50fiftillidideeBrain

This show is so good. They are /KILLIN/ it❗

Who is Barry? He can speak Marine. He served in Afghanistan. He is exceptional with a rifle so, upon his release, he applies those skills to civilian life: He's a hitman. Stephen Root (Get Out, Dodge Ball) is his handler, Monroe Fuches. It doesn't take long to see that Barry is a decent fellow (despite all the killin) and he's alittle too used to following orders. Doing what Fuches says to do makes life easy. Simple. Contained. Orderly.

She changed all of that. Sarah Goldberg (Hindsight) plays Sally Reed. Sally is so feminine that most women would look butch next to her. She's beautiful and fragile, she is a go-getter and she's going after her dream: She's an actress. Her journey has taken her smack through the middle of an acting class being run by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler from Arrested Development-10, Parks & Rec-8.5, Happy Days. Winkler has ascended to the level of super necessary. Everything he's touches turns to gold. If you don't have either him or Jeffrey Weight in your production then you'd better be Bridgerton). Gene: "When the world is against you, when your back is against the wall, there's only one thing you can do. Teach." Sally's in Gene's class with the usual catalog of baristas, waiters, party mascots, and parking attendants.

Barry is smitten, shot thru the heart, just knocked over dead by her. Barry's in love. He's a stiff and wooden guy. He only has two expressions: slightly uncomfortable and VERY uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he signs up for some classes. Work and pleasure intersect before long, though. There's a hit called out on one of his classmates who had the poor judgment to have an affair with a Chechen mob boss's wife. When Ryan ends up relegated to the past tense, the acting class comes under police scrutiny. It begins.

Satire? Silly? High Comedy? Naked Gun? Tragedy? Hey, fusion is so hot right now, right? This is genre bending fusion. It's lowkey, it's dry, it has well developed characters, taught timing, brilliant writing, particularly witty dialogue, and superb acting. Even the OST is bad@$$. This show causes out loud guffawing that could reach an embarrassing level. I was definitely too loud.

After you laugh until you cry, you might just cry, because there's lots of killin, many deaths, and more than a few tears. "You were in a war and you give us pixy-caca." Gene sees that Barry is not actor. He's best when he's not acting at all. "You're so generous, Barry. You gave it to me, I didn't even have to act. You are an /actor/, Barry. Whatever you did tonight to get there, that's your new process." Sally is so happy with tonight's performance! Barry is not happy. He just had to shoot a friend. He wasn't even acting. That shizzle was all REAL. That AIN'T gonna be his process.

B is a 2018 release that is rated 98/89 on RT & 8.3 on IMDB. It is 4 seasons consisting of 32 24-38-minute episodes. Nobody has to take my word on this won, eh, one. B received 55 Emmy nominations and nine wins, eight SAG nominations, and 10 Golden Globe nominations. So, don't be a Hater if you can't write like Hader!

Bill Hader (Tropic Thunder, Superbad) is Barry Berkman. He's a guy with daddy issues. Anthony Carrigan (Death of a Unicorn, Gotham) just steals the show as NoHo Hank. Where has he been all my life? This is the marriage of a man and a part. Hank's in the Chechen mob but he'd much rather be a party planner or interior designer. He is amazing. He says things like "See you on the flippy-flops!" "Bahddy" is the way he says Barry. One sample scene is when he uses The Detonator App for the first time. He reads outloud: "Would you live to receive promotional offers from The Detonator app? /Absolutely/👌. Do you give permission for The Detonator app to use your location? 👍 Always! Do you consent to The Detonator app sharing data for market research? 🤷Why not? Okie Bahddy, your bomb is ready to go!" But The Detonator app is trash! They do have great customer service, at least.

Taylor! He's the sanest one in his family. Dave Pavinski lights up the screen as Taylor. He's the only marine kicked out of the postwar care facility. Gimme 5✋! Mitch! Tom Allen plays the Hillbilly-beignet-slinging bodhivista (or STONERvista). He steals S3. Alex Berg of Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Silicon Valley-9.5 is the primary writer and sometimes director along with Hader and others.

Barry's like Pepsi. "Right now" is always what he's talkin bout. Right now is always the time that Barry determines he'll stop killing and fly straight. Unfortunately, right now is always a thing that he needs to reset. There's always someone that needs killing.

Internal honesty is probably the main theme. Turns out, people love lies. They prefer the lies and run on compartmentalization and pride. In the end, they try to bend religion and faith into a lie. Even Fuches says he had to accept who he was w/o the BS. He's "a man with no heart". (Yet, in the next scene, he makes himself a liar about that. He did something heartwarming).

