HBO’s Barry pushes the boundaries of the typical half-hour comedy

Barry is a dark comedy which sees a hit-man who wants to leave it all behind and pursue a career as an actor in LA. While the premise sounds very sit-com’y, Barry astounds with its boundary pushing content and story that really makes one rethink how a comedy can play out.

This is not the first time that a murderer has been the focus of a prime time TV show. Showcases’ Dexter featured Michael C. Hall as a vigilante serial killer who killed people based on his own code, however, was a psychopathic killer nonetheless. Dexter’s entire run humanized and provided insight into the mind of a serial killer, by showing his own struggled at normalcy, through relationships, family, and love. Barry is different.

While Barry is nowhere near that extreme of a show, it definitely does a better job of making the audience root for their hero, knowing that he is redeemable, and not a psycho killer.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Barry (Bill Hader) is a former marine who had trouble acclimating back to normal life after his service. Through the advice of a family friend and current handler Fuches (Stephen Root) he channels his latent aggressions and trauma into continuing to kill people, for hire.

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While pursuing one of his targets who is an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, living in his world, interacting with his peers gives Barry more peace and a sense of normalcy that is elusive to him as a hitman. The show is all about how he attempts to leave behind his old life, while trying to start a new one, without the two overlapping.

The way that PTSD is depicted in Barry is pretty interesting, and helps give better depth to this character. Barry, while seemingly not remorseful of the people he’s killed prior to the audience meeting him, which is shown more as a distaste to the job, definitely starts having an issue with it once he tries to leave that life behind. The most emotionally charged moments of the series, are when he has to kill in order to protect himself. Those moments also offer Hader some great moments of dramatic actor that he’s never had the opportunity to depict before.

Not glorifying violence

While Barry is a show full of mercenaries, crime lords and gang warfare, the show goes out of its way to not glorify violence in any way. Never are the action scenes ‘cool’ or enjoyable to watch. Never is Barry seen dashing through a rain of bullets taking out his enemies and looking cool the whole time while doing it. As Hader himself has remarked, “We didn’t want it to be a show about TV shows or movies,”

The violence, and more importantly its impact on Barry himself is tragic and heartbreaking, which further speaks to how co-creators Bill Hader and Alec Berg wanted to tell a story about the reality of finding peace after trauma, the comedy that can be found during, and the struggle to hold onto it once achieved.

Female characters that don’t exist to serve the male story

More often than not, half-hour comedies will ‘round out’ the life of the male hero with quirky female characters. These characters more often than not are meant to supplement or create obstacles for the male hero. Barry does not do this.

The two notable female characters of Barry are Sally (Sarah Goldberg) and Detective Moss, (Paula Newsome) neither of whom are there for the advancement of the male plot, but rather are characters of their own with their own story and arc.

Sally is an ambitious aspiring actress whose life is in a complete mess. The show doesn’t try to write her off as a bitch, or make her only a love-interest to Barry, but provides real moments for Goldberg who showcase her talent.

One notable scene is one that brilliantly captures the state of mind of an aspiring actress that is propositioned by a man in power, and how that influences her life professionally and personally. Sally’s storyline is as equally interesting as that of Barry’s and one that I personally I wished stayed separate from Barry’s. Especially the opportunities for storytelling that such a character provides in this post-#MeToo movement within the entertainment industry.

While Moss on the other hand is the strong-willed Detective in charge of an investigation against Barry, initially without realizing it is Barry who is her target. After they become close socially, she still doesn’t allow the threat of losing her love or career to stop her from doing the right thing and capturing him. Any other show would have had the character flinch at the thought of losing her love, especially given the importance of that sub-plot within the show, but Moss maintains the urgency of her character’s arc, and doesn’t back down.

Next: Interview of Sarah Goldberg on HBO's Barry

Barry is quite possibly Bill Hader’s greatest performance ever. The show has incredible moments of comedy that are coupled with just as intense moments of gut wrenching drama.

What did you think of season 1 of Barry? Let us know in the comments below.