When HBO’s Barry premiered back in Spring of 2018, the show found a masterful blend of comedy and drama that, while slow to start, hooked you in by the end of its first season. The story of a hitman pivoting his career to become an actor is an absurd one but as Barry continued, it quickly became a wonderfully dark comedic masterpiece. As the series comes barrelling to its final season, however, the show’s humorous side has quickly begun to disintegrate. In this piece, I want to delve into Barry’s wonderful blend of comedy, tension, and how the drama has taken center stage. To do this, I want to focus particularly on the final episode of the third season and how essential it is to understand the show’s masterful writing.
Starting…Now.
Before we delve into the season three finale of Barry, context is needed. When the HBO series first came to our screens in 2018, Bill Hader was more commonly known for his work on Saturday Night Live. While his more creative writing chops had begun to show up in television through South Park and Documentary Now!, these were coming from a place where his comedic side took center stage. While Barry is almost certainly not without a heavy dose of his signature comedy, the slow focus on drama becomes more prominent as the show goes on.
To blend comedy and drama is an incredibly difficult task. Both genres are total opposites of each other and can just as easily overshadow one another which can be problematic. Despite the high risk nature of this blend however, the sheer power it can create emotionally can make for beautiful viewing. Because of this delicate balance, Season 1 of Barry feels desperate. It’s a piece of television from a comedic writer who wants to show us just how serious he can be.
Season 1, because of this can feel strange when seen with the context the later seasons provide. In a way, it’s a living example of a show on the cusp of its potential. As Season 1 ended with a major death and a cruel reminder that running from our past isn’t so easy, Bill Hader cemented himself as a writer in both comedy and drama that we should look out for. However, he was just getting started.
Bottling It Up
After three seasons of building up to this finish, the final episode of Barry Season 3 officially makes the show no longer a comedy. As it opens, it does so with a surreal sequence where Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) finds himself on a beach surrounded by the people he loves. Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), his acting teacher, and Sally (Sarah Goldberg), his girlfriend. Although Barry loves these people dearly, they also represent just some of his many wrongs. By killing Gene’s love interest and removing Sally’s innocence, Barry has left his mark on the world. Just not in the way he expected or wanted.
After this sequence, Sally asks Barry to psychologically torture Natalie, her former assistant who Sally mistreated in her ruthless pursuit for a big career. Barry and Sally at this stage, feel closer to each other in more ways than before. Both are characters who mistreat those around them (including themselves) and yet, find themselves ignorant of just how deep the consequences of that can go. Although Barry tries to dissuade her from going down this path, they are interrupted when an intruder enters Sally’s apartment. Barry is knocked unconscious and as the intruder attempts to strangle Sally, she fights back and brutally murders him.
This scene is portrayed with no music and complete silence while Sally delivers the finishing blows. Barry comforts Sally and takes the fall for everything that has transpired. This scene is one of many in the final episode of Season 3 that create a terrifying picture that borders on horror. The screams of those being attacked at random and the dread of what happens when you make a devastating mistake like murder. Sally, despite her flaws as a person, isn’t a killer. However, you spend enough time with one and that behavior is bound to rub off on you.
You’re Not Evil
As he attempts to bury the intruder from Sally’s apartment, Barry is confronted by Albert (James Hiroyuki Liao), a marine who served with him prior to his career as a hitman. Since being taken out of duty after a brutal injury, Albert now works with the FBI in the investigation of a murder that brings him back to Barry. As he listens to Albert’s anger and heartbreak, Barry breaks down and screams, begging for him to stop. Albert forgives Barry and tells him that despite the bad things he has done, Barry is not an evil man. Despite the killing and the many lives he has ruined, Albert sees the person who saved his life all those years ago. He’s still a killer but one who is capable of doing the right thing.
This scene is a masterful display of anxiety and the utter terror that comes from your world crashing down. Barry Berkman is a man haunted by the ghosts of those he killed and the regret of what his life has become. He could’ve gone down the path of justice like Albert but instead, he became a criminal. Barry spends the entire series running away from himself and discovers he can’t stop being the man he now is.
His role as a hitman particularly in this scene is treated like a drug. Albert pleads for him to stop because he knows the damage it has already taken on his old friend but it’s ultimately to no avail. Barry as a series has never been afraid to show us the dark absurdity within Barry’s job as a hitman but we rarely see it from the point of view of the bystanders who are forced to watch their loved ones be brutally killed. As he comes face to face with an old friend, the boiling point is reached.
Don’t Go in the House
Much of Barry Season 3 is about how life has a way of catching up to us. As the victims of Barry’s work begin to connect together as they share the trauma of their loved ones suddenly passing, we see Barry painted not just as a man but instead, a brutal killer. Although he wants to leave his life of crime, there’s still a side of Barry that knows he’s in too deep to stop.
Throughout Season 3, Barry worked to make Gene Cousineau’s life as easy as possible. He gave him fame, old friends, notoriety and anything that would dissuade him from telling the truth of his wrongdoing. A key part of Barry’s tension comes from the feeling of inevitability that exists in every frame. Barry is a skilled killer but he’s not a skilled liar. He can only keep up an act for so long before the cracks begin to form.
After Gene tells Barry that Janice’s father knows everything, Barry enters his home to quickly take him down. As he enters and aims the gun at one of his victim’s family members, Barry is caught in the web of the police and is quickly arrested. It’s a moment that brings Barry to justice and offers Gene some semblance of closure after the death of his partner. There’s a certain love tucked within Barry for what his acting teacher did for him but their relationship is one marred by blood and violence. Something that Barry unknowingly becomes destroyed by.
Final Thoughts
As Barry begins its final season, we see a show that can arguably be seen as a “post-comedy”. The humor of Seasons 1 and 2 has quickly disintegrated and by the end of Season 3, we have been given a show that has buried its comedic trappings to become something horrifying. As the season finale traps Barry Berkman in a prison both literally and metaphorically of his own creation, it completely reshapes Barry not just as a television series but also as a piece of comedic storytelling. What was funny before has now become something truly terrifying.
