The Barrier: Season 1 – Netflix Review

THE BARRIER is a new Netflix sci-fi series from Spain (org. title La valla). The plot hits dangerously close to home which makes it both fascinating to watch and extremely creepy. Definitely worth checking out. Read our The Barrier series review here!

THE BARRIER is a new sci-fi series on Netflix. It’s from Spain (org. title La valla) and the plot definitely hits very close to home. It begins in the year 2020 but quickly jumps to 2045, which does not bode well. 

For most of us, anyway!

You shouldn’t know too much about this series before getting started. Just let the story unfold and you will be rewarded with an intense story very quickly.

Continue reading our season 1 The Barrier review below.

Art imitating life or…

With the events that take place in The Barrier, it seems almost impossible (or extremely eerie) that this series was created in a pre-Pandemic world. There’s a virus that involves coughing and has virtually shut down everything.

Then a World War 3 hits and governments take over in brutal ways followed quickly by a 25-year time-jump.

In the year 2045, we see Madrid as a city that works but looks more like one big back alley. Also, there’s a big wall (the barrier) in the middle, and on the other side, life continues as usual. The virus still exists (probably mutations of the original one) and fear of getting sick is still prevalent as is the search for a vaccine.

Just as it’s the case with The Handmaid’s Tale, the various elements of the story in The Barrier are taken from the real world. From people spying on their neighbors to the symbols used by the military and the lies and propaganda on the one news channel allowed.

Plus, of course, the very current Pandemic issues we’re all-too-familiar with right now. Including cleanliness, curfews, and other limitations. It’s just incredibly creepy.

This is what I hoped the Snowpiercer series would be

In many ways, The Barrier series on Netflix manages to do everything I desperately hoped (and even expected) from the Snowpiercer series. I was very disappointed with that one since it was overly dramatic and also lost touch with the gritty realism that made the movie work.

Also read: Our season 1 review of the Snowpiercer series here >

In The Barrier, this gritty realism is at the forefront and everything feels dangerously familiar and close in strange and uncanny ways.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that the characters feel so real and work incredibly well. The fact that mother and daughter are portrayed by real-life mother and daughter, Ángela Molina and Olivia Molina respectively, is a huge added bonus.

Ángela Molina has been in several Pedro Almodóvar movies and more recently in the Netflix movie Ánimas. Olivia Molina has been in a lot of TV series so there’s a good chance you’ll recognize her if you’ve watched other Spanish series. And also due to the fact that mother and daughter do look very similar.

Other key characters are portrayed by Daniel Ibáñez (Terminator: Dark Fate) and Unax Ugalde (Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D).

Watch The Barrier season 1 on Netflix

The Barrier was created by Daniel Écija who also co-created the extremely popular Spanish prison series Vis a vis. Various directors and writers have worked on The Barrier. In general, they all have quite impressive resumes of working on huge TV series, so it’s certainly a strong team.

Unlike most other Netflix series, The Barrier (also known as The Fence on IMDb) will release one episode each week. Season 1 has 13 episodes, so you’ll be along for the ride for some time, but after watching just one episode, you should be hooked.

Also, watching all of this in one sitting just might be a tad too depressing. Especially when considering what the real world looks like right now. It’s just downright scary and watching the events in The Barrier unfold just hits too close to home.

If you tend to enjoy these sci-fi takes on a near-future that shows how bad things could get, then The Barrier is definitely worth watching. Strong characters will get you hooked and the strangely familiar world should keep you watching.

Season 1 of The Barrier (La valla) premieres on Netflix on September 11, 2020.

Details

Creator: Daniel Écija
Stars: Unax Ugalde, Olivia Molina, Eleonora Wexler, Abel Folk, Ángela Molina, Manu Fullola, Daniel Ibáñez, Laura Quirós, Nicolás Illoro, Belén Écija, Juan Blanco, Yaima Ramos