To love the work of director Barry Jenkins is to love cinema that feels like a memory or a dream. His films are known for their lyrical visual style, profound empathy, and intimate character portraits that linger long after the credits roll.
Atlanta: For its Surreal Sense of Place
On the surface,
'Atlanta' is a comedy about a Princeton dropout trying to manage his rapper cousin's career. But just beneath, it’s a masterclass in atmosphere and Afro-Surrealism. Much like Jenkins gives Miami in 'Moonlight' or Harlem in 'If Beale Street Could Talk' a distinct, palpable soul, Donald Glover’s series turns its titular city into a character of its own. The show is less about a linear plot and more about capturing a feeling—the absurdity, the struggle, and the beauty of navigating the modern Black experience. Its willingness to break form for a haunting standalone episode or a sudden pivot into horror echoes the dreamlike, often surprising, structure of Jenkins’s own work in projects like 'The Underground Railroad'.
Small Axe: For its Historical and Cultural Weight
This anthology series from director Steve McQueen consists of five distinct films chronicling the lives of London's West Indian community from the 1960s to the 1980s. Like 'The Underground Railroad,' 'Small Axe' is not just a single story but a rich tapestry exploring moments of resistance, joy, and community against a backdrop of systemic injustice. Each film, from the tense courtroom drama of 'Mangrove' to the vibrant house-party romance of 'Lovers Rock,' is a deeply immersive piece of historical portraiture. It shares Jenkins’s commitment to searing the consciousness of a community onto the screen, creating stories that are both specific in their cultural context and universal in their emotional power.
I May Destroy You: For its Innovative, Personal Storytelling
Michaela Coel’s tour de force is a raw, unflinching, and surprisingly funny exploration of trauma, consent, and memory. The series follows Arabella, a young writer piecing her life back together after being sexually assaulted. What makes it a kindred spirit to Jenkins's work is its narrative bravery. The show masterfully uses flashbacks, non-linear timelines, and even alternate realities in its finale to explore the fractured nature of trauma and the difficult path to healing. It’s a deeply personal and formally inventive series that, like 'Moonlight,' trusts its audience to follow its protagonist through a complex and emotionally resonant journey of self-discovery.
When They See Us: For its Unflinching Empathy
Ava DuVernay’s powerful limited series dramatizes the true story of the Central Park Five, five Black and Latino teenagers falsely convicted of a brutal crime in 1989. The series shares a crucial quality with all of Jenkins's films: a profound and unwavering empathy for its characters. Rather than focusing on the lurid details of the case, DuVernay centers the humanity of the boys, their families, and the lives that were stolen from them. It's a heartbreaking and essential piece of storytelling that refuses to let its subjects be reduced to a headline, instead demanding that we see them in their full, complex humanity, a hallmark of Jenkins's approach to filmmaking.
The Leftovers: For its Lyrical Exploration of Grief
While its premise—2% of the world's population vanishes without a trace—sounds like high-concept sci-fi, 'The Leftovers' is one of television's most profound meditations on grief, loss, and the search for meaning in a world that no longer makes sense. This focus on processing absence and trauma will feel familiar to fans of Jenkins, whose characters are often haunted by what’s been lost. The show is less interested in answering the 'why' of its central mystery and more in exploring the emotional fallout with a poetic, often surreal, and deeply moving sensibility. Its gorgeous score and beautiful, melancholic visuals create a tone of lyrical sadness and hope that Jenkins fans will surely recognize and appreciate.
