Skyler gets all the flack because she cheats on him. It blows my mind
Walter did bad things, but was reasoned, was wronged by it others many times, did good things, had somewhat good intentions (understandable, act for future of family, act out of threat to his and his family lives), and managed to do some major good things in the end. And just deserves some attention just for such badass tricks he managed to pull off, he bested many opponents, clever way. That's what people like even in villians. And odds were against him. So just rule of cool.
And Skyler does not deserve much of sympathy. Yeah, she didn't started, she was unwillingly involved at the start. But 1. she went deeper, her own decision. 2. she makes things ridiculously harder for them in multiple ocasions.
@@skywillfindyou Walter wasn't wronged by anybody enough to push him to a life of crime. Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz did nothing wrong to him (he quit on his own) and he himself chose to live a life of mediocrity sulking over the fact that his friends got rich without him.
What exactly does Walt deserve sympathy for? For poisoning kids? For attempting to r*pe his wife? For emotionally abusing her all through the final season? Nothing. He made his own bed and he has to sleep in it.
You clearly haven't watched the show properly or you just want to hate Skyler so you'll ignore things you don't like.
Skyker didn't "go deep" by choice. She was literally forced to do it because they were paying for Hank' treatment (who was shot because of Walt by the way), and even then she had no idea people were being killed and hurt. Once she knew, she pulled back completely and Walt abused her for it.
"Skyler made things difficult". Oh how dare suburban 40 yr old mom not sit down and simply accept that her husband is now suddenly a criminal?
Your entire comment is a microcosm of the average Breaking Bad fan who worships a despicable man just because he killed equally despicable men in "badass" ways.
I had this exact conversation with Barry fans who blame Sally for everything 🙄 like she has a lot of issues, but Barry is a fucking serial killer, come on. There are videos in this platform about how Sally is terrible and Barry a victim. I loved Barry's ending because it didn't give Barry the opportunity to redeem himself, and it made it so obvious that he was terrible... and Sally admitted what she was and was rewarded of that. She even felt guilty for killing a guy in her own defense, she's not even comparable with Barry.
I totally agree with the point you made about the show becoming less fun to watch. It doesn't mean it's not enthrallling, and still totally gripping, but as the facade of Barry's ability to become a good person slips, we also lose the ability to root for him. It changes the show from this hopeful redemptive story, to one about the inevitable downfall of a dangerous man.
I knew a show about an assassin would be messy, but it got to such a degree of chaos and discord, that the happiest ending you could hope for was that Barry would end up in jail.
It was incredible to see such realism in the writing. Nothing in life is ever as neat and tidy as a film or TV show portrays. It's always just as tangled and broken as Barry shows it to be... Albeit with less murder for the majority of us.
Exactly! I don't necessarily want most shows to use this level of realism, but it was absolutely enthralling for Barry. And really made it a unique experience overall
Something that really undercuts Walt's redemption to me is that his cancer comes back. I love Breaking Bad, but that always bothered me, and makes it feel like he is forced to redeem himself in his final months alive rather than choosing to give his life for the sake of everyone.
Ooh thats a great point
Guys he doesn't redeem himself for the 50th time. Felina wasn't about redeeming himself. Walt was a POS narcissist from the start to end, and he got the ending he wanted in his own narcissistically fascinating way. Jimmy's ending in BCS is a redemption. Walt isn't.
@@whatno3145I see it as “Walt’s redemption” wasn’t about him but the others he put in so much harm. He saved Jesse, he found a way to give the money to his son. Yet Saul’s redemption was really only his, as it benefits no one else besides maybe ghost Chuck and the DEA who now know Walt didn’t do the slightest bit on his own besides cook, and blow stuff up. That exchange in the courthouse was really satisfying to watch. Like a major blow to Walt’s ego, and might take off a lot of steam from Walt which is better for his family in the long run.
@@tommysalami586 The thing about Walt finding a way to get his money back to his family is that Gretchen and Elliot offered to give him a job that would pay him well and cover all his medical expenses in the first episode! Yes, I suppose it's a smaller dollar amount that what he ends up getting to them in the end, but it's hard to argue that his family wouldn't have been better off in a world where Hank is still alive, Skyler is able to live a normal life, etc. Ultimately the only thing he really saved was his own pride, at the cost of ruining the lives of everyone he claimed to be looking out for.
