Bill Hader in HBO's Barry

really liked this first episode !

yea same

this show is strangely very unfunny, almost comedically tone deaf. even Winkler seems to be unable to do anything with it.

I laughed pretty hard at a few of the text message gags.

Needs more Janet (D'arcy Carden)

i want to like this show *much* more than i like it

I'm in the same boat. When I got to the scene where [SPOILERS FOR HBO BILL HADER VEHICLE "BARRY" TO FOLLOW] he shoots those Chechen gangsters, I realized that Bill Hader wrote himself as an ultra-efficient killing machine, and it was not going to be played for laughs. I felt kind of embarrassed.

the show wouldn't make any sense if he were bad at killing people

It would be funnier though

There's some middle ground between being a bumbling hitman (although that could be funny) and being able to effortlessly and spontaneously execute two people by shooting through a windshield with a handgun from fifty feet away, as Barry does in the second episode.

I think they wanted to leave as much middle ground as possible between his hitman and acting skills.

I understand that, but "as much middle ground as possible" turns out to be too much: as a hitman he's pulling John Wick moves, and as an actor he's like an alien who came to earth having never seen movies, or TV, or very much human behavior before.

the show wouldn't make any sense if he were bad at killing people

kinda sick of badass nerd fantasies. though it couldn't be much more ludicrous than tom cruise as jack reacher. saw there is some movie on netflix with ethan hawke as a badass hit man and i groaned out loud.

as a hitman he's pulling John Wick moves, and as an actor he's like an alien who came to earth having never seen movies, or TV, or very much human behavior before.

I mean...ok if that's not your thing. But you're just describing the essential conceit/premise of the show.

I agree that the show hasn't been hilarious so far. but a good amount of the comedy comes from hader being a one-dimensional hitman exploited by stephen root. you get to watch root's whole deal fall apart because hader, who is very capable otherwise, is worried about his afternoon acting class. so I only mean that this relationship wouldn't make sense without a skill to exploit. Hader is also becoming more of a bumbling hitman, anyway, because of the distraction. I don't love the show yet, but the decision to make him a competent hitman instead of macgruber seems like a funny one.

xp lol exactly

I've only seen this first episode but for this to be bad with this cast, it would have to be really, really bad.

most recent episode was a marked improvement. Winkler's dinner scene was great.

the chechen guy w/o eyebrows shd get his own spinoff

yeah the idiotic chechens are the only thing keeping this show a "comedy" at this point. though i did laugh hardest at barry and winkler's backstage interaction this week ("ok, i see you're still in that place...")

yea idk abt that last macbeth ep

the "this is your new process" line sure felt like comedy to me

is one of the jokes how wretched all of the actors are? unsure. weird show.

(spoilers obviously!!)

I'd have preferred for the detective to take him down and leave this as a limited series tbh

is it going to continue? this show confounded me.

Yeah s2 is happening

Apparently yeah. Henry Winkler is gonna be so sad. ;_;

xp

the idea that he could talk, or shoot, his way out of the ending seems pretty implausible.

I was already annoyed that he hadn't scrubbed his FB page.

as mentioned upthread, what you were meant to accept- what's plausible from a character POV vs a storytelling POV- was so confused and all over the place that it just came out as a mess imo. I generally find Hader to be a welcome presence but i thought on balance this was more bad than good. the idea that it's going to continue makes even less sense.

that ending at the cabin could not have been real

hbo really loves their "antiheroes" who are not actually heroic in any way and you only end up rooting for because they're played by a famous, charismatic actor, huh

entertaining show, good jokes, great character actor work across the board, all somewhat spoiled by the murky morality and weak/inexplicable plotting

going back and reading the comments above, barry doesn't really seem like a badass hitman to me - he's a good shot, but doesn't really do anything fancy or smart. maybe this is just because i'm watching killing eve at the same time.

this show has really leveled up this season

holy fuck

That just blew the monumentally hyped TV show that airs before it out of the water.

^^^^^^^
I woulda sworn this was hiro murai directing; hader pulled off something spectacular here. Coen-esque!

looking forward to catching up since I’m only just finishing with season 1 but that Glengarry scene killed me.

yeah this season has been wild !

