Barry S03

The show changed pretty dramatically this season, which was a major strength. Barry is of course a relatively short-form show, and it wastes no time getting to the meat of the story–we saw what happened last time (Barry finally breaks into a murderous rampage, etc.), here’s how Barry has gotten fucked up about it since. Some time has passed. Barry is a killer again, clearly having given up on the idea that he can change, he has lost the small amount of purpose he gained and is now in a fake and loveless relationship with Sally.

In many ways this season feels like a takedown of the fantasy built-up in the first two seasons (a fantasy built by Barry). For any viewers who are watching Barry with the same emotional maturity as the many people who watched The Sopranos or Breaking Bad or Mad Men or any other show with a Bad Guy doing Bad Things that they inexplicably thought was mostly just really cool and rooted for the entire time, the third season tears this all away for Barry. He cannot, as Barry may have thought, have it all. He will not simply get away with it, he will not become a “good guy” just like that, he will not get the girl even though he’s a murdering sociopath.

I don’t think the show is casting him off as irredeemable, I just think it’s correctly pointing out that if all ended well at this point, it would be absurd. Of course Barry is going to regress, of course he’s not simply going to “get the girl” and instead inevitably have his violent not-actually-compartmentalized-rage spill out into his romantic relationship, of course Barry is going to have to face real consequences for what he’s done. By the third season, it would be silly if these chickens didn’t come to roost. And those chickens do come to roost, by way of Fuches sicking his “panthers” on Barry: literally all the people he’s killed come back to haunt him, forcing him to have to face the pain he’s caused (with the most satisfying conclusions being brought with the father of Ryan Madison, the first person we saw Barry kill, and Barry’s wounded Korengal buddy-turned-FBI agent Albert).

Here, we see Barry at (optimistically) his rock bottom. He knows it, too. He starts the season by asking for help from Hank at the end of the first episode–he’s not simply evil, he’s just a broken man. He may not be irredeemable, but he clearly won’t be redeemed so easily.

The only minor complaint for me when thinking about the season overall, is that the electrifying high of the first two episodes (which begins a two-episode-long manic sequence that made me feel like I was watching Uncut Gems again as Barry loses his shit trying to stop his life from spiraling even further out of control when Gene confronts him, including a genuinely scary scene where he yells at Sally) was followed by a comparable (probably much-needed) low as the story beats all begin to wrap up (Barry lets Gene go and finally stops trying to be his friend, Sally thank god leaves Barry, Hank maybe has made it through with Cristobal, etc.), at the midway point of the season and new beats begin to take place (Fuches turns back to vengeance and sicks his “panthers” on Barry, Sallie gets her shit turned upside down, Hank and Cristobal get their shit turned upside down, etc.). It was as though I had been held at gunpoint for two episodes in a terrifying new immersive VR version of Barry, and then removed the goggles and watched a normal couple episodes of season one or two Barry to relax before things got back in the groove. I think it was necessary for the plot, but I found myself itching for more in the in-between space (though thankfully the season really brought it home in the latter half).

Sally was the standout character for me this season. I had heard that for this season she based her performance on Matthew Macfadyen’s Tom Wambsgans in Succession, and that makes so much sense. Just like Barry’s progression felt like a perfectly natural next step for the character, so did Sally’s descent from “kind of an asshole to Barry and self-centered at times” to having an ego the size of the moon and becoming abusive. A victim of abuse now dishing it out, feeling the draw of power over others (especially having been on the other side for so long in the hilarious and sad series-long commentary on film and TV executives and writers centered on her character) and pulling up the ladder from beneath her. Her self-importance is even better after the finale of season two, which saw her showered with praise not for displaying her truth about her abusive relationship and being the “true artist” she wanted to be, but for telling a pandering and comforting lie–she’s fully bought into the machine given the success she’s now seen, and yet is still chewed up and spit out.

Her rage-filled screaming at Natalie (who D’arcy Carden did a wonderful job with this season) in the elevator that led to her ultimate downfall was heart-pounding (the way she screams “cunt”? Jesus fucking christ). And her becoming a killer at the end was a very interesting and tragic move. For a moment I thought Barry would still “get the girl,” that she would fall back into his arms after he took care of the murder for her. But, smartly, we see Barry’s fantasy fall flat with his girlfriend, just as it immediately proceeds to fall flat in the next scene with his criminal life when he finally gets caught.

Finally, a couple quick highlights: I loved Elsie Fisher (best known from her debut in Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, which I’d highly recommend!) as the young actor Katie who is being taken under Sally’s wing. It was heartbreaking to see this kid’s introduction to Hollywood and having her check Sally’s lies to herself.

I loved Hank and Cristobal. I laughed hard when I realized they actually were just in a relationship now, and was so happy. The story is incredibly tragic, especially the ending. Both the first and last episodes of the season were standouts for Hank’s character to me. The end of the first episode saw the tables turn on Hank and Barry’s relationship, with Barry now being the idiot that Hank tells to fuck off (in probably the most mature relationship we’ve seen from Hank that elevated the character for me). The end of the last episode is a terrifying sequence that sees Hank have to (gasp) actually shoot a gun himself for the first time, confronting his mortality in a non-comedic way for the first time and saving Cristobal from a depressing scene of electroshock gay conversion therapy.

I just want to briefly touch on the prospects for season four. I was shocked to read, as I’m sure many others were, that season four has already been confirmed. If the series had ended here, I can’t imagine anyone would complain. If it was any other series I may be wary, but I can’t wait to see what Bill Hader and Alec Berg have in store for how to continue this series. I just want to say, though, that it seems some people online are convinced that Barry will “get away with it,” and we will be treated to some cool scenes of him breaking out of prison or outsmarting the legal system. I can only imagine these are the same people who miss the point of every other TV show, and who think that Carmela Soprano and Skyler White are annoying because they won’t stop bitching and just let the cool protagonist do cool things. That seems insane to me, and like a complete misreading of the show. Barry is not smart! Hader has said as much. He’s not cool. Much of the show (and definitely in this season) is explicitly trying to make the show’s violence banal rather than cool. I see the point of this season as Barry reaching rock bottom, regressing after getting filled with hope in season one and two. Now, presumably we will see Barry try again to become a good man. The question is how this time will be different, what has he learned?