@@jeffb1430 Ultimately,
I disagree, I dont think anyone who properlly watched breaking bad, thought Walt was a good person at the End. In the same way we all agree Barry was a terrible person, we still like the character
Sure, but the problem is that so many people fail to "properly watch" the show, and that's a direct result of the fact that the character occupies the position of the protagonist.
Just look up "Walter White did nothing wrong," it's a very popular stance.
Exactly! Thats the whole reason I made this essay. Well said
@ColeMD17 that's the fault of the audience for their lack of media literacy, some shows require more tought than others.
@@ColeMD17It’s only a popular stance ironically
I'd argue that it's still not entirely fair to hold against Walt. Part of what Vince wanted to do with BB was see how far the protagonist can go and still keep the audience supporting him.
I don't really see how you could interpret breaking bad as glorification when it goes out of its way to make Walter look pathetic, and he really is. The first time he gets scared in the show he attempts to rape his wife. When his wife expresses genuine concern for his safety, he goes on a rant about how he is "the danger" despite knowing that no, no he's not and he's very much in danger.
The only reason people think it's a glorification is because of the ending and cause muh badass which is usually undercut by the tragedy underneath it all. The ending itself can't even be seen as glorification when you take into account that people who think it's a redemption for Walter (spoilers: it's not) will still admit that it's more or less just the bare minimum of what he should be doing. There's nothing glorified here. We don't wish we could be like Walter because there's no glory to it. Walter only makes everyone's life worse when he does this. Hell, he makes his own life worse by doing this.
This isn't at all like The Wolf of Wall Street because that movie was specifically about critiquing us instead of just the rich because Jordan Belfort didn't start off as a criminal. He was just like you and me. It critiques normal people who glamorize the lifestyle. That's why it makes it seem to appealing. It's making fun of us for even thinking of having that lifestyle. You have to take into consideration why a story critiques something and whether or not it's even doing that to begin with.
Besides, it's not really critiquing Walter's descent into the drug trade, but the war on drugs itself and how that impacts those around it. Had drugs been viewed differently, then Breaking Bad would have never gone down the way it had. So again, you can't really see it as glorification. Second, Breaking Bad takes more of a Nietzschean approach to things. Applying conventional Christian morality to a situation like this is a flawed way of thinking
This is exactly what is was waiting for
Something I noticed too is that the theme song of Barry is all about change, and the last season was the only season that didn’t have the theme meaning he failed to change. Or something like that
I'll put this out there: The difference between Breaking Bad and Barry was honesty. In Barry, characters that admitted their faults lived. Those that couldn't suffered. In Barrys particular, his final accepting of his guilt, gives him a heroes legend that her can not enjoy. Crystal never admitting the truth about anything, led him to prison.
Walter Whites story was about power and control. In losing his agency to cancer, he struggled to get the upper hand on everyone by any way. Ultimately his death wasn't redemption, but a way to control how he died.
Barry is not an anti-hero. He is a super villain with super powers trying to be good, trying to be normal, but failed. He's basically Kylo Ren doing Undercover Boss.
damn, i never really realized how cinematic black bars make a shoot look
Right? I use them in my video essay so everything is the same aspect ratio and so there's a reference for absolute black
Breaking Bad: you can't enter this business and stay clean. Barry: you can't wash your hands clean and leave this business behind.
I admire that Barry was bold enough to confuse the audience. I remember watching season 3 and I was confused by the lack of laugh out loud scenes.
Barry does get redemption, just only in the eyes of God. Remember his prayer in the car in the finale? All he prayed for came true.
only when he redeems himself can he be with God. Aka he got shot, after finally deciding to turn himself in
@BIFLI I disagree. His redemption came in Oklahoma. :)
Interesting, I always thought the opposite of Breaking Bad: that it was daring you to root for Walter and see how long you could hold onto that feeling in the face of his increasingly monstrous acts. Almost in a similar way to how Michael Haneke's Funny Games confronts the audience with its own complicity in the depiction on on-screen violence, Breaking Bad asks how long the framework of the charismatic underdog story allows us to go with Walter on his journey.
this video is super good. earned my sub!
Thanks!
