Barry

It’s nice when a masterpiece returns and is still a masterpiece. This is still the best show on TV.

The show slowly earns our trust with its zany, disarmingly warm affect and amiable actors.

Barry does get good comedic mileage from juxtaposing the exotica of the contract-killer life style with the mundane flavor of the straight world. Yet the comedic ambitions of Barry--which Hader co-created with Alec Berg--are large enough to accommodate deathly seriousness.

A bittersweet dramedy that's uncomfortably funny and simultaneously dark and tense.

Even over just eight episodes, the show’s tone goes through several rapid transitions that don’t always land. By the end, however, Barry establishes itself as a uniquely empathetic shot of weirdness that hits its target more often than not.

The result is very dry comedy early on, which can be a bit frustrating if you were expecting the kind of rapid-fire jokes from Berg’s and Hader’s other work. But when the wheels come off, as they do in the second half, the tragicomedy that ensues is one of the most compelling on TV. Viewer patience is definitely rewarded, but some of the characters still get the short shrift.

That willingness to embrace comedy and tragedy makes Barry something special. Hader, who also directed and co-wrote several episodes, is exceptionally good, making us care about Barry while also being horrified at what he's capable of. The cast is superb.

The series, created by Mr. Hader and Alec Berg (“Silicon Valley”), ingeniously mixes wetwork and dry irony. ... You don’t expect this comedy to find its target in the way it does.

Barry is a bit betwixt and between as a viewing experience: too violent for people who don’t like violence, not energetic or dramatic enough for people who do. (And for people looking for a comedy: Well, it’s as sporadically amusing as any prestige comedy these days.) Over the course of the season, Barry amounts to something, locating a hit man’s shared humanity not in his competence, his guilt, or his remorse, but in his delusional belief that he’s a decent person.

Let me just declare how far over the moon I am about Barry, a funny, violent, gripping and masterfully melancholy half-hour show created by Hader and “Silicon Valley” producer Alec Berg. ... From start to finish, it’s just one hell of a show.

Plain broth is a good description for Barry’s personality early in the season, which makes it challenging at first to invest in what happens to him. Stick with it, though. Hader, best known for his comedic skills, has shown off his dramatic range before in films like The Skeleton Twins, but he’s the best he’s ever been here.

Barry isn’t always completely on target. There are more than enough nifty plot turns and deftly played scenes, though, to keep the series steadily on its feet before a season-ending cliffhanger leaves one very much wanting more.

[Barry] takes the tired trope of hit-man-with-a-heart and turns it into something darker, rawer, and intermittently heartbreaking. It does this while remaining a comedy.

It's alternately funny and horrifying, and manages to make jokes about its criminal elements without being too exploitative or blasé. ... Much of the success of the show rests on Hader, though, and he is fantastic. ... The ensemble is superb as well.

HBO’s Barry marks viewers’ best bet for a smart, darkly comedic new show.

This series is much deeper than a mere parody. The characters are layered and fascinating. Although the season gets off to a slow start, Barry is a must watch.

Barry not only shifts from comedy to drama convincingly and at the drop of a hat, but it dispenses various shades of each so that all eight episodes hold together as a grounded, honest story with a long road ahead. Bill Hader and Alec Berg’s series is highly entertaining and acutely heartbreaking, and that’s pretty damn special.

Barry proves that by honing in on a specific narrative with razor sharp focus and excellent craftsmanship, you can stand out. You don’t need a massive budget or a high-concept premise. You just need good storytellers willing to put in the work, and talented performers ready to play.

There's no reinventing the wheel going on here, but as they say, why reinvent something that already works so well.

Baffling, dull Barry is a bore, and so is the series named for him.

One of the best new comedies of the last few years. This clever surprise is an eight-episode series that starts strongly and only gets better as its plot becomes more brilliantly complex and its characters are more fully developed. And it’s a wonderful showcase for Bill Hader’s dry sense of humor.

It’s a comedy, really, and it balances all the Hollywood satire, character comedy, and noir tendencies beautifully. It’s filled with smart choices. Each perfectly cast character has a twist that places him or her outside of conventionality.

Though the series never gets to the root of his apparent emotional trauma, his woundedness nonetheless acts as an effective balance to the reprehensible actions we see him commit. His self-improvement is realistic, precisely because it comes in fits and starts.

Barry’s actions towards the end felt right and honest to me, and elevated the series over the well-executed but familiar and occasionally timid comedy of its first half.

The show benefits from superb writing with the slight exception of the eighth episode, where the script falters a bit trying to balance comedy and mayhem.

Barry scores as a wildly original and sensationally entertaining hybrid of dark comedy and delirious action. ... Barry kills--in every way imaginable. [19 Mar-1 Apr 2018, p.13]

The end result is fascinating, weird and gripping. ... One of the bigger creative surprises on television.

All in all, Barry--a wry and sometimes successful attempt to blend elements of “Breaking Bad” and “BoJack Horseman”--ends up being a solid showcase for not just the extended cast but Hader himself.