This was nice mini-movie, definitely felt like a Coen Bros/Rube Goldberg device to let Barry get away with murder. That little girl!

I hadn't realised there was a second series, mainly because the end of the first was a perfectly satisfactory conclusion, so this is a nice surprise to have to catch up on. (See also Hank Azaria's 'Brockmire'.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/28/arts/television/barry-bill-hader-season-2-episode-5.html

There will be some people who will dig this, and there will be some people who are like: “What’s going on with the acting class? I don’t care about any of this.” You can’t please everybody.

(brockmire is also having a very good third season; the linda lavin episode was aces)

watched it again just now. so great.


(so excited to catch up on brockmire!)

That just blew the monumentally hyped TV show that airs before it out of the water.

totally. that was wild.

Have to wonder if they staggered the season starts just to do that!

i loved this so much...i don't even think it was that much of a tonal shift in the series that people like alan sepinwall keep saying it was. it was just a brilliant and hilarious little short film

Also loved the wordless shots of Stephen Root in malevolent devil mode.

when he yelled "what are you??"--that was the hardest i've laughed at anything on tv this year.

Please bring back feral mongoose girl for more - so entertaining. The little 'eep' on the last hedgerow leap had me laughing so hard.

The whole since in the house with Ronny felt very Tarantino to me

Kill Bill vibes for sure

I’m caught up except for the most recent ep which isn’t out yet here and just came here to say I’m new to this idea of there being a person called bill hader who is actually dexter Michael Shannon. And apparently this is normal, everyone is just letting that go by

honestly hoping the little girl never recurs, Pine Barrens-style

lmao just read the interview and got to Hader explicitly referencing it!

Nice clickbait:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xZFQjeZwaw

I love this character.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PinkPoshBlueshark-size_restricted.gif

the lightswitch with him from fawning sycophant to psychopath is always so clean

the scene with winkler breaking down "swim instructors" is probably the best highlight of the show since the glengarry scene.

i strongly agree

"You say the title of the movie...they can't possibly cut that!"

i enjoyed season 1, but season 2 of this has been another level. hard to know if there's a jam band solo effect, though, where it's made better by the long slog of the preceding game of thrones.

I don't watch GoT, and Barry has been figuratively killing it these season (I was going to say literally too, but has he actually killed anyone this season? No, right?).

Y’know I hadn’t noticed but I guess you’re right! Set a lotta people down that road tho

Yeah there have been some dei ex machina to swoop in and do the deed.

He's a good person now.

Is he 6’2”?

google sez more like 6'0.5"

was making a joke about it only mattering that he's 6'2" for swim instructors

but also, i didn't think he was much over 6 ft while watching. so thank you for confirming.

next week’s the finale already

good season, not sure it's appreciably better than the first on the whole just yet; still feel it's a bit too self-satisfied for my liking

SPOILERS

man that finale was brutal and I have no idea how to feel about it.

back into the darkness he goes

We've got HBO for a couple of months and I'm catching up on things -- hooooly shit that "ronny/lily" episode.

Barry has been figuratively killing it these season (I was going to say literally too, but has he actually killed anyone this season? No, right?).

Just caught up with the finale and LOL at this comment.

haha

I understand that, but "as much middle ground as possible" turns out to be too much: as a hitman he's pulling John Wick moves, and as an actor he's like an alien who came to earth having never seen movies, or TV, or very much human behavior before.

― JRN, Friday, April 13, 2018 3:59 AM bookmarkflaglink

Lol if you've never attended amateur theatre auditions, they come far, far worse than Barry circa S1.

Just finished S1. A bit aggrieved by the finale but i will continue

From that article linked above about the infamous S2E5:

“We might have jumped the shark,” Hader said

...sez the guy whose co-star is Henry Winkler.

Also there is a great little piece of understated physical comedy in S1 when Fuches goes to sit backwards on a chair to give Barry some coaching and he can’t because the chair has arms so he has to turn it around.

Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2019 season is nominated in the 2019 ILX TV poll:

ILX's Best Television of 2019 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends January 31

If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (4 minimum, 25 maximum, organized by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail by end of day today. It'll take five minutes; get to it!

Is this back next week?

Yep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx6AS0zzfGM

Back Sunday!