I think Barry is one of the best shows of all time
Agreed
Mr Robot :3
Easily the best analysis the of the finale and the show as an entire 4-season picture. What I like most about the video is that it acknowledges that the angle the show takes towards its back half might not even be a good or effective way of telling a story. I’ve had trouble reconciling the strange heel turn the show made in its 2nd half, as I don’t find it nearly as interesting as the concept that the show opens with. But this at least cogently explains what it was going for, and the fact that someone who so perfectly understands the show’s angle doesn’t even know if it’s a good or bad angle is sort of vindicating. Either way, a very unique series of TV
Easily the best analysis of my analysis :) Seriously though, this sort of FEEDBACK is SOOOO helpful thank you! I make these videos as the start of a conversation, not an end all be all. So hearing people respond to them, and especially putting into words what they like about the videos is so meaningful as well as helpful in a practical sense! Really put a smile on my face!
I don’t think I would ever call Walter an anti-hero. What he does throughout the show is never heroic. I would call him an anti-villain. He does so much bad throughout the show but lacks the main qualities as a villain.
the term "Anti-Hero" is more about role in the story (i.e. the protagonist). I get what you're saying though
Barry makes me feel a lot more conflicted.
Right???
To me, it will always be the episode where he fakes his own friend's suicide that cements that Barry deserves no redemption. It was the equivalent of Todd killing the kid and Walt just shrugging it off, but way earlier.
I don’t think the presentation of walts shitty actions juxtaposed against the “badass heisenberg” veneer is paradoxical to the idea of an anti hero. I think that that juxtaposition is exactly what causes people to still to this day argue over whether or not Walt was a good guy, which is really powerful. By season 4 of Barry it’s incredibly obvious he’s not a good guy and it’s almost frustrating watching how ridiculous he is. Nobody can really disagree on that, so there’s not as much wiggle room for different perspectives from viewers as there is with Walt.
So yeah, Barry makes damn sure to spell out how shitty of a person Barry is, but just because breaking bad muddies the waters a bit more I don’t think makes it paradoxical.
Barry really does what Breaking Bad never could and that is disappoint with the ending
1 - I agree mostly, but there is one exception: the movie about Barry's story in the finale, shows him as the hero, which damages the moral of the story, "crime doesn't pay."
2 - Btw, have you ever watched the ending for The Shield? For me, it was the best ending for a anti hero protagonist show.
3 - I know this is going to sound weird, but have you ever watched "Arrow"? It's a CW superhero show, but the main character suffers from a "similar" PTSD that Barry does, and although he is a noble man, he also commits murders and torture people, and is very interesting how they play the "anti hero" trope in a superhero show. Unfortunately, Arrow is not very succesfull in condenm all the main character actions, they glorify a lot of what he does. The show also has it's highs and lows, Season 4 is terrible, but man, i would love for a video about the show, although i understand why you may prefer not to do so.
Sorry for my english.
What, the finale was never about making you feel bad for Walter, the whole point is that he didn't deserve all the closure but he got it because of how smart he is, not because he was being a hero
I think there's a difference between a show wanting to show you how a situation appears to the anti-hero to put you in their mindset, and a show that is sympathetic to the anti-hero
The thing is I understand the difference in intention. But in a visual medium, showing you their mindset often creates the same effect
So glad I pause this video and watched the whole series then came back to finish the episode
The movie at the end seems to soften the blow too since there is a sense of a reward to his legacy but not Barry himself. That smile his son cracks at the end is all he gets.
Love the video!
Thank you!
to me, barry is a show that i can only watch once, its just perfect
I am seriously critical that the SEALS killed Bin Ladin - the drawing is the 'smoking gun', but that's just my two cents.
It's also interesting how the first season more or less portrays Barry as a normal guy who was lead astray by Fuches, though with some red flags along the way like not being able to picture simple things in the acting exercises, but over time it becomes clear that he's a deeply broken person and he likely already was before Fuches got involved. There's simply something wrong with his brain, he's not a normal person.
I don’t think Breaking Bad was ever doing anything so childish or pretentious as a moral of the story or that it was trying to trigger righteous indignation against its protagonist for being naughty. It’s a better show than that.
I think it's a mistake to think every story does or should pass some kinda judgement on a character or to think such-and-such shouldn't happen to them from a moral standpoint. That's not how life always is, so not every story needs to be that way. When you do, you start saying silly stuff like "ugh, look how the Wolf of Wallstreet camera is pointing at her. that's endorsement! it should cut to whatever the jilted wife is doing, for um... empathy purposes!" lame.
Bill Hader has always said the story needs to go where it most makes sense, that it's not a comedy or a drama, it's a story abut an interesting guy that's wanting desperately to change.
