{"id":67048,"date":"2019-04-30T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/25yearslatersite.com\/?p=67048"},"modified":"2023-01-26T23:49:26","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T04:49:26","slug":"is-barry-season-2-episode-5-ronny-lily-a-misstep-or-pivot-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvobsessive.com\/2019\/04\/30\/is-barry-season-2-episode-5-ronny-lily-a-misstep-or-pivot-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Barry Season 2 Episode 5 “ronny\/lily” a Misstep or Pivot Point?"},"content":{"rendered":"
This week’s episode of Barry<\/em> begins with the title card minus the ’70s horns we’re accustomed to hearing with it. Not even a cold open scene before it. That’s the first clue we’re in for something different.<\/p>\n We get birds chirping, the establishing shot of a house, and it’s reminiscent of Twin Peaks\u00a0<\/em>Season 3 Part 1 when we’re forced to watch every detail of Sam changing data cards on cameras near a glass box. Over the course of this episode we\u2019re literally watching every moment that Barry experiences between what I assume is late afternoon and later that evening. In this Barry<\/em> episode, we’ve officially reached Lynchian levels of real-time uncompressed scenes.<\/p>\n On the plus side, it\u2019s easier to write about with fewer scenes, but on the minus side we get zero interaction with anyone not in Barry\u2019s sight line. Which means no NoHo Hank. And no Gene, Sally or theater classmates. Unlike the clockwork-precise character development in the season up to now, this episode is intentionally not balanced. So yes, this is an intentional change, but was it successful?<\/p>\n In the short term, I’d say no because we’re stuck worrying about whether our comedy is going to show our main character killing a kid. Even if the kid is made out to be straight from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.<\/em><\/p>\n The only<\/em> jokes are about Ronny being Rasputin-level indestructible, and his daughter Lily being superhuman in a kung-fu flick way. As Barry describes in one of the first times I finally smile, “I don’t think she’s of this world.” She’s a feral animal when she’s not acting sad and worried like a lost kid, and I assume this polarity is thematically relevant in addition to being what’s supposed to be funny. As is the fact that even Ronny’s troubled breathing is a cue that the man is yet again not dead. Not a crushed windpipe. Not a bullet from Detective Loach. The man is a taekwondo Wile E. Coyote.<\/p>\n