Assume this is on weekly? (which would give me a chance to rewatch season 2)

oh my god lol this show has become so deeply unpleasant

just realized that outside of the acting stuff this is basically live action tv show version of gta 5

The “you have too many dogs” scene a few weeks ago still pops into my head randomly and makes me laugh.

Last night when Barry was explaining to Sally what he could do about the network exec who had cancelled her show had one of the most uncomfortable mixtures of horror and laughter I've ever experienced.

It's interesting to see the turn of completely burning any of Barry's bridges and bringing back the guy he saved to investigate but, yeah, it has become pretty unpleasant. While I understand the narrative need for it, the mom accidentally shooting her son in the stomach, thus saving Barry, felt like unnecessary punishment for those characters after everything else. I did lol very hard at the FaceTime from the parking garage scene.

Barry has gone from awful but still likable or endearing to just like… really, really unlikable. There’s no complexity anymore or like tension between the two halves. Like he’s just capital-B Bad. It makes for a much less compelling show IMO, there’s very little fun, and what funny moments there are feel like try-hard attempts at levity

Also I can’t tell if I’m being overly uptight but as much as I love the Hank-Cristobal pairing there’s something about the way it’s supposed to be funny that feels ever so slightly off to me

Disappointing to hear. I've gotten behind and only seen two eps. If he's going full on Scarface I'm a lot less interested

i'm not sure about villainous but it definitely seems like, especially in that scene with Sally about gaslighting the network exec, they have made him seem way more psychopathic and detached from reality. I get that that change in tone was a diagenic response to Hank and Cristobal's encouragement to be more honest, but even so it seemed like a different Barry being honest than the one we got to know in the first couple seasons, who was often on teh verge of tears when he "had" to kill someone. If they keep this up they will have lost a lot of anything new or unique that this show had to add to the very well-trod prestige TV antihero canon. But I think they can still pull back, will keep watching to see where it goes.

Also I can’t tell if I’m being overly uptight but as much as I love the Hank-Cristobal pairing there’s something about the way it’s supposed to be funny that feels ever so slightly off to me

― Stevie D(eux), Tuesday, May 24, 2022 10:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I'm not sure it's supposed to be funny on its own. I think any humor that comes from their scenes that appears to be pointed at them is more about the increased discrepancy/juxtaposition between them and their line of work.

I've also not interpreted Barry as "capital-B Bad"... my understanding is that he essentially has snapped and crossed another threshold of disillusionment and depression. Note the way he thought he was "fixing" things along the way this entire season. Just has no moral compass but isn't aware of it.

It's a weird show. They definitely seem to be doing a gritty "if you thought being a hitman was at all quirky or Cusack-esque, it's not, it's really fucked up" thing.

Instead of the Coen Bros world where you have either hapless civilians going down dark paths or cold-hearted killers who aren't bothered about redemption or living normal lives, you've just got Barry going further down the rabbit hole. I guess I'm curious to see where they go with it, assuming he lives to see another season.

someone is going to get hit on-stage

i think it was someone here's theory upthread that the daughter from sally's show is going to figure out his deal and he's going to kill her. that felt otm though not sure now that the show's canceled, she wasn't in the most recent ep at all i don't think.

fuchs sending all these innocent civilian types after barry is certainly setting him up for some actions that may give his feeble moral compass a little jolt

Oh, didn't know it was canceled. Probably for the best though, it doesn't seem like the sort of show that should run much longer.

Oh wait...you mean the show within the show, lol

Yeah in fact Barry got renewed for a 4th season

I'm not sure it's supposed to be funny on its own. I think any humor that comes from their scenes that appears to be pointed at them is more about the increased discrepancy/juxtaposition between them and their line of work.

― Evan, Wednesday, May 25, 2022 10:25 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think this is exactly it, though, like I guess I'm just kind of tired seeing queerness framed as this soft, flowery thing that is even something to be juxtaposed with hardness. Though otoh they have definitely throw in some really sweet not-funny scenes that really humanize them as a couple, so that's nice too.