:)
to think that camera focus in film is not important or highly intentional is quite silly. there’s literally whole jobs for that. i think ur just feeling called out bc u like looking at margot robbie and don’t understand themes and character tropes deeper than that 😂
But stories aren’t life - they’re fiction. News flash, the wolf of Wall Street isn’t a 1:1 depiction of what happened irl
Yep exactly. The entire point of that scene is to inspire a sort of dissonance in the viewer too. Brings the viewer into the same grimy headspace a cheater would be in looking at a beautiful naked woman knowing he has a kind wife. I mean at least I can say I felt grimy knowing I didn't look away during that scene, so to a much lesser extent I felt the same conflicted feeling Jordan was in that moment
@@nightfurycat Of course it's intentional, but to say that everything the camera points at is being endorsed is kinda silly. I don't think there are any qualms about Jordan being an awful person in that scene, otherwise the movie wouldn't have bothered with developing or even including the wife in the story which was equally intentional.
There was no redemption for Walter White in the end. He got to say goodbye in his own way, but with, "EFF YOU" energy with everyone that saw him in the end. He was still a terrible person til the end and everyone knew it
I love that in the end Hollywood doesn’t get the story accurate and depicts the military veteran in a glorious way, while depicting the artsy teacher as the horrible evil villain.
Very Mediocre
I don't think it's a story's responsibility to condemn ideas/characters. I think if anything, the story of a regular man turning into a monster would be well suited having the audience reluctantly root for him, almost giving credence to the idea that a regular person is capable of these things under the right circumstances and with the right (or wrong) motivations. I think it'd be super boring if because a character is bad they must be punished extensively and condemned by the story itself or else it's considered some sort of flaw in the writing. That line of thinking implies all protagonists need to be perfect infallible people and also infers some kind of cosmic morality in the world we live in that just isn't realistic and doesn't exist. Sometimes bad people are rewarded greatly in this world and face little to no consequences. It happens every day.
Good video! I hadn't thought about either show in this way before. What an interesting take!
Thanks!
This made me definitely watch it!
Awesome
Which one?
Liked and subbed. Really good analysis!
Thank you so much! The algorithm is really inconsistent with a small channel like mine so the engagement really helps. Also just as a person, uts really encouraging and meaningful when people take the time to say they appreciated the video. Thanks again
Barry is excellent. Iv watched the first few seasons multiple times. The finale was brilliant.
two totally different shows. Can't really be compared in my opinion. Walt went to prove that he didn't kill Hank and had no idea Jesse was enslaved before he freed him that night. Barry's ending honestly didn't make total sense logically with the rest of the story.
Thank you!!
great vid
Thank you!
I love how the captions reveal all the lines you cut out (I assume lmao, that or whoever wrote them decided to add some stuff)
Oh haha yeah. I use the original script for subtitles on some videos which doesnt reflect the changes so its a fun bonus. Now that im using davinci to edit i can generate new subtitles based on the final video ( but only if I rememeber 🙃)
I don''t actually see an issue with the anit-hero paradox, liking a character for how they are written and liking them as a person are two completely separate things. An anti-hero narrative is supposed to challenge the viewer with how much they like the main character against what they are doing to achieve their goals. Breaking bad had the most perfect satisfying ending, and if it had done something different to punish Walter in some way, it wouldn't have been as good, so in the end Barry did what Breaking Bad never should have done
Just before watching this video, an ad with Brian Cranston was on it lol
I don't believe Walter White is an anti-hero and you can't make me.
This is why Breaking Bad doesn't have to do what Barry did.
yeah this is what i was finding that breaking bad is much different from barry both character arcs are different so yeah if an anti-hero get death not anti-climatic it doesn't mean he or she was glorified. It just depend on the world of the story
*SPOILERS* Great analysis on Barry, but I disagree with the take that Breaking Bad didn't ALSO succeed at making Walt unsympathetic. Like you said, he lost EVERYTHING and the moments his character is made to look cool or his life glamorous are few and far between. His last ditch attempt to make things right was not even remotely enough to redeem his character. He was a sad wretch at the end and the music that plays as he dies is very fitting: he got what he deserved.
Barry's death reminds me of Omar Little in the Wire. The story was building to an epic gun battle between Omar and Marlo but never gets there when he's murdered anticlimactically.
Barry is an incredible show. The ending is also brilliant in how the whole world will forever know Barry as hero to be respected as that is the hollywood thing.
Great video, but I don't think your analysis applies to Scorsese films. The "protagonists" in Wolf of Wall st and Goodfellas don't get anything in the end.
