This story contains spoilers for Barry seasons two and three.
Three long years after the broadcast of its last and spectacular second season, the premiere of the new season of barry it opens throwing everything out the window. After Barry, the war veteran hit man who implausibly hopes to become an actor to reinvent himself and stop murdering people, went on a killing spree at the end of last season, he’s now given up on the redemption he’s been desperately seeking. . throughout the show. In the middle of nowhere, a man Barry is doing a menial job for suddenly changes his mind about killing Jeff, the man who slept with his wife. “I forgive Jeff,” the man says as Jeff, bloodied and standing in the grave he has been forced to dig for himself, thanks him. Suddenly, Barry shoots them both in the head.
In the past, as Barry struggled to stay on track, he kept killing again, but usually in his defense, ostensibly to get out of a tight spot or to protect others. Here, callous and arrogant, he kills two strangers out of annoyance and bitterness. “You can’t just forgive Jeff!” he yells at two corpses in the desert. It is a concise opening: this season is going to be complicated. And it is, but the opener also promises a bit too much in a season that can be somewhat uneven and sometimes veer in directions that, in part intentionally, threaten to lose the thread of the show. But on the other hand, the third season also maintains barryThe title of one of the best programs on television.
Barry isn’t the only one in a very different place now. Taking place months after the events of the second season, everything has changed. Sally directs the TV show herself (her narrative of hers and her insistence on trauma and how Hollywood deals with “female stories” can be funny and insightful, but also far less rich than last season’s work in these areas ); Mr. Cousineau’s class is closed and he seeks revenge against Barry for killing his mistress, Detective Moss; Fuches goes into exile in Chechnya; and NoHo Hank is in a relationship with Bolivian mob boss Cristobal (it’s one of the biggest, most interesting and most satisfying twists this season).
Meanwhile, Barry has become a version of these characters that he has struggled to extricate himself from: in a reversal of the usual dynamic, he finds Hank and asks for a job in his deepest despair. In a later episode, he appears as a wraith at the Cousineau house in a way that is eerily reminiscent of the way Fuches has always appeared and haunted Barry.
These dramatic shifts in familiarity are necessary for any series entering its third season, and also why these new episodes can naturally feel a bit shaky. But the season is made more complicated by how far he goes to erase a central dramatic question: Can people change? In the first episode, the theme of forgiveness comes up again and again. “Forgiveness has to be earned,” Hank chides Barry, dispensing a rare moment of wisdom before he slips back into trademark malapropism. Later in the episode, Barry, distraught and on the verge of committing another unforgivable act, repeats the line to Cousineau, prompting his acting coach to snap back, “Then earn him!” It’s about as powerful a thesis statement for the new season as you can ask for.
But what follows for Barry, a wobbly line to forgiveness and him wanting to change again, is in fact far more monstrous than the killer we know him to be. He has a terrifyingly violent outburst towards Sally, someone he has naively fallen in love with and only cautiously treated as a false ideal for his own self-realization, and becomes contemptible in his dealings with Mr. Cousineau, ironically to set things right. . . The extremity and inconsistency in his character this season is intentional: Barry is so far gone now that the decency he has tried to maintain is possibly lost forever. But this new dark side sometimes comes close to undoing what made the show’s pathos so powerful: Barry as a tragic figure, someone who, despite the pitfalls of him, was a sympathetic antihero deserving of redemption.
However, between the six episodes available for review, it’s hard not to maintain your complete trust in the show. You are on the journey because barry it is so tight on all fronts. It’s still a staggeringly affordable series: As a half-hour dramedy with only eight episodes per season, there’s never any filler, and the opening and ending scenes of its episodes remain unmatched.
And it can’t be overstated how visually and formally it is one of the most creative and dynamic shows airing today. Much of this feels guided by the hand of Hader himself, who directs most of this season’s episodes and imbues the show with a distinctly auteur-like electricity, both in its comedic and dramatic moments. There may not be an achievement as impressive as the all-time one that was.”ronny/lily” he directed last season, but sections like the second half of “710N,” the season’s sixth episode, along with the ways in which simple moments are blocked out, are, on a technical level, among the most compelling scenes in the series. television.
The show’s offbeat humor is also as strong as ever, though some more outlandish jokes fall flat. It’s also a great showcase, again, for his all-star cast: Anthony Carrigan remains our lovable jerk as Hank, who gains much-needed depth in the show’s exploration of his new relationship with Christopher; Sarah Goldberg (Sally) and Henri Winkler (Cousineau) are consistently stellar; and D’arcy Carden is also a pleasant surprise in an expanded role for Natalie.
The biggest pivots here for season three, filled with wilder swings and new territory that don’t always land perfectly, were inevitable, particularly with its long wait between seasons. But even if Barry is as lost as ever and the change feels like a farce, he’s still just as funny and heartwarming as ever wanting to see him try. We still want to see him win it.
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