HBO’s ‘Barry,’ starring Hader, gets even darker
It’s been nearly three years since we last saw “Barry,” one of the best shows on TV when it’s clicking (which is often).
Bill Hader and company seem to be making up for lost time in the third season, in which a lot of things happen fast. “Barry” has always juggled a lot of plot lines, maybe sometimes too many. But the new season doubles down on the chaos, stringing out seeming impossibilities like yarn to a cat, while the characters chase and try to catch them.
In a lesser series, it would be just that — a tease, a game, albeit a frequently deadly one. But in “Barry” the cast, led by Hader, who co-created the show and directed several episodes of the third season, is so good you’re willing to let the show string you along.
Anthony Carrigan’s NoHo Hank is one of TV’s best, most original characters
The show, if you haven’t seen it — and you must if you expect to make sense of the new season — concerns
Barry (Hader), a former Marine turned hitman turned poor would-be actor turned lost soul, though he’s really been that last one from the start.
But a quick recap for the uninitiated: Barry had a handler, Fuches (Stephen Root), but they’ve had a falling out; Fuches betrays Barry at every turn now. After stumbling into an acting class in Los Angeles run by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) and meeting one of the students, Sally (Sarah Goldberg), Barry decides he wants to ditch killing for acting.
He’s a lot better at the former than the latter.
Weaving in and out of this is NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), a Chechen gangster who is truly one of the best and most original TV characters in memory, thanks in large part to Carrigan’s goofball, big-hearted performance. Try just saying the character’s name to someone familiar with the show and see if they don’t smile.
HBO sent six of the third season’s eight episodes for review and sent out a
don’t-reveal-spoilers list so complete the network seems to want to barely acknowledge that the show exists beyond offering the premiere date.
Fair enough. Suffice it to say that everyone is still acting, in their own way, even if it’s not on stage or in front of a camera in everyone’s case. Getting at the truth of a character is one of the biggest challenges in acting. Getting at the truth of their lives is the particular challenge for Barry and the rest, one that proves increasingly hard to master.
Fortunes have turned for many of the characters. In fact, they turn frequently, with plot twists and turns so numerous and often shocking that “Barry” starts to veer into “Ozark“territory, as if the producers are playing a game of one-upmanship, placing characters in hopeless situations and trying to wriggle their way out of them.
Along the way they take a bite out of streaming services, the shallowness of LA life and of course the superficial and fleeting nature of “success,” in show business terms and in mob business (or both at the same time).
Carrigan’s Hank is again funny, of course, but also moving in ways we haven’t seen. Goldberg gets a chance to expand on Sally, too. Root is a great actor, but Fuches is still stewing around in his own bitter juices, albeit in surprising places (he’s got a way with goats, oddly enough).
Cousineau is still shattered both by the loss of his girlfriend and Barry’s role in it. Winkler is good at portraying this, but Cousineau’s unearned arrogance is missed.
Everyone is good but Bill Hader by necessity anchors the whole thing
Of course, Hader anchors the whole thing. Barry is more adrift than usual as the season starts. You wonder how much one conscience can take, how much debt the moral ledger can withstand. Barry wonders that, too, constantly. The shocking originality of Hader’s performance in the first season can’t be replicated, of course, but he manages to maintain the quality of it throughout.
We’ll get the answers to the morality questions at some point, and to all the others Season 3 asks. “Barry” is such an outstanding show you hate to see it end, but it’s constructed in such a way that it has to, and with the announcement that its fourth season would be its last, that’s probably a good thing. It hasn’t worn out its welcome yet, and it would be a shame if it got the chance to.