Barry exists in a world where the answer to every problem is killing someone (so does Fuches, Hank, the Chechens, the Myanmar crime syndicate, and most of the Bolivians). Sally is working hard at her career and the class has decided to act out seminal moments in their lives. She and Barry go through a crisis management process over it... b/c neither can face the truth. Barry tries to downplay his violent past and Sally wants to pretend that she stood up to her former abusive bf. She actually made up a whole tough-talk-scene, but the truth is that she gathered her things and snuck out while he was sleeping. This all culminates in her deciding to just act out the truth. She admits she would stay around for the apology, the time he hugged her and would tell her how important she was to him. She describes the shame she felt that after those times - her confidence and strength were being drained. It was so authentic it took my breath away. Just a couple weeks after watching that scene, a friend of mine talked to me about her marriage struggles and she sounded exactly the same.

The show lays out how people sell their souls for fame. They take these narcissistic, shallow, self-absorbed wannabes ("They're children," says Gene) and somehow make them relatable and sympathetic. Yep, even likable. I have a feeling it's much worse than what they showed, which was just actors' conscience and inner truths being shredded. When Sally's agent propositioned her, next writing it off as a joke after she declined - that's PART of the system, if one listens to enough first hand accounts. Sally didn't go along. She got dropped.

Barry is loaded with taut scenes that involve precise timing. Just when one thinks it's a comedy, they hit us with true tragedy. This show is everything. Comedy, drama, action, thriller, tragedy. What's the word for a show that teaches us that accordion players can be sniveling, vengeful tergiversites? I kept complaining it was messing with my head. The moral dilemmas they set up are excruciating. I didn't have the word. My son made up the word "concacious" when he was 3. His definition: It feels like your head is gonna explode.' That's the word! Barry is concacious. Barry makes the viewer feel concacious. It makes us laugh and laugh💣, then it shocks us💥, then we 😢.

S2 ep5 is insane. They encounter a father-daughter nightmare. The hit on a dad, a martial arts instructor, goes horribly wrong. The daughter is... sorta feral. She climbs trees, jumps fences, dives through windows and nearly bites Fuches' face off. S2 ends intensely. A storm is brewing.

In S3, Barry is unraveling and we learn that killin ain't so easy with many attempts and few successes.

In S4 they wrote themselves into a bit of a tough spot. How does one wrap up a show like this?

They take it seriously. Barry is nearly unraveled and looks like a serial killer in his glasses.

Mid-season they go forward 8 years. They're living practically off of the grid & homeschooling their son. Sally, now a diner waitress, looks better as a brunette (except for the garish makeup).

Barry & Sally (now Clark & Emily) have found religion, but it doesn't stick when things get difficult. A studio announces they are, along with Gene, doing a movie about Barry. Barry decides to kill Gene. His primary reason is that he doesn't want his son to know about their former lives. He keeps listening to sermons until he can contort the words he hears into sufficient justification to do what he wants to do. This is an unfortunate by-product of faith. If a person claims to have faith and then goes and does everything s/he wants in h/h own strength then it's faith in self, not a higher power.

In the end, Fuches and Barry have a moment... a BROment. Noho Hank and Cristobal (total unicorn situation) have a Broment as well and make modern art. I wonder what Mich would say about all of this? He shoulda had the last word.

QUOTES🗣

You wanna go fast, go it alone. You wanna go far, go together.

This is the industry-wide amnesia that we've been waiting for so long for!

I didn't lie to you. I didn't tell you the part I didn't want to be true.

Oh. WOW.

IMHO〰🖍

📣8.8 📝9 🎭9 💓6 🦋3 🎨7 🎵/🔊8.5 🔚 🤗7.7 ▪ 🌞3⚡7 😅7 😭5 😱4 😯4 🤢5 🤔7.5 💤0

They use music brilliantly. Shazams: Time Moves Slow by BADBADNOTGOOD & Samuel T. Herring; Cómo Me Quieres by Khruangbin; Change For the World, by Charles Bradley, has big band big energy. It's everything that Barry is not: Upbeat, lively, energetic, and true. It made me happy every time it played.

Age 17+ Language, violence, overall darkness, and moderate sexual content. Rated TV-MA: Mature Audience Only.

Re-📺? Oh, yeah.

Maybe a good test of how strong a family is would be a week's vacation in which it rains every day. If it's still a good time, y'all are doing great❕ This family is broken down. They couldn't handle a lite misting. Dad is never home. He either drives a truck or hikes trails. The sisters don't speak to e/o, & they treat Lil bro like an annoying waiter. They were able to ignore their problems until Mom announces she's separating from dad. Weirdly, she calls it "graduating from marriage." Secrets come out. Years of misunderstandings create new wounds. "The problems in our family are like forgotten boxes piled up in storage. The door was opened, & the baggage started falling out all at once," we hear. Like Hee says, "This kind of story is all in the details."

