# The Barrier (2020)

> A family fights to survive in a future dystopian Madrid divided from its neighbors by a fence.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/79107

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 64 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: science fiction, drama
- Created by: Daniel Écija
- Network: Atresplayer
- Cast: Unax Ugalde, Olivia Molina, Eleonora Wexler, Ángela Molina, Abel Folk, Daniel Ibáñez, Laura Quirós, Belén Écija
- TMDB rating: 6.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9460858/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: bleak, tense, claustrophobic, somber, intense

## What critics say

Audiences give The Barrier a mixed reception, with a middling average rating for its single season.

## Synopsis

The Barrier (2020) is a Spanish science fiction drama series created by Daniel Écija and broadcast on Atresplayer. Set in a distant future Madrid, it follows one family, centered on Hugo (Unax Ugalde) and Julia (Olivia Molina), as they fight to survive in a city split in two by a towering fence. Alma (Eleonora Wexler) and Emilia (Ángela Molina) are among the other principal figures whose lives are bound up in the divide, and Luis (Abel Folk) and Marta Múgica (Laura Quirós) add pressure from the wider social order. The engine of the show is simple and urgent: the family must find a way to get by while the gap between the two worlds widens, and each episode turns on scarcity, risk and the choices forced by a closed, authoritarian system. Told across a single thirteen-episode season, it is a serialized political thriller in the spirit of Spanish television drama, with a grounded yet bleak look at social injustice. Its tone is tense, somber and claustrophobic, with the emotional weight resting on the bonds of family under pressure. Fans of The Handmaid's Tale, Years and Years and Snowpiercer will find the same dystopian unease and survival stakes here, delivered in a more intimate, European register.

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