Spoiler Warning: HBO’s Barry Seasons 1-3
The hilarious hi-jinks ofBill Hader’sharried hitman Barry have been heralded by HBO Max viewers everywhere. Since the premiere ofBarryin 2018, audiences have waited around with bated breath for each new episode. Over the course of three seasons, the show’s storylines only grow more and more audacious. It presents new and exciting challenges to the show’s stellar cast.
That cast includes Stephen Root (King of the Hill, The Man in the High Castle) as Barry’s former assassination employer Monroe Fuches, Henry Winkler (Happy Days, Arrested Development) as acting teacher Gene Cousineau, Sarah Goldberg (A Bunch of Amateurs,The Dark Knight Rises) as Barry’s former romantic partner Sally Reed, and Anthony Carrigan (Gotham, Bill & Ted Face the Music) as NoHo Hank, the Chechen enemy turned associate of Barry.
Obviously, Bill Hader’s performance as the titular Barry is essential to the success of this critically acclaimed comedy series. Fortunately, for the show and its viewers, Bill Hader (Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) brings it in a big way. The role of Barry is arguably the greatest performance ofHader’s impressive career, a fact which season three only further proves. Here’s how Hader hits a homerun as hitman Barry.
Actualization via Acting
Barryis, at its core, something of a meta-commentary. Many of the show’s actors, including Bill Hader himself, are portraying actors. This can be incredibly difficult to do. The play within a play trope has been around for some time. However, playing a character attempting to play another character, especially when the initial character is supposed to be a less than stellar actor, is nearly impossible.
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Bill Hader manages to accomplish this task and then some. As Barry, the actor is not only made to act as though he’s acting (and, as it must be noted, Barry is a substantially worse actor than Hader could ever be). Barry pretends to be a docile creative type while harboring a murderous rage within himself. A worse actor couldn’t accurately convey this many layers of character. But Hader understands the assignment at hand, andas season three unfolds, audiences can see the hitman’s multifaceted facade begin to crumble in real-time.
Barry is a Hitman with a Heart
Barry’s primary conflict comes from how Barry’s past life as a hitman, rife with violence, is unable to be fully left behind. It also comes from how that life hilariously (and often tragically) juxtaposes itself with his new life as a burgeoning actor.
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As new episodes ofBarryare released, it becomes clear just how broken Bill Hader’s Barry truly is. Season two ends with a wanton slaughter at a monastery in search of his former boss turned arch-nemesis, Stephen Root’s Monroe Fuches. Season two ends with him killing two men, one of whom had previously wanted the other assassinated, just because they reconcile. It would be easy to portray Barry as nothing other than a stone-cold killer. But Hader has allowed audiences to come to terms with the inevitability of his violent past resurfacing slowly throughout the show’s run.
Barry’s Constant Chaos
At the end of the day,Barryis Bill Hader’s show. Though he has surrounded himself with an incredibly creative crew and a talented acting cast, the show has a certain strangeness that can only be accomplished when a talented primary creative influence is at the helm.
For example, in one of season three’s recently released episodes, “710N,” Barry spends the second half of the episode’s run time being chased by a gang of dirt bike riding hooligans, one of whom had their brother murdered by Barry in season one. After a harrowing high-speed chase on Los Angeles highways, he manages to evade the crew. Just when he feels he’s out of the clear and has settled in for a nice meal with Sharon, the wife of the late Chris (Barry’s close friend who he callously murdered in season one), it is revealed that Fuches told Sharon that Chris was killed by Barry. Subsequently, he foams at the mouth and collapses from an unknown poison. As both an actor and the creative force behind the show, Bill Hader refuses to compromise onBarry’squirkiness, and the show is better for it.
Barrystarted out great, and it is only getting better.Season three is drawingto a close, and given the show’s consistently unpredictable nature, passionate audiences can only speculate as to how the season will conclude and how future seasons could unfold. However, with Bill Hader starring in and serving as a creative voice on the show, it will undoubtedly continue to deliver.