I'm enjoying this season so far and I thought the second episode in particular was very well-directed -- Hader is a major talent behind the camera. I really don't care if Barry is "likable" or redeemable -- he's a creation of the U.S. military and others who exploited his instability.

xpost

Hear you on that for sure, though because the character Hank is such a deliberate opposite of the crime boss/management character trope, I guess they figured this development leans into that as well (opposite of trope). I wonder if they thought about your takeaway in the writer's room or not.

This show is so rad.

This episode felt like it took place in its own weird micro-universe to me, vague Repo Man vibes for some reason

"Handoff!"

...the dirtbike scenes in this felt especially GTA 5 like...

feels like this was a good watch through seasons 1 and 2 as a bill hader character study, but when they pulled back the curtain on barry with his whole i can gaslight the banshe executive into offing herself, that's where it feels like it lost the plot for me - now it just feels like hitman silicon valley, not saying that's a bad thing, but def a different direction

I thought the GTA vibe was intentional, given Barry's gaming throughout the show.

Also the machine gun the guy tried to handoff was one of the heavier weapons in GTA5

Fuchs going from shot-and-left-for-dead to perfectly fine in the course of a couple of scenes threw this whole show into a level of SoCal Magic Realism that unsettled everything else for me. It would honestly be a relief at the end of the season for Pam Ewing to wake up and realize it was all a dream. xp maybe the video game stuff means it is a dream!

bill hader aka king of the algorithm pic.twitter.com/lZjOUDQ1Jy

— Shae 🇵🇸 | BARRY S3 (@escapinglocals) May 23, 2022

The GTA vibe was enormous throughout the chase.

-The NPC mailman unable to react
-The casual change of vehicles and continuation, leaving a huge mess behind as if it wouldn't be instantly traceable to the vehicle owner in reality
-The curiously, overly long shots following Barry on the bike onto the highway as if in 3rd person perspective (AKA as if playing the game)
-The traffic not reacting to gunfire at/from the bikes weaving through
-The over the top firepower from a conveniently placed goon in said traffic that even MORE unbelievably does not react to the heavy gunfire even after (during the attempted handoff gag)
-The instantly hostile car dealer NPC that fetches his gun
-The biker girl that gets knocked over by the initial shotgun but has more HP so gets up again
-The NPCs at the dealership that scream and run a short distance away (not far enough away from someone still shooting wildly) and aren't panicking
-The same NPCs calmly strolling back into the building after the biker is shot dead on the roof just like how actual NPCs simply switch back to idle animations/pathing as if nothing happened.

<3 james hiroyuki liao in this

This show has really captured how Stephen Root can go from total buffoon to Satanic figure in the blink of an eye.

one thing i like about this season is how various people have a chance to bring barry to legal justice, but are far too wrapped up in their own violent vengeful fantasies, so he skirts away

Haha, Evan very much otm about that chase scene

Very impressive finale. I read an interview that said that Cristobal died, which I didn't realize when I watched that scene (and may not be accurate?).

I'll say something possibly daffy: I think the extreme ramped-up emotions and increased brutality of this season feels more resonant with the times. A lot has changed in the 2 years since this show was away and that's plenty of time for characters in these situations to dig deeper into instability. I'm glad a show like this and one like Atlanta (whose latest season I largely need to catch up on) can become what it wants to without worrying about the classification of remaining a comedy.

I don't think Cristobal died, but his brain was fried by his wife's electroshock conversion therapy.

This show is next to impossible to classify, and as the characters sort of spun out away from each other this season it was increasingly hard to find the through-thread of the show (although as I type that I realize that with the exception of the Hank/Cristobal plot, they all passed back into Barry's orbit here at the end). Reflecting on this finale, I would say that the main character of the show is the theme of solving problems with violence, brutality, and betrayal. And of course how doing so is a vicious cycle.

I have been dipping into some of the press that Hader has been doing this season and around the finale, and I love that he is really unsympathetic to Barry - it's a nice contrast to the Walter Whites of the world who are more at risk of getting valorized by fans.

Everybody goes, “How do you write and direct yourself?” I’m like, “He doesn’t speak.” [Laughs.] I don’t think the whole of seven I say a word. You don’t want to hear Barry talk for that long. He’s a dummy.

