• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Barry - Bill Hader action-comedy / dark satire about a hitman - HBO Sundays

Mg.

Mg.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,977
Holy fuck that finale. I did a cheff's kiss the moment the screen went to credits after Hader's "...now". Remarkable.
 
Corncob

Corncob

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,584
UK
Hank is one of the funniest characters i've ever seen. Every single aspect of him is hilarious. The actor is a genius.
 
BlueTsunami

BlueTsunami

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,510
Man, Barry is irredeemable as entertaining as he is. I can see him having a not so nice ending. That white house picket fence is not in his future.

I'm also kind of scared to think what Noho Hank is like when hes really angry
 
Last edited:
yuraya

yuraya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,449
Laughed so hard when they were rolling up on that airstrip while blasting music in the suv. Such a good ending to that episode and the start of the next from the other perspective.

The show was great.
 
Heart_Attack

Heart_Attack

Banned
Nov 1, 2017
2,442
I binged watched all 8 episodes las night because of the great impressions. What an amazing show. It feel so like Dexter at times. It deserves more buzz. The writing is top notch. Easily in my top 3 shows this year.
 
Last edited:
Piston

Piston

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,165
Yeah wow, I was mixed through a few episodes, but my god this ending 1-2 combo has been immense.

It honestly feels like a dark comedy take on Breaking Bad with an obviously faster turn. (Also the last two episodes were better than anything Breaking Bad ever put out, fight me).
 
DrewFu

DrewFu

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Apr 19, 2018
10,360
Do we know if the season ending was real, or just another one of Barry's fantasies? It seemed like there was a bit of a time jump.
 
DrewFu

DrewFu

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account
Banned
Apr 19, 2018
10,360
Yasuke said:
It was definitely real.

He wouldn't fantasize about killing a cop.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I guess it's just the time jump that threw me off. Suddenly he's in a relationship, and at a cabin, and there was nothing telling us how much time had passed.
 
Einchy

Einchy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,659
Pizza_King said:
I guess it's just the time jump that threw me off. Suddenly he's in a relationship, and at a cabin, and there was nothing telling us how much time had passed.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
They talk about this in the behind the scenes video, it was purposely shot to make you think it might not be real early on until it keeps goings and it slowly falls apart.
 
OP
OP
Cornballer

Cornballer

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,261
A bit from the Collider interview:
When you were crafting the season, what were your early discussions about how you wanted it to end? Did it change significantly once you guys started writing?

BILL HADER: Yeah, yeah we had a very different ending in mind that was too far down the road. It was something that would've changed things a little too drastically, so what we tend to do—and we're doing it now, because we're writing Season 2 right now—I tend to walk in with, "Here's a whole season." I tend to work up, I work vertically. I go, "Here's eight episodes," and then Alec goes horizontally through all eight and goes, "Well that doesn't make sense. Why would he do that? You could do this," and Liz Sarnoff will say, "Instead of this we could do that." And by the way, what I will initially come up with and then what the show ends up being, you can see remnants in there but it's not the season really. I tend to work better when I'm working off of something, so it's good to write your own version of that, sleep on it, and then look at it again and go, "Why are we wasting five episodes for this to happen? That should happen in Episode 2." We just did that in Season 2 where I had something that was gonna happen in Episode 4 and Alec was like, "That should be the end of Episode 1," and you're like, "Oh you're right," (laughs).

The ending actually came to us—we wrote scripts for episodes 1 through 4 and had those, and then you could really feel it where we went, "Okay we've got this Shakespeare festival, we're setting up these Marines, we have Moss and Cousineau and Barry and Sally and what she wants," and it was just going, "Here's what we know," because we'd written the drafts for 1 through 4, and that tells you a lot. You can't just outline it, you've gotta actually get in and write the drafts because then you start to go, "Oh that doesn't work. That's a conceptual idea. That doesn't really work as you write it." And you get the characters' voices, you understand who they are—you understand that with Fuches, the guy we've written isn't that guy anymore. He's more of a con man. Fuches initially was like evil, and we reworked the character and made him more of a con man.

So basically, as we moved toward the end, initially Barry bought a house. In the initial version that I had written Barry had bought this "fuck off" house, and Fuches was furious, like, "It's not good for you being an anonymous hitman to own a big house in Silver Lake." The party at Natalie's, initially that was a party at Barry's house. That was like a thing that Barry was hosting a party and then his Marine friends showed up to that party, and at that party Moss came with Cousineau, and it was this big reveal of, "Oh Jesus, Cousineau came to the party with Moss." Then at the end of Episode 8, they're all drinking at Barry's house and Moss goes to the bathroom or something and she finds some sort of clue. It was all just feeling a bit too pat, it just wasn't working.

I remember Alec said, "What if you just cut into the future and they're out in the woods?" and I went, "Oh God, yeah! This thing should feel like one of his daydreams!" and everybody went, "Yeah!" So you don't know if it's real or not (laughs). Our initial thought was, "What if you did a thing that started and you went, 'Oh this is a daydream.' This is what he wanted. This is what he's thought about all season, so what if you lean into that and he's in a hammock with Sally, they're reading their lines for The Front Page, Moss doesn't suspect him anymore and they're all together and it's this beautiful thing.'" Make it feel almost too idyllic.

