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

Adam_Roman · Sep 15, 2018

I tried taking my time watching season 1. I was doing so good at watching one episode a day until today when I watched 5 through 8 in one sitting. It got so good, and I'm glad they've at least won one of the Emmys they were nominated for! I hope they win more on Monday because the cast and crew absolutely deserve it.

FaceHugger · Nov 17, 2018

Sorry for the necro, I didn't see a point in creating a new thread since the new season doesn't start for a while.

I am five episodes in and I don't get why he is so

hung up on Sally. She's wholly unlikeable, self absorbed, judgemental. She's just awful, and aside from being an assassin, Barry seems pretty OK. I don't get it.

Aside from that it's hilarious. I love this style of humor. Taylor is the best.

HP_Wuvcraft · Nov 17, 2018

Cornballer said:
A bit from the Collider interview:

That is 100% how I work.

Bog · Nov 17, 2018

FaceHugger said:
I am five episodes in and I don't get why he is so

hung up on Sally. She's wholly unlikeable, self absorbed, judgemental. She's just awful, and aside from being an assassin, Barry seems pretty OK. I don't get it.

Aside from that it's hilarious. I love this style of humor. Taylor is the best.

Decent looking + proximity = love

HP_Wuvcraft · Nov 17, 2018

Bog said:
Decent looking + proximity = love

Yeah, this 100%. Barry has never had any real female friends.

Cheapstare · Jan 6, 2019

FaceHugger said:
I am five episodes in and I don't get why he is so hung up on Sally. She's wholly unlikeable, self absorbed, judgemental. She's just awful, and aside from being an assassin, Barry seems pretty OK. I don't get it.

Oh god is this the fucking Skylar thing all over again?

I liked the season overall, even if at times it feels like a competent rethread of other popular anti-hero shows, just with the acting gimmick bolted on.

edit: Oops, sorry for the necrobump. This was the latest thread posted and I didn't check the date.

Einchy · Jan 6, 2019

Cheapstare said:
Oh god is this the fucking Skylar thing all over again?

Skylar got shit for acting like a normal person while Sally is written to be a really godawful person. Even characters in the show don't like her.

Cheapstare · Jan 6, 2019

Einchy said:
Skylar got shit for acting like a normal person while Sally is written to be a really godawful person. Even characters in the show don't like her.

She's in a comedy show, she's written more for laughs than Skylar. If anything, the fact that the classmates didn't shun Barry after his violent outburst during the party, and took his side against her afterwards, reflects badly on them.

ALSO HE'S A MURDERER

Einchy · Jan 6, 2019

Cheapstare said:
She's in a comedy show, she's written more for laughs than Skylar. If anything, the fact that the classmates didn't shun Barry after his violent outburst during the party, and took his side against her afterwards, reflects badly on them.

She treats that one girl like shit constantly. She's very obviously written to be a shitty friend, I mean, it's also written to be funny but it's not like people calling out her shiftiness is a Skylar situation. Skylar wasn't shitty, Sally is.

The actress even talked about her character's unlikability.

Cheapstare · Jan 6, 2019

Einchy said:
She treats that one girl like shit constantly. She's very obviously written to be a shitty friend, I mean, it's also written to be funny but it's not like people calling out her shiftiness is a Skylar situation. Skylar wasn't shitty, Sally is.

I mean, it's a gag, Janet from the Good Place is some kind of shadow-friend. It's not like she mistreats her, and it's not her fault Pinocchio wouldn't smash.
She's portrayed as self-absorbed, like every single one of the aspiring actors in the show (including Winkler).

Einchy · Jan 6, 2019

Cheapstare said:
I mean, it's a gag, Janet from the Good Place is some kind of shadow-friend. It's not like she mistreats her, and it's not her fault Pinocchio wouldn't smash.
She's portrayed as self-absorbed, like every single one of the aspiring actors in the show (including Winkler).

Yeah and the gag is that she's shitty to her.

Again, even the actress knows that Sally is shitty. It's written that way on purpose, it's what makes her character interesting. Trying to make it seem like she's not shitty is like trying to say Barry isn't fucked up.

This show has a lot of shitty people, she's one of them.

Cheapstare · Jan 6, 2019

Einchy said:
Yeah and the gag is that she's shitty to her.

Again, even the actress knows that Sally is shitty. It's written that way on purpose, it's what makes her character interesting.

She knows that she's the best in the class and she doesn't try to hide it, I don't think it's particularly shitty. She's also very forgiving and empathetic with Barry (when he really doesn't deserve it, even discounting the fact he's a psychopathic murderer) and is treated like shit and/or slutshamed by pretty much every male character save for Winkler.

Einchy · Jan 6, 2019

Cheapstare said:
She knows that she's the best in the class and she doesn't try to hide it, I don't think it's particularly shitty. She's also very forgiving and empathetic with Barry (when he really doesn't deserve it, even discounting the fact he's a murderer) and is treated like shit and/or slutshamed by pretty much every male character save for Winkler.

Ok.

None of that changes that she's written to not be all that likeable which is why the actress was gravitated to this character.

RatskyWatsky · Jan 6, 2019

Vote for Barry in the TV Show of the Year thread!

https://www.resetera.com/threads/20...the-year-voting-thread-cast-your-votes.87199/

Cheapstare · Jan 6, 2019

Einchy said:
Ok.

None of that changes that she's written to not be all that likeable which is why the actress was gravitated to this character.

It's a comedy, no one is particularly likeable. Plus asking why your favorite serial killer sticks with his bitchy girlfriend will never not be weird.

Here's Bill Hader on this exact topic:

Yeah, a little while back I wrote this essay on the idea of the ingenue, this kind of role that no young female actor can avoid.

That was a thing when we showed Barry to a bunch of people and said, "Do you guys have any notes or anything in the first four episodes?" And a guy said, "I just find Sally so unlikable, she's just such an unlikable character. She's so mean." And Emily Heller, one of our writers, went, "Barry kills people!" It's the Breaking Bad thing. No one likes Skylar, and she's dealing with a baby and a special-needs child, her husband's lying to her, and he's off becoming a drug lord.

But fuck her.

But fuck her. That makes no sense to me!

https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/0...russians-and-learning-to-write-on-south-park/

Turin · Jan 6, 2019

Sally needed to be just barely out there enough to fall for someone like Barry.

SinkFla · Jan 6, 2019

Einchy said:
Ok