Barry follows Barry Berkman, a U.S. Marine and Afghanistan veteran from Cleveland, who works as a hitman and wrestles with loneliness, depression, and guilt caused by his lifestyle as well as his actions during his service. He travels to Los Angeles to kill a target and finds a new sense of purpose when he follows his target into an acting class. After joining the class and making plans to become an actor, using his newfound passion as an outlet for his anxiety, he struggles to distance himself from his old life and keep his past a secret from new friends and colleagues.
What a premise – and what an ‘’execution’’ in every way. By telling the unlikely story of a hitman wannabe actor, co-creators Eric Berg and Bill Hader (also starring as Barry) delve deep into ‘’metatheater’’. Barry Berkman is by essence an actor, a veteran ‘’playing’’ a hitman as if his actions meant nothing, pulling away his accountability for those kills. It then gets deeply ‘’meta’’ when this ‘’actor’’ dreams himself as an actual actor, a real one, playing on stage in front of an audience. Barry wants to reconcile the different aspects of his deep-self but if he’s fooling girlfriend, mentor, cops and enemies: on a stage he would remain that cold-blooded hitman , he still would be pretending.
In between the lines of that metatheater, there is room for dark comedy, crime stories, and a dizzying comment on acting / pretending, on what it means to be ‘’yourself’’. Barry can be considered as many things, it must be praised for its steady stylish directing and intense acting. Bill Hader brings enough emotional layers to let you rely on Barry, enough distance and weirdness to never look away from the psychopath he really is. It’s quite an accomplishment to make you sympathize with a character as well as make him look dreadful. HBO showcased similar trajectory years ago with Tony Soprano, later with Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones. It happens again with Barry, a series that did not encounter the tremendous success of the two above, one series that truly deserves to be rediscovered as the killing comedy it is.
‘’Barry’’ – complete seasons 1 to 4, available on Sky Show