Speaking of love & marriage, oldest sis Joo keeps separate rooms from her husband, & middle sis, Hee, broke up w/ her long-term bf - the hard way: After 9 yrs of dating him, his gf of 3 YEARS confronts her & calls HER a cheater😲! What's off about Hee's look? They have her in the wrong colors for 90% of the show. One can't turn fall into spring & that's what they tried to do. For the run of the show, Hee's a bit of a mess. Always late. Takes her anger out on the wrong targets. Frequently immature & confused. She gets confused around her new boss. She's such a reader that she works in publishing. The VP says her books are the BEST🎖. Apparently, he came to their office already a fan of hers. Hee was in a weakened state from her break-up & made the mistake of having a one night stand w/ new-boss.

Joo's husband is described as "sensitive". Their marriage seems lifeless and, after yrs of trying, Joo has given up on 🤰 🚼👶. She's irritatingly "bad at being bad". She keeps everything under wraps. She's an attorney, by vocation, & her personality reflects that there's little else she's qualified for, other than bureaucrat, she's so coldly logical & matter-of-fact. (Joo finally cracks a smile in ep15. I had given up hope). These sisters are nothing alike & frequently contentious. Yet they are alike. They often say the same things to their parents (Joo always calls dad & Hee always calls mom) & they spout identical phrases in arguments.

Kim Ji Suk is Park Chan "Hyuk". He's genuine, affable, & Hee's link to sanity. He accuses Hee of using him like a trash can, as she tells him things that she can't tell anyone else, just to get them off her chest. This trash can sorts: "So, forget about it now. But you must be worried: What if I run into him at work on Monday? Should I just quit over the weekend? Should I be cool & ignore him? No, what if he spreads gossip everywhere? (Exactly) What if he doesn't even remember it? (You're having fun, aren't you? ) Anyway, just forget about it. If it spreads, so what? Just be embarrassed. Time goes on. If something bigger happens it'll be forgotten soon." That's his advice, along w/ Hee's intersections, in the aftermath of the tryst w/ her boss. Romance is a part of the show, but it is a family drama first. We see self-sabotage between Hee & Hyuk. They are attracted to e/o & both try to kill it before it grows.

The word 'family ' shares the same root as the word 'familiar,' & we all know what familiarity breeds. "What is family?" That is how ep15 closes. It closes w/out an answer, just a "I still don't know." When Hee breaks up w/ her bf, she explodes at her sister (who wasn't sympathetic) & Hyeok (he knew but didn't tell her). She cut ties w/ them for yrs. Hee used them as trash cans for her rage. It's emotional cannibalism. In ep1 their relationships resume. In Time, Hee will say this to Joo: "I came to see you every time something happened. And every time I did that, you never comforted me. I know that so well, so why do I always think of you? The words of comfort are sweet for a short moment, but your hurtful words, disgusting words, & critical words make me react to them a few days later, & give me strength to get back up."

It always starts w/ the parents. In the beginning of the show, Dad goes missing & ends up having fallen & contracting amnesia, a device that is too common, but in this case it is used effectively. Dad thinks he's 22 again. He's acting like he & mom are dating - & he's super into her, to mom's unease. He's completely forgotten the long yrs of small insults & petty denials that cooled their love into a slow separation. Dad is young & in love again. Mom is beside herself. The beginning of the show is getting to know the players, their perspectives, & their assumptions, which taint everything they see & hear. We will then learn the truth of things. Then the healing can begin.

In his many "counseling" sessions w/ Hee, Hyeok is the one that tells us what the writer is trying to communicate. "A scientist said that we know more about the materials in the solar system than the materials inside the earth. We think that there's no need to learn about Earth since we live on it. That's how families are." "Family members know the weak point that others can't see so well. They can always strike a hard blow whenever they want."

Secrets. Going solo. Miscommunication. Wrong assumptions. Horribly wrong assumptions. Slowly, characters begin to realize: "I don't know my family." They don't know themselves, either. "I didn't know I was this petty." "You aren't petty & crooked, you're only like that to your sister," Hyeok expounds. "I'm sure you want me to be brave & honest, & not do things... slowly... If a human being lives his or her life in such a just & honest way all the time, the heart can't handle it & explodes. So you need to make excuses from time to time. Use tricks when you can't help it. & realize that you're cowardly & repent. This is the way to make your heart handle things."