That's what it felt like at the beginning. Because the midway point of the episode is very much where a more traditional show would end. The two of them in the bar and there's a slow pull back. But then you hear the wood sounds and you're like, "Wait what?"

HADER: Yeah I like that. I like that you go, "What is happening?" and then you go, "Wait, is this real?" (laughs). We wanted that, and then just writing those scenes, Cousineau does that Harry Belefonte thing, everything's perfect, Barry is very much now a part of that society, and now they're all eating dinner, and then we sat there for like two days. "Okay they're eating dinner… Uh…" and I go, "What is it?" and we went, "Well his loose ends are tied off." We just couldn't figure it out. And I said, "Oh my God, it's already there. It's in the pilot. Barry told him his fucking story in the pilot!" and that was one of those moments where we just start high-fiving each other. Then Moss would figure it out. Initially what happens between Moss and Barry was much more brutal, but then it was more interesting to have this scene between them and then kind of leave it open-ended so you don't know what the hell happened.

That cut was incredible. I literally gasped. The cut to the window and you only see the light from the gun shots.

HADER: Yeah that's all Alec Berg, man. He was like, "You know what would be better? You just cut to the window and you hear the flashes," and I'm operating that. I was like, "Can I operate the flashes?" You had a different flash for her gun and my gun, so it was this thing where Alec was like, "Faster!" it was funny. They were like, "Maybe it wasn't the best idea to have Bill do this," (laughs). That was on a stage, and I was trying to work that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
I Am Captain America

I Am Captain America

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,092
Good finale but the one thing I thought brought the episode down a little bit was the time skip I felt they could have done that last 20 minutes for next season instead of cramming it in that one episode also

I think this shows where the plot of the second seasons gonna go where everyone starts to find out Barry and he's gonna have to kill the teacher then posilsibly his girlfriend which will set up for season 3 I would of rather then killed the cop for next season
 

Deleted member 2533

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,325
Einchy said:
They talk about this in the behind the scenes video, it was purposely shot to make you think it might not be real early on until it keeps goings and it slowly falls apart.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah, having those fantasy sequences sprinkled throughout the season was a perfect curve ball. I can't believe the writers got to the end and only then remembered the Afghanistan story. It seemed so planned out.
 

Sozzled_Bucket

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
879
Holy fucking shit.

I didn't know that was the season finale until i saw this thread. Binge watched 5 eps today. Absolutely incredible show and I'm depressed that the season is over once I finally caught up
 

Deleted member 19767

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,098
Finished this last night. An excellent show, I'm really pumped for the next season. I wasn't sure on Hader at the beginning but I should have known better.
 
Turin

Turin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,460
Pretty damn good first season. Looking forward to S2 about as much as any other show right now.

Cornballer said:
giphy.gif


giphy.gif
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

He's my favorite. :)
 

dead souls

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,317
^^^ I don't know if I'd go that far, but it definitely needs a fairly short run. The premise isn't sustainable past 2-3 seasons at most.
 
xrnzaaas

xrnzaaas

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,125
Damn, I was hoping for the
Barry's future daydream to end but it lasted 10 minutes and it was real? Damn!
 
Einchy

Einchy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
42,659
Noho Hank calling to warn Barry was the biggest bro move in history. No one has ever been a bigger and cooler bro than Noho Hank.
 
Chris McQueen

Chris McQueen

Self-requested ban
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
5,378
London
I just watched the finale last night. This series is THE highlight of the year for me. Everything from Bill Hader to Hiro Murai is fucking wonderful. Too many thoughts and 'WTF's?' going through my mind at the moment, must Google.
 
5taquitos

5taquitos

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,888
OR
Definitely one of their best new comedies, especially as Silicon Valley and Veep are getting long in the tooth.
 
Praxis

Praxis

Sausage Tycoon
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,241
UK
I agree with everyone saying how good this show was. Loved every minute and can't wait for another series.
 
mantis

mantis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,826
Just watched the last few episodes.

When he shot his marine buddy in the car. Did not see that coming. No chance of redemption for him after that.

Hope we get so more of NoHo Hank in the next season. His actor is also hilarious on Gotham.
 
Scythe

Scythe

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
1,091
Holy shit. This damn show! I've been putting it off for months and decided to watch the first episode...nearly 4 hours later, I ended up watching the whole season in one setting. A lot happened within the 8 episodes that would normally take another show in the genre potentially seasons to accomplish. It's blending two worlds so well, executing all aspects exceptionally, and JUST GOING THERE when you don't think they'd fucking do it—but THEY DO. Yes, there's some parts that seem overly ridiculous, I mean, we're watching a show about a hitman for god's sake, but it's still astonishing how they layer so much in half-hour episodes. I thought this show was an hour long at first, so I was genuinely surprised by all of it.

I don't know how they will pull it off next season, as I'm sure he'll finally get caught (Fuches, Fuches' tooth, Moss, etc.) and all the consequences and fallout during/after he does. I hope they do. Maybe we'll get an "on the run"-esque storyline or something. Who knows. With this and "Sharp Objects", HBO is on a damn roll this year.
 
SinkFla

SinkFla

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,442
Pensacola, Fl
NoHo Hank is amazing and looks exactly like a friend of mine (minus the hair) so it's throwing me off lol.

I love it when Barry is yelling at him and calling him names about the stupid DHL bullet plan and Hank is just smirking, saying "Aww you don't mean that, Barry."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.