Also, it misses the point of Scorsese's intentions with these characters. These aren't conventional heroes, antiheroes, villains, etc. Scorsese characters can't be defined that easily.
Direct Scorsese quote: I don't view these characters as bad guys or good guys, they're you, they're me.
Of course they glorify those lifestyles, it has to show why these character do what they do and show the temptation.
Also, I think trying to say Walt is "rewarded" is a bit of stretch. Sure, he's able to resolve some things as much as he can but he loses waaaaaay more.
Walt isn't "rewarded" he simply salvages what he can from the damage he's caused. He simply settles with what remains and his fate, and I guess it's all perspective, but I don't see that as a win at all.
I know you ackniwledge it to a degree, but I don't see how anyone could look at how Walt ended up and think "worth it".
oh wow! what a good video 👍👍
Man I'm just now realizing I should have overlaid Owen Wilson's audio on the last Barry scene haha. Thanks!
Barry is about a criminal who wants a normal life, BB is about a normal guy who pursues a criminal career.
Barry is maybe the series with the strongest tonal shift I’ve ever see, season 1 and 2 and comedy dramas, but they are very funny, then by the half of season 3 everything starts to get more serious, and season 4 is very heavy, like you feel bad in so many scenes.
Nailed it.
one more thing that Barry does right - it portrays organized crime as a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs with pseudo "moral code"
While many shows and especially movies do the opposite. Last movie that did it right was "The Irishman", where we are presented with aftermath of mafia life.
These were countless cases, when cautionary tales were taken at face value. Russian films "Brother" and "Brother-2" have one of the most despicable protagonists, but audiences liked him, and associated themselves with him (actually sickens me, btw)
So I was really happy, that Barry wasn't like this
Ooh the Irishman is a great example and kind if was its own mini series given the length haha
Scorsese did that same thing with "Goodfellas"....the title alone is so contradictory as to what the characters really are. Under the thin guise of men who belong to an organization that has some kind of "code", the reality is these "goodfellas" are a bunch of psychopaths and sociopaths who'd sell you out or have you killed and not hesitate for a second in doing it. It's sort of the "Anti-Godfather" in that way. Even though The Godfather doesn't shy away from showing the violence inherent in that life, it's also full of pomp and circumstance, ceremony, glamour almost in relation to the whole Mob thing....probably why a lot of mobsters actually loved it. Lol. Reminds me of when I was in basic training in the Air Force....we had what were known at Lackland Air Force Base as the toughest unit of "TI's" (teaching instructors, the Air Force equivalent of drill instructors)...on multiple occasions when we were in our barracks at night we could hear them watching the first half of Full Metal Jacket downstairs and laughing. I don't think that was the message Kubrick was trying to make with that. Or, it could be they were just fucking with us. Lol.
The Sopranos did a great job of portraying the mafia as a bunch of monsters. At the beginning you think they're a bit badass, then by the end of the show you despise every last one of them
The sopranos who did this in 2007: Am I a joke to you?
the point of showing the debaucherry and the materialism because its how the villain sees it. Good and Bad is clear in morality but deceiving in appearances. The points of showing these naked girls, fancy cars or survival situation is to point out that the right decisions are the HARD ones. The "Anti-Hero Paradox" is completely intentional by the creators.
My Favorite part about Barry is that they included some of the wildest episodes of TV I've ever seen (ronny/lily, 710N) but the last scene of the show basically overlooks all of these "real life" situations Barry and Fuchs were involved in and makes a derivative "American Hero" movie that Hollywood loves to churn out, completely overlooking the crazy things that happened during the entire series. The whole show is a setup to the final scenes punchline.
Loved your video, and I agree that many works like wall street fail in expressing their themes through their antihero. However, I believe Breaking Bad escapes this because Walter was never a bad person. He was a loving husband and father, frustated about how his potential was not fully realized and having to leave a legacy in the face of death. It is successful in showing how his ambition carried him away. He damages deeply his own life and the ones around him, and we as an audience feel this sorrow. But even facing his terrible actions we still know that deep down he has goodness and good intentions on him. For me, and apparently others in the comments (i only read a few), his redemption was deserved and satisfying. Anyway, I know I'm late, but i like to engage in great videos like this. Just discovered the channel 👌
Hey thank you so much for taking the time to engage. Much more than the actual views (or lacktherof depending on the video lol) its people reaching out like this and keeping the discussion that really encourages me to keep going. So thanks!