Anger & family. Family & bitterness. Treating family w/ the contempt of impossible standards & using them as targets in which we misdirect our anger - these are the themes. I've taken to calling this social & emotional cannibalism. We keep our eyes lateral & lash out at other's expense. We should keep our eyes focused upward on the highest standards. Anger turns into unforgiveness which hardens into bitterness. It is, as the adage goes, like drinking poison & expecting someone else to get sick - it only hurts us. The best time to forgive is right away, before it hardens into such a huge obstacle that it's near impossible to move forward. Forgiveness is releasing ourselves from a burden. It is letting go of the anger & sourness that consumes us & steals our joie de vie, our joy of life. I call it leveling-up. Instead of looking at relationships horizontally, endlessly comparing ourselves & feeling superior or inferior, level-up into a higher form of life. Our anger often stems from our pride being dinged. To level-up, a person needs to let go of pride.

Now, back to problem parents: "Adults can be silly & immature, sometimes." Mom & dad had become 2 strangers under one roof over the yrs. Dad held on to mom's ex more than she did! His jealousy (born from pride) corrupted the marriage. Joo has a different father, though none of the kids know that. It comes out that Dad had many temper tantrums over the yrs b/c he felt inadequate. We'll learn this began when he overheard people gossiping at the wedding. Gossip is a horrible habit. Think about why a person does that. Why does a person get pleasure from it? The basis of gossip is pride. We love to feel better than other people by comparison & thus we enjoy other people's misery. Here, it ended up tearing a family apart for yrs. Nobody wants to be guilty of causing that.

"There was a time when there was only the two of us in the world, & we were everything to e/o," Mom dolefully recalls. M&D allowed little hurts to fester unresolved. It led to more misunderstandings & then, Mom admits, she deliberately didn't clear some things up out of spite. In the latter half of the show Mom & Dad deconstruct their marriage & what went wrong. All their angst was over a whole lot of nothing. Plenty of divorces happen that way. Some divorces are for the best, but many aren't. Soon, it's: "Mom is having a fling." Even though Mom & Dad have separated, they have to keep meeting up over this situation or that drama. They end up unwittingly dating. "I saw young people drinking this & I wanted to try it too", Dad says, as he hands her a drink. Dad's actually arranged to meet her at popular dating sites he's found online. 'I don't know why everybody here is young..." It gets very cute. Even cuter is how Ji-woo, who still lives at home, figures out that his mother must be dating someone. There's flowers & vases, & tags for new clothing. Mom's out alot.

"I thought my family was normal, but we're not." Idk what normal is. Much of human behavior follows patterns, but "normal" seems to be 85% phoniness. Finding the right mix of individualism & compromising enough to fit in (don't lie, steal, cheat, do wash regularly, groom, & wear clean clothes) is an art. People who level up won't squash their personality down to nothing to fit in w/ or attempt to impress others. That is enslavement. The crowd is so rarely in the right it is truly a false flare. Free yourself from that enslavement. Be warned, they might hate you for your freedom.

The show is amusing in its apt portrayal of diverse personalities trying to keep their familial relationships afloat. "Nevermind. Let's just try to understand this separately. Things will get worse if we try to convince e/o. I have no energy." 😅 I like the way the writer put that. I intend to steal it immediately. In all, this is excellently acted & written. It's insightful & well worth the time.

QUOTES📢

These things happen.

Bad hunches always come true.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣8.2 📝8.5 🎭8.5 💓5 🦋4.5 🎨6.5 🎵/🔊7 🔚8.2 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡2.5 😅3.5 😭3 😱2 😯2 🤢2 🤔6 💤0.

WotH, though the subject matter is most unpleasant, contained a few pleasant surprises for me.

The year is 1979.

My first surprise was that The Dating Game was still being produced then. First airing in 1965, apparently it went on until 1986. One contestant would question 3 potential dates and select one winner - all sight unseen - sorta like internet dating sans the fake photos. It was the emptiest fluff on the 'boob📺tube', as they called it.

That's how society viewed women, especially females in their teens and 20s - empty fluff. Minority groups had it even worse. Behavioral Science, or the study of serial killers, was an 80's development. The general public hadn't conceived anything so evil. DNA wasn't utilized in law enforcement yet, and even fingerprint analysis was hit-and-miss, as computerized identification was still being compiled. Basically, the USA was still part Wild-West where criminals had ample free reign, because people collectively believed that society was good. Many didn't even lock their doors! This was possible because the trust-coefficient in the societal structure, law enforcement, and leadership was so high.