Also Chris L - your initial point about resonance with the times seems otm w/ how Hader sees it. This is from the same Vulture interview as the link above:

I always appreciate things that I would watch and feel, “Oh, that feels honest.” I did another interview and someone said, “Wow. This is really bleak.” I said, “Is it bleaker than anything you see on the news right now?” Living in the pandemic and where the world’s at and mass shootings and all these things — it’s all in there emotionally.

Nice, thanks for the heads-up! This season also had some of the best satire about streaming content I've seen so far; another area where they were observant.

Oh yeah, and all the meta stuff with the show we're watching adopting the algorithm advice (e.g. characters always eating breakfast) - clear enough to see but not ott

oops i mean dessert. i have inadvertently revealed when i eat donuts

Beignet oracle guy was great.

I haven't seen the finale yet so this post might be redundant but I predict next season will see Sally ask for Barry's favour she turned down (and caused their split) to be called in.

;)

lol

I probably shouldn't be, but I'm surprised at just how unhinged Sally got, like freaking out at Natalie and then casually asking Barry to fuck w her

Does anybody want the lottery numbers for next week? ;-)

The scene between Jim Moss and Gene in the garage, was that a callback to an actor's exercise in 'finding the truth in your statement' or something like that? Felt structured that way rather than an interrogation or hypnosis setup.

I thought it was kind of a dark reflection of the acting exercises in season one, the mirroring thing, but yeah it felt very theater-y.

just blasted through this season, iirc from my acting days the gene and jim in the garage scene was explicitly referencing the meisner technique

Pulling a Succession!

Exclusive! I talked to Bill Hader about why he's ending #Barry with Season 4. https://t.co/6gwlR0afog

— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) March 7, 2023

While I'm all in favor of shows not being dragged out way past their expiration dates, I am bummed about the more recent trend of shows ending before it feels like they should. That said, it's definitely easier to accept when it's the creators making the decision and not just dumbfuck tax avoidance bullshit.

i totally trust Hader--feel like s. 2 was slightly better than s. 3 but watching the new trailer makes me wanna watch the whole thing over again

idk if i agree with succession, but i def think it's smart to end this one earlier than later. the premise is not built to last forever.

do i think it's a coincidence that hbo's critically-beloved but lightly-viewed series are all deciding it's time to hang up the cleats at the same time? sure.

Have loved Barry so far but S3 was a bit weaker than S1/S2 and I can easily see this show providing diminishing returns. I'm fine with it ending

Same, seems like a perfect time for it to end, looking forward to the final season though.

First two episodes were decent, but I'll be honest I'm way more looking forward to the NoHo Hank and Cristobal scenes than anything with Barry (although Fuchs trying to round up his prison gang was pretty funny).

There needs to be a NoHoHank/Cristobal spin-off.

The umpty-leven shifts in alliances and motivations in a half hour were a little OTT for me, even for this show. It was like watching Jonathan Winters or Robin Williams pull out props and hats from a box and make a one-liner, then move on to the next prop. I have to re-acclimate myself to its cartoon rhythms. Still good though.

Only watched ep1, but we were meant to think that Cristobal had died at the end of last season, right? I mean, easy enough for them to say he was only mostly dead, but is there any chance all the Hank/Cristobal stuff is an extended fantasy?

Haven't watched the new series yet but as I remembered it Elena had elctro-shocked him to a vegetative state.

this look just killed me:

https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/noho-hank-actor-anthony-carrigan-details-work-with-bill-hader-on-barry-and-a-film-icons-season-4-cameo-exclusive-interview/intro-1681491237.jpg

i watched ALL of this show and couldn't tell you what happened at the end of the last ep i watched if my life depended on it

this show is maybe a little bit too confusing/hard to follow for me

I have to re-acclimate myself to its cartoon rhythms.

OK, re-acclimation complete, this was terrific. Great cameos from GdT and Armisen.

what's so funny to me about the Gene/Gene's agent breaking into Lon's house, is Gene's agent being 100% sure that all of the hard drive info is in the monitor--maybe if it was a Mac??--but it looked like a PC, and not only that, Lon def has backups and stuff saved to the cloud, but Gene's agent is too old (I guess?) to understand this.