I wouldn’t call what breaking bad did with the anti-hero necessarily a mistake, cause the entire show was essentially tricking the audience into thinking Walt wasn’t a bad person. Like people would still think he’s a good person even after he poisoned a child. So having the type of ending that almost “condemns” his actions makes sense. Tho I will admit this has now been overused by critics choice type movies.
Love both shows, both had fantastic finalies. The ending of Barry hit weird, their kid is going to view his father as a martyr no matter what because he was the perfect loving father
Barry's ending is up there with The Shield's ending in showing the main anti-hero being served justice, and the audience realizing that this is O-K.
oh wow, that was a great comparison.
I promise it won't make anymore references to Bary..... starting..... NOW
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial hahahahaha... I think you might feel a little better if you have a babka, maybe 2 babka?
5:28 I don't know about redemption. Like, he becomes Heisenberg again out of pure pettiness, according to Vince Gilligan he went after Jesse to kill him (that doesn't make much sense to me but the creator himself said it), he died on his own terms because he was too arrogant to serve jail time. Hell, on his final talk with Skyler he finally admits to doing it because he liked it. How can he still be viewed as sympathetic after that?
That was excellent
Thank you!!!
I loved Barry, was obsessed, and then in the final season the other shoe finally dropped for me and he was no longer romanticized, he couldn't protect Sally, he never did. Any time she needed him he wasn't there, he wasn't a hero. When he was about to go kill Fuchs to save his son he prayed and expected to be absolved upon his heroic death. It was cheap and the audience knew this. But when he finally decided he would turn himself in, fully believing he would live out the rest of his life paying for what he did and seen for who he was, he actually was truly redeemed, and I think that there's a chance, he was saved from the horrible place he was going to go otherwise.
I disagree. In my humble opinion, he, and by extension, his wife Sally were redeemed in Oklahoma. John would make his own choice as soon as he was cognizant enough to understand and make his choice. :)
He did. He protected her once. " I did this" and got rid of the evidence. He told her to learn how to use a gun and she? Didn't take it seriously and got herself and her son kidnapped
This is one of the best shows you could ever watch
This was a very well made video and I loved the show. However I think the writing does reward Barry because of the ending shot with his son and Sally staying a widow.
I think Sally being a widow is more about her not seeking a man's validation anymore. But like all good art there's room for interpretation
@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I thought that too but the shot with the flowers made me think of Barry.
Barry's not present to enjoy seeing these outcomes.
Honestly Barry has one of the best show endings ive ever seen. Show is kinda perfect..
I agree. It's a fine line between challenging the audience and angering them, and honestly where that line is all comes down to personal preference
How do you figure the show was perfect lol it was completely nonsensical in almost every way conceivable for like 99.99% of its airtime.
@@BoRickersonMcFoosters ok
It’s kinda sad knowing that if Barry had turned himself in from the start of the show not only people around him would have had some sympathy for him he probably could’ve gotten less prison time because of the fact that he was pretty much manipulated by fuches since a child. But his desperation to keep his life intact (killing Moss and Chris) is what made it imposible
I would argue that Breaking bad isn't relatable outside of "american healthcare system forces people to do otherwise nefarious things to survive". Walter is a chemistry teacher, and therefore uses that extremely niche knowledge to perfect making meth. He perfects it, making a product that's like 98% pure, light years above anyone else in the market. So he is, by all intents and purposes, the best in the world at his craft. Barry on the other hand, while being a good assassin, is by no means the "best", if there can be such a thing. He also reluctantly accepted being one, more being forced into it to make money for Fuches. Walt also was kinda forced into it, but due to his relationship with Gretchen and Elliot, of selling his share of a multi billion dollar company for thousands, he's able to utilize his skills and become the best. And the fact that Barry is a comedy drama and not just straight drama lends Barry to do more ridiculous things, like interact with No-Ho Hank and the Chechens and Kristobal and the Bolivians. All of them are shown to be competent but also extremely capable of fucking up, and they usually do, because it's a comedy. Everyone Walt encounters are EXTREMELY good at their job and are only taken out by Walt due to his own brilliance and will to best them. Hell, the entire premise of Barry is that he wanted to stop being an assassin and become an actor, and the rest of the show is how hard it is for him to get out of that world. Walt reluctantly stepped into it because of his cancer and motivation to provide for his family before he died, but after he found out he can utilize his skills and knowledge, he relished being part of that world; that his knowledge and skills could save him from being a boring high school teacher with wasted potential.
