The Review: Barry Season 1

Barry Season 1 (9/10)

This is a damn good show. I had people at work telling me that Barry on HBO was good but I did not think from the trailers that I'd be into it. The basic premise is that a hitman wants to be an actor. Okay. That does not sound all that interesting to me. Then I decided to watch the first episode and knew my ass was hooked. The humor on this show is genuine. No forced yucks being thrown out. The action is intense and the violence is sudden. The characters make this show and the conversations they have feel authentic. Even though this show is violent and you have no idea who is gonna make it through an episode or the season (one death shook my ass!) I stayed invested. The episodes are about half an hour each and there are only eight episodes in a season so it flies by.

This guy Barry is a very good hitman. He and his handler Fuches are in LA and Barry gets assigned a job to tail and kill a guy. He ends up stumbling into the guys acting class and realizes that he likes it. People mistake his awkwardness for talent and he ends up becoming chummy with his target. The crew that hired him see the two of them hugging and decide to attempt to kill Barry which ends with two dead and one shot. The one that survives is known as NoHo Hank and is funny as hell. NoHo Hank likes to treat it all like some big misunderstanding. He likes to add flair to potential victims while Barry, who doesn't really like killing, hates that people take death so flippantly.

There are multiple times during this series where I wanted Barry to just stop killing and live happily with Sally and continue acting but then I realize that he is a killer. This is not a killer with a heart of gold. He has flashbacks form his childhood and from his time as a soldier and while he is a likable guy...he is a killer. It makes it hard to “like” him because it is not like he kills someone and cheers or is happy about it. He treats it like a job he hates and wants to leave. I am almost done watching the second season trying not to mix the two together because the shows continues right where it left off with Barry murdering a police woman. I talked to my screen saying “Just lie to Barry!” I did not want her to die because I liked her and even though I had seen Barry kill others if he killed this woman there would be no turning back for his character. But he killed her and I was mad.

This show made me feel too many things. I laughed, I gasped, I was tense, I was happy. The writing, acting, directing, music all works so well together that I can't imagine anyone else playing these roles. I thought this show was going to be more of a comedy and while there are funny things that occur I would not call this a comedy. They talk about trauma, PTSD, the effects of war on someone afterward, relationships between fathers and sons, and Hollywood. If you are on the fence about this series check it out. The second season is even better!

Bill Hader as Barry Berkman/Barry Block

Stephen Root as Monroe Fuches

Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed

Glenn Fleshler as Goran Pazar

Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank

Henry Winkler as Gene Cousineau

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