Amazing episode--one of the best in the past two seasons

I guess what I'm saying is, I don't know of any PCs that have hard drives in the monitor, but I could be wrong

People who complain the show forgot it's a comedy are wrong. Moss doing something to the reporter that left him delirious, speaking German, and switching snacks from Skittles to gummy bears is so absurdist.

My PC has a hard drive in the monitor.

yeah like i said. was still funny to throw a monitor in the pool

and assume that. . . that was that! all taken care of

I wonder if the single shot “next time on Barry” previews are a tribute to the hilariously empty episode previews (I think?) Mad Men that largely consisted of scenes of people going “what” or “huh” and staring

Some grim stuff in the latest episode. Kinda hoping the final scene was a fakeout that will be resolved right away in the next ep.

Despite the lack of any murders, this was possibly the grimmest episode yet.

it really was almost unbearably bleak

Barry's disappearance was eight years earlier but John seems older than that — I guess the fed-provided new life included a kid.

God damn that was indeed bleak. Wow.

Am I projecting, or did the cast start to change the way they said the show 'Laws of Humanity' to 'Loss of Humanity' instead?

along those lines: is it just me or does every character pronounce “cousineau” differently?

I think everyone says KOO-suh-no, except for Winkler himself, who says KOO-suh-now.

I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt for these last few episodes, but based on this week, I’m not convinced that a time jump was necessary.

i wasn't into it for the last 5-10 minutes anymore, until the last line that Barry says and I'm all in now

Just hoping for more NoHo Hank, though my hopes for the Cristobal/NoHo Hank spin-off sitcom were cruelly dashed.

I feel like I must be missing something very obvious here but why on earth would Sally go with Barry to start this new life? I'm not even asking with the hindsight of how depressing and dead that life is, but in the moment where he shows up in her apartment. I read his earlier confidence that she would come with him because "she said I make her feel safe" as completely delusional. Is she just so beaten down by the craziness of the plot machinations to this point, and thinks Barry will always find her somehow? Does she feel held hostage by the dude she killed? It feels inconsistent with her character that she would give up on her independent life to that degree just based on the professional setbacks she's had with being the crazy c**t girl or whatever...

she doesn't want her independent life as it exists--she has a dream to become an actress and that's not achievable when Barry shows up. it's more than setbacks---there's no way she's getting a real job again. she's at the scott biao level as he exists now

doesn't track for me. Her acting student's agent wants to represent her, and while he tells her she'll never get a real good gig anymore with her rep, she's proven herself a) way too strong to be cowed by that, and b) too smart to think it's true, that being cancelled lasts forever. Going with Barry feels like a level of giving up that isn't consistent with her character or at least that we skipped over some steps of her downfall

I guess the one piece that makes it more believable though is her history as a domestic violence victim. As depressing as that is.

Nice that they have that fiber internet connection in the middle of nowhere

FWIW, this was Vulture's take on Sally:

Sally will likely never again be able to do what she truly wants. She had that opportunity with Joplin, but the vagaries of the streaming economy ended that, and her own increasing megalomania, combined with the unfortunate news about her ex-boyfriend, closed off any potential path back.

Still, she could claw her way to finding something in the industry if she were open to lowering her ambitions. But the news from Kristen about Barry’s escape helps crystallize a suspicion that has likely been on her mind all day on the Mega Girls set: There’s no longer anything for her in Hollywood. What Sally wants now is safety and love, and in her mind, the easiest place to find those is with Barry.

yeah i dunno about all that about hollywood. i think the way it makes sense, which is really her DV victim mindset, is that she's seen the ugliness and violence of the world and while Barry is as emblematic of it as anyone, she is convinced that he and he alone can be trusted to never direct it towards her (witness her family being so useless and unsupportive). I don't love it and it is heartbreaking but that's my read

I agree Lavator, I didn’t believe Sally would truly desire this level of exile. She already tried exile with her family and couldn’t stand it. And she went back and even despite everything, she was still shooting her shot any chance she got. The scene where she seamlessly went from coaching to auditioning was peak Sally, and I don’t believe that even being rejected in that moment would be enough for her to 1) go with Barry 2) to the middle of nowhere 3) and become a mother 4) who works a dead-end job 5) where she has to put up with still yet more toxic men, only this time 6) men without any power to do anything for her