I'm not saying Barry is a bad show, quite the contrary. I think it's one of the best written, directed, acted shows in modern tv, but Breaking Bad had countless more layers of it's characters than Barry did, and allowed all of them to breathe and tell us about their personalities and characteristics. Breaking Bad IS the golden standard of cinema and it hasn't been bested since.
I agree that the anti-hero paradox is an interesting "problem" in our fiction, but I think you chose an unfitting example to criticize it by mentioning The Wolf of Wall Street. That film isn't criticizing money and greed, it's criticizing the audience's hipocrisy of criticizing the main character when we too are like him. It's giving us a mirror to our own nature. The film intentionally glamourizes that lifestyle, letting us both condemn it and secretly admire it, it's why it ends with a shot of an audience that is either ignoring how horrible the salesman in front of them is, just so they can dream about being like him, really just showing us a mirror to what we've been doing for the past 3 hours while watching that film.
So in short, Wolf of Wall Street is an example that is using the "anti-hero paradox" but doing it intentionally in a way that thematically builds on the film, so it's not a good example to highlight this issue
Just because an ending is good doesnt make it good to watch. I prefer the idea that its never too late to be a better person.
Barry wouldn't exist without the BB universe. Hader himself spent a lot of time in the BCS writer room in prep. That being said, Barry had a lot more guts in the execution. It's also tighter due to shorter seasons/runtime and although it didn't hit the operatic heights of BB, as a cohesive, tightly structured narrative it's so damn phenomenal. S3&4 were still hilarious, just far more surgical. I don't think I've ever laughed harder or louder at a show than I did at his "Oh, wow."
What does the BeyBlade universe have to do with Barry???? But in al seriousness that's a great point. I know the title frames it like im putting them in competition but they're both going for different things and each nail their respective objectives
Breaking Bad was a lot tighter tbh. It didn't have any fat. It being a larger story doesn't make it "less tight" when it has zero filler whatsoever
to be fair, barry ends with a show about him being the heroic victim of gene's malicious plot
Even Barry had to, ultimately, retreat from the villan being the focus of the narration...Taxi Driver comes to mind as a film that stays with it from start to finish.
okay i subscribed
Oh dope! Thanks!
You are missing the point with Wolf of Wall Street. It's not a critique of the character, it's a critique of the system.
In defense of the Margot Robbie scene in question, the whole movie is suppose to be from Jordan Belfort's perspective. I always felt that the reason the movie didn't feel like it was totally condemning his actions is because it's totally from his perspective- he never changes, he doesn't really learn anything, and in the scene where his wife leaves him there's a wide shot that goes on forever just sitting on his infidelity and the pain he's now put his soon-to-be-ex-wife through while she cries in the background, I think he eventually says he felt terrible and then it immediately cuts away and we never see or hear about her again cuz he's moved onto Margot and so does the movie. That may not be a conventional way to tell a story but it was certainly an intentional way Scorsese made the film. If I had to guess I think what Scorsese was tryna do to the audience is place us in the audience there at the end of the film listening to Jordan's bullshit- "sell me this pen", we're there of our own volition.
Do you plan on doing a video on Fuches? To me, he's the only character that makes a clear change, by becoming the Raven, a completely fictional character. He seems to finally be at peace with himself, and his scene with NoHo Hank, demanding that he admits that he killed Cristobal, shows how..."above", I guess, he is with the others character's constant doubts. I don't know what to make of his last scene with Barry, letting his son go to him and just walking back into the shadows, but I still hope that someone makes a more detailed analysis of him.
Ooh I might just have to do that
Fuches said that the only way to deal with who you are is to become someone else. Saving & returning John was only a temporary 'fix'. Running back into the darkness says a lot about his choice.
I feel like this show took some of the best things about BB and Ozark and married them. I like that Ozark ended with a message of “money and power can keep people from their come uppance and bad people don’t always lose even if they deserve to” in a way that imo didn’t glorify the family but steeped in them being a force of evil and a reflection of the corruption in capitalist society. I think the anti hero stories often leverage all of their message of them not being glorified by them dying or losing eventually and I liked what Ozark did to flip that but it also was a hard pill to swallow watching it end that way.
I think Barry did a great job of not glorifying and still showing corruption and real darkness of the human condition. It will go down as one of my favorite shows ever and it really moved me throughout its entirety