WotH is a 2023 99-minute release that is rated 91/67 on RT & 6.6 on IMDB. I'm with team-critics on this one, for a change. WotH is a tidy little film that is smashingly well done. Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air) donated her earnings from the film to charity. She is both the director (her fledgling effort) and the lead, Sheryl Bradshaw. Sheryl's smart. Really smart. She doesn't fit in - not in Hollywood. Hollywood... don't listen to what they say. Look at what they do. They've always preferred their women and minorities to be vacuous and obsequious. Women are sex objects & minorities, relegated to cartoonish, 2D type roles, serve to feed the pride of the majority. That's been the overarching message coming out of Hollywood for more than a century. Somehow, they've gotten away with it because of their penchant for activist verbiage. For too many of us, words are enough. We've over-trusted the words of leaders in government and industry without paying sufficient attention to their actions and applying our critical thinking skills, which takes lots of energy. We are all busy, afterall.

WotH carefully stitches together the experiences of 3 women to give us a look at a serial killer from 3 different angles. Autumn Best plays the most heroic role of the film. Barely surviving an encounter with the villain, she is the one who reported him to police, which led to his conviction and incarceration. Nicolette Robinson (One Night in Miami) is Laura, a woman who is in the Dating Game audience and recognizes Alcala from a fateful night when her friend disappeared. He gave her the creeps then. She worried about leaving her friend at the beach, but brushed those reservations aside. She never saw her friend again. 'Don't you think the show would vet their contestants? How could he be walking around free if he's a killer?' ("Trust the System" her boyfriend urges.) She spurns the social-molly and decides to take action. Anna Kendrick, as Sheryl, is the Dating Game contestant who picks this charmer out of a lineup as the best of the bunch. A career corrections officer I know assured me that criminals are the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. They are masters of deception, Alcala included. Sheryl agrees to a drink after the show is taped. Their meet-up is what takes the film from good to pure gold. Kendrick takes us on a date from hell. It starts hopeful, but tension and dread build steadily and methodically up to the "Where is my car; why did I park so far away, I can't breathe" moment where panic settles in.

The acting is excellent, including Daniel Zovatto (Don't Breathe, Flinch) as the creepster, Rodney Alcala. The dialogue is intelligent - Ian McDonald (Some Freaks) is the writer. The directing is great with quality touches and segues, along with good camera work. The message is cogent. It's so cogent that I think all young girls would benefit from a viewing.

"No matter what words are used, the question beneath the question remains the same: Which one of you will hurt me?" So, the makeup ladies surmise. The answer is much broader than single bad-actors. The system will always default to crushing us. That's where history and the facts point. This is another example of how police didn't take the words of women or crimes against women and runaways seriously.

Society runs on trust. We leave the house and trust the sidewalk to support us. We trust that contracts will be enforced and police will protect us. Reporters always tell the truth. Courts, which run on testimony as much as evidence, are fair. Going with the flow is easy. It takes energy to think independently. If we are too busy we'll never stop and figure it out: This world runs on trust, but this world turns on deception. The older I get, the more I see that. One simply cannot operate without confidence in the system, to a certain extent. The question is: To what extent should we be trusting it? We don't question it enough. We also believe what we want to believe, especially in politics, which I gave up a while ago. {The only thing politics has accomplished over the last 40 years is that we all hate eachother. They could fix things. They don't want to. There are compromises that would satisfy 85% of the population, but they would lose their political footballs. Don't believe what either side says. They have proven they don't deserve it.} One of my friends has been suffering harassment and complains to me that the police haven't done anything. I reminded her that the police have never been about preventing crime as much as punishing crime. I have other friends who have been navigating a legal case and are aghast at the insanity of the courts. They are only surprised because they haven't been paying attention.

Your safety, well-being, and day-to-day needs are primarily up to you. That is the hard truth, and I wish it were not so. Too many women have been chewed up by a system that has failed them over and over and over again. Trust should be earned. Don't give it away. Don't deceive yourself over what you /want/ to be true. Don't be lazy about it! And don't be part of the problem. Be the 3 women featured in this film: Speak up. Be courageous. Know when to walk away. And make it a habit to regularly re-evaluate your presuppositions and where you place your trust. What evil lurks out there that we still haven't yet conceived in our minds? Don't be the one to find out.

QUOTES📢

It's amazing how one selfish @$$h0le can F💣up your entire life.

Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly. 〰Edward Albee〰

〰🖍 IMHO

📣8.3 📝8 🎭8.7 🎨8 🎵/🔊6 🔚8.5 ▪ 🌞4⚡4 😅2 😭6 😱5 😯5 🤢4 🤔7 💤0

Age: There is violence, murder, and R-rated language including F💣s. It is contained and never gratuitous. However, this is the type of show a girl needs to see sooner, not later. His last victim was just 12. Rated R - restricted

Re-📺? 👍🏽