The Review: Barry Season 2 (1 - 3)

I finished watching season two of Barry last night and am feeling so damned happy that shows like this exist. I loved season one (click here to read that review) and this one managed to be even better. Don't know how they did it but they did. This is gonna be full of spoilers because I do not like that I blew through the first season in my previous review the way I did. I should have written them episode by episode but when I am binging a show that means stopping to write and that is not fun. So this will be a review/recap of the second season.

This season picks up closely following the previous and the death of Detective Moss is being investigated. Her death hangs over this show like a fart that can not be ignored. Any time I start to like Barry I am reminded that this guy is a killer that needs to be dealt with. Yeah, another season later and my goofy ass is still struggling with this problem. What the hell does that say about me?

The Show Must Go On, Probably?

Gene is still falling apart after the disappearance of Detective Moss. I know I barely mentioned her in my last review but she and Gene became a couple and it was the cutest, weirdest shit ever. He does not know she is dead and thinks she may be lost in the woods near his cabin. Barry who killed her and wants the classes to continue convince Gene to stay after telling the story of his first kill. The class starts acting it out as he speaks which was a really well done scene. Barry changes how the events actually played out because he was cheered for while he tells the class he broke down in tears for taking a life. NoHo Hank (still the best!) is starting a partnership with Cristobal and his crew is all of the happy until a deal is made with a Burmese leader Esther. NoHo Hank guilts and threatens Barry into trying to kill her or he will have Barry killed as well as his acting class. Meanwhile Fuches' punkass tries to replace Barry with a killer that ends up shooting himself in the leg, leading cops back to where Fuches and another new client are. The shooter gets shot, the client jumps form the window, and Fuches is arrested. They get his DNA from a soda can and his tooth from NoHo Hank's garage from last season. Loach, who was Moss' partner realizes through Fuches that Barry is the killer. I was like “Oh, shit!” Just from this first episode I knew that a lot of permanent shit was gonna happen this season that would make me feel bad. Barry is having a harder time trying to keep his killing world from getting into his attempt to become an actor and work shit out world.

The Power Of No

Gene decides to have the class tell a story of their truth and wants Barry to tell his story. Instead Barry wants to do a story about the first day he met Gene because he doesn't want the class to look at him like a monster. Gene ends up going to meet his son who he has no relationship with and his son is having none of it. Its cool that he wants that relationship but his son has moved on. Parents take note of this shit. Gene gets upset and tells Barry that he must tell the killing story. Barry attempts to kill Esther but changes his mind (the flashbacks don't help) and is chased down, shot at, and crashes his car. Sally meets up with some agents and is embarrassed at the roles that she gets and upset that someone who was lower on the totem pole than her acting wise is now in charge of a show. The jealousy on this show between the actors is ugly, y'all. Loach finds Fuches holed up I Ohio after Barry dropped his punkass off at the airport and when Barry gets home and Fuches is there he makes him leave. Turns out that Fuches is wired and they are trying to get Barry to confess to murdering Moss so Fuches doesn't go to jail. The bastard! I already didn't like Fuches and this solidified it. No matter what, when it looks like he is about to die he manages to weasel his way out of it somehow. I do like that he accumulates new bruises throughout the show. By the end of the season he looks like a zombie.

Past = Present x Future Over Yesterday

Sally has a story to tell that shocks Barry. She talks about her past relationship with this guy named Sam who would beat the fuck out of her. She tells a brave story of standing up to him finally and leaving him for good. She talks to a friend that was with her when she left and it turns out that there was no climactic ending. She left when he was passed out drunk. She lies to Barry that her friend remembers it just as Sally does. Sally is shock that she managed to come up with this heroic tale but continues to live with the lie because to admit otherwise would make her feel and look weak to her class and herself. While rewriting his own story in the bedroom Barry is shot at by a sniper. He ends up shooting one of them and almost kills NoHo Hank. Hank is happy he is not shot and vomits. This is one of my favorite and funniest scenes. Barry offers to just train Hank's men so he doesn't have to kill anymore people. Barry wants to tell the story of saving his friend during the war and asks Fuches for advice. Fuches tells him not to tell the story because it is the worst story he could possibly tell anyone. Sally and Gene dogpile Barry to get him into angry mode for Sally's scene where he has to get angry and choke her. He leaves and they get outside and, oh look, Sam is there. Sally's ex husband who abused her is standing right the fuck there! Barry serves so many looks when he sees him.

Click here for previous The Review.