Warning: This review contains spoilers forBarry’s season 4 premiere.
A show about a hitman who wants to be an actor has no business still being this smart and inventive in its fourth season. In the hands of lesser creatives, this gimmicky premise might not have sustained a three-minute sketch. But Bill Hader and co. have turned this crazy idea into one of the most emotionally engaging and philosophically profound TV series ever made.Barryis back and it’s as wildly subversive, deeply disturbing, and thematically thought-provoking as ever.
Barryseason 4 has premiered with two episodes back-to-back. The first one, “yikes,” reintroduces the characters following all the cliffhangers inthe bombshell season 3 finale. Barry adjusts to life behind bars; Hank and Cristobal settle into their new crime-free existence in Santa Fe; Sally goes home to her parents and finds them to be completely unsympathetic; and Gene is bitten by the fame bug when his role in Barry’s arrest makes him a superstar. The second episode, “bestest place on the earth,” kicks off the arcs that will carry them through the rest of the season. Barry makes a deal with the FBI to shorten his sentence; Hank and Cristobal return to a life of crime when they realize they can profit from Santa Fe’s sand shortage; Sally learns that her only hope of a future career in show business is to capitalize on her association with a notorious serial killer; and Gene’s lust for fame leads him to ignore Jim Moss’ instructions not to speak to the press.
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In addition to leading both the cast and the writing staff, Bill Hader directed both season 4 premiere episodes.Hader has directed every episode of the seasonfor the first time in the show’s run, and he’s doing a typically fantastic job at the helm so far. From the opening shot of the season, in which the camera tracks Barry to his cell in the background while two prison guards watch his arrest on the news in the foreground, Hader shoots every scene in an interesting and unconventional way. When Hank and Cristobal are circling a table of gangsters in opposite directions during their pitch, the camera keeps whizzing around the table, switching perspectives between the two.
The season 4 premiere ofBarrydials theLynchian horror imageryup to 11. The new season, promised to be the series’ last, combines all the different cutaway styles from the previous seasons: fantasies, flashbacks, nightmarish hallucinations. With unsettling dream sequences and flashbacks to Barry’s childhood, this mind-bending cocktail of surreal visuals shows the titular killer’s drastically worsening mental state.Barryhas always been as much of a drama as a comedy, and each season veers closer to drama and further away from comedy. The show has never been less focused on comedy than it is in season 4, but there are still some hilarious gags using the show’s usual satirical juxtaposition. Hank and Cristobal assemble two warring crime syndicates for a meeting at Dave & Buster’s.
Barry’s fourth-season premiere handles character development concisely without feeling rushed.Hank and Cristobal’s adorable romanceremains the only beacon of hope in the midst of this bleak, miserable series, but even they’re having some trust issues. It’s great to see Barry and Fuches as friends again (albeit briefly) after a season-long grudge between the two – they’re likeThe Odd Coupleif Oscar and Felix were in prison. This premiere gives fans the first interaction between Gene and Sally since the acting class days. Now that they both know Barry’s dark secret, they have a very different dynamic.
As usual, the acting is incredible. Everybody slips effortlessly back into their characters. Anthony Carrigan isendlessly lovable as Hank. Stephen Root is gruff and grizzled yet vulnerable as Fuches. Robert Wisdom is a truly intimidating presence as Jim Moss. Sarah Goldberg perfectly captures Sally’s utter shock in response to Barry’s arrest. Henry Winkler is both hilarious and sympathetic as Gene, whose lust for stardom is his own undoing. Hader continues to play the eponymous cold-blooded killer by leaning into his most universal and relatable emotions, like guilt and self-loathing, all while deftly conveying his rapid descent into madness.
Two episodes in, this really feels likethe final season. While it keeps the story moving forward,Barry’s latest installment is going back and reflecting on the events of the whole series to date. Barry sits in the prison yard, trying to figure out how he got there. Gene acts out his entire relationship with Barry for a prying journalist on the stage of his old studio. Season 4 is a study in the combined effects of all the trauma that the characters have suffered over the years. Hank is haunted by the time he was almost mauled to death by a panther. Sally is haunted by the revelation that her boyfriend is a mass murderer.
The first two episodes ofBarry’s final chapter set up the conflict for the rest of the season. Barry has taken a deal with the FBI and Hank – the one criminal contact that didn’t want Barry dead – now wants to kill him. Season 4 is off to a riveting start. There’s none ofthe series’ signature actionyet, but the two-part premiere is laying the groundwork that will build to the action as the season goes on. As an opening act, theBarrypremiere is surprising, intense, gripping, and darkly confounding – in other words, everything fans expect from this show.