All it needs to be is enough for her to run with Barry in the heat of that first moment. After that she’s trapped because she’s helped harbour a dangerous fugitive, and then trapped again because she has a child.

that's a fair point about digging herself in too deep early by not turning him in and then one thing leading to another. however, the implausibility combined with the lynchian surreal landscape does still make me wonder if this is ultimately going to be some kind of delusional fever dream, or at least not be quite what it seems

really good interview with Sarah Goldberg who plays Sally, where she talks about Sally's trauma driving her towards Barry: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/barry-time-jump-sally-sarah-goldberg-1235604728/

We thought with Episodes 1-4, how are we going to get Sally to a place where this tracks, and she’s wanting to go with Barry?

That’s why there’s the moment in Episode 2 when Sally says, “I feel safe with you.” The idea is that she’s been through so much in her life and she’s been through abusive relationships. Barry was the one person who witnessed her crime and her most animal self in this terrible thing that she did, and he chooses to love her anyway. Sally’s the only character in the show who murders someone when murder isn’t a part of her regular life and isn’t her career. She’s in his terrible trauma state from what’s happened, and Barry, for some reason, is the only person that makes her feel safe because he was there. It’s like him being around her annuls the experience. It makes it all quiet. It’s tragic, really.

bleaker and more messed up every week, so good

omg this show! we watched ep 4 yesterday.

I dunno if I can keep watching thi

oh no they got to him too

bill hader needs to direct a horror movie or something

Stephen Root was so entertaining in this ep.

My only puzzlement is what happened to the guy’s eye with the door?

It was a hallucination. The eye thing was from the episode where she kills that guy.

Doh, of course!

It’s purposely disorienting because according to Hader they used the actual audio from that scene but also brought back the actor to record new dialogue where he talks about the kid, etc.

Gotta admit I found that whole scene confusing. I understood there was some level of hallucination but I also thought something real was happening in the house? Wasn’t the house still trashed after she was sitting on the floor calling Barry?

i "read" it as flashback to the trauma she has of murdering someone

She probably trashed the house. There might be some level of intentional uncertainty about it though.

There's a lot of the last/latest season of Twin Peaks in this season. I think the last few episodes have been an extended fever dream. He'd fall briefly into these kinds of fantasies about a perfect life outside of Fuches, etc, so it wouldn't be totally out of nowhere. And now, at the end of this last episode, it picks up from whatever happened after Barry showed up at Sally's.

It was a hallucination. The eye thing was from the episode where she kills that guy.

Ohhh, thank you. I knew that sounded familiar but I wrongly assumed that the intruder in black was the dude from the diner. Or maybe it was, but she hallucinated some of the elements? There have been some obvious fantasy scenes this scene, and I initially wondered if the whole flash forward thing would be a hallucination, but this one was more ambiguous and eerie (haven't seen the new ep yet).

Appreciate that this week's episode maintained a reasonable amount of humor. The last two eps, as already said above, were f'ing bleak.

The 501 joke was fucking great, I'm perplexed that Sally would have Gene's mobile number though.

amazing episode--so much more satisfying than the end episodes of Succession

Wait what was the 501 joke

Hank's comment after '500 confirmed kills' when the assassins were being introduced.

the only joke I liked in this episode was hank saying "why do I keep opening these boxes?"

yeah didn't love this ep, felt a little too all over the place. i appreciate them getting away from the nonstop bleak by bringing back some of the humor that used to be a more significant ingredient, but tonally this one just felt all over the map

Oh, right. Yeah the jokes were mostly Hank-based as usual and felt a little rote, but I'm looking forward to the finale. Lol @ Daniel Day Lewis + Mark Wahlberg though.

I do love seeing Stephen Root in his gang boss incarnation, and the phone call bit between him & Hank.

barry finale beat succession at its own game.

Fucking hell, bleak

Oh man.

I found this very unsatisfying but I can’t really say why.

I found it unsatisfying yet also much of it was inevitable and was very “Barry.”

Appreciated this take, which made me appreciate how the redemption of Barry could only be fake redemption. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/28/arts/television/barry-finale.html

I wasn't feeling this season much apart from a few Hank scenes. The writers were certainly trying some new ideas but most of it left me cold