Let me take you back 5 years. It was March of 2018. The hype around Avengers: Infinity War was real (and so were the early spoilers – we will never forgive you, Mark Ruffalo). “Covid-19” was neither a pandemic nor plandemic on anyone’s mind. Donald Trump was president. Eesh, let’s get back to the good stuff. The Shape of Water, my favorite film of 2017, won Guillermo del Toro Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. And I was finishing my first year as a School Counselor. Oh, also making its debut on HBO was the new action/comedy series Barry.
Bill Hader was already a well-established comedian thanks largely to his 8 year run on Saturday Night Live, but he also had many good, minor roles in a string of early 2000’s comedies like Knocked Up, Hot Rod, Superbad, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall which solidified his name among Hollywood’s funniest people. Yet in March of 2018 he was finally getting the recognition he deserved as Barry kicked off an incredible 4 season run, leading to Hader winning two Emmys for his titular role in seasons 1 and 2 and the show itself winning another 7 Emmys so far, though never for Outstanding Comedy Series as it lost three times in a row to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in 2018, Fleabag in 2019, and Ted Lasso in 2022 (talk about tough competition). Nevertheless, the show was a hit from the start and rightly so as it is well acted, well directed, and well written. And tonight is the conclusion. That’s right, I’m starting this review BEFORE the series finale drops! I’m not going to go into spoilers here, so you have nothing to worry about if you haven’t seen the show…yet. You should watch Barry. I plan to return with a second post after finishing the series tonight, so if you’ve been following along with the show or this intrigues you enough to start the first episode immediately after finishing reading this review, come back for what I hope to be that fancy, swirly strip of chocolate atop a slice of french silk pie.
Now then, have you ever arrived late for a friend’s party, realizing you got to miss all the small talk with strangers and didn’t have to watch them open presents while you sit there wondering how many people are going to judge you for getting up to refill your drink? Instead, you just show up and are free to hang out and have a good time. Well, that’s what I got to do with Barry. While most loyal viewers became fans in 2018, I just binged the first 3 seasons in the few weeks leading up to the release of season 4. Suckers. Admittedly, the show had been sitting in my HBO queue for over a year until I decided that with all the buzz surrounding the final season it was go time. So after taking it all in I can safely say that Barry is easily one of my favorite shows of the past decade, and not just because I’m a sucker for dark comedies. But I am glad to have come late to the party as the show took a hiatus during Covid-19 and it led to a three year break between seasons 2 and 3. Hader was interviewed about it last year and said, “We were like a week or two out before the pandemic hits. We had our first table read for season 3, and then the next day we were supposed to have another one we were like ‘you know what? Let’s just cancel it just to be safe. We’ll give it a week’. Then I think the next time I saw everyone was a year and a half later.” During the pandemic, Hader and co-creator Alec Berg (writer/producer for Seinfeld, showrunner for Silicon Valley) started writing ahead for season 4 and quickly realized that it caused “a pretty big overhaul” for season 3. For me, whatever direction they had intended for the show to take doesn’t matter because the story between every season is bridged flawlessly.
Too fast. Hold up. Let’s burn this marshmallow nice and slow. The featured image is my absolute favorite, one which the show used early on in promoting viewership. It reminds me of how silly the premise of the first season was: a professional hitman doesn’t feel fulfilled, so he joins an acting class and attempts to cut ties with his life of crime. What a great premise, if nothing else. Except there is a lot else, and mostly because Barry is very bad at cutting ties with crime. His very nature is fueled by a need to take things into his own hands and often that leads to a lot of bloodshed. He wants to stop killing people but he’s also pretty good at it, and he’s surrounded by guys as bad as he is. Sooo….yep, there he goes killing another dude. Thus, the question that Hader and Berg bring us back to again and again throughout the series is: “Can people change?”
The show begins with Barry Berkman (Hader) traveling to Los Angeles on assignment for the L.A. Chechen gang and is joined by his handler, Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root, Office Space, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story). But instead of killing his target, Barry follows him to an acting class run by acting coach Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler, Arrested Development, Happy Days). Barry is straight up dreadful as he “auditions” to join the class, yet the experience unlocks a part of his mind and wishing to leave his life of brutal loneliness behind him he tells Fuches that he’s done. This doesn’t go over well, especially since the Chechens find out Barry isn’t following through on his hit and kidnap Fuches in the process. And that’s all in (mostly) the first episode. What follows in season 1 is enough to rope you in for everything that makes Barry what it is. Also highlighting season 1 are breakout performances by actors Sara Goldberg playing Sally, a “friend” in Barry’s acting class, and a standout performance by Anthony Carrigan who plays Chechen gang member NoHo Hank. The season finale also gives its audience the first of several cliffhangers as one supporting cast member is killed off-screen, not only establishing the plot for season 2 but tipping the dominoes for every character on their many different paths over the next three seasons.
Can people change? Although the finality of Barry‘s answer to the question remains yet unknown, so far we’ve been led to a resounding no. People may want to change. People may hope to change with every fiber of their being. But for one reason or another, they cannot. Sally cannot escape her unhappiness. Gene cannot escape his reputation. Fuches cannot escape a need for vengeance. NoHo Hank cannot escape his greed. And none of them, not even Barry himself, can escape Barry Berkman. Barry is their glue and also their fate. Though he seeks to escape his past and have genuine relationships with the people around him, he only makes their lives worse. One thing Barry does well is very clearly show when a character seems to have found a way out from under “Barry’s curse” and start treading a path toward change and a better life, only to have it ripped away by their own choices. People can’t change.
It took me a while to realize the truth of Barry: there is no protagonist. Though I’m sure most characters would be quick to claim the title of hero of their own story, marred by a string of bad decisions where their hands were tied, nobody has been able to save themselves from themselves. And Barry is the worst, escalating along a similar self-destructive path as Walter White/Heisenberg in Breaking Bad, and I fear that he may end up meeting the same end tonight. Has he gone too far to be redeemed? I’ll be back very soon with all the spoilers from the finale as well as my general spoiler thoughts about the overall plot, season cliffhangers and character development. Thanks for reading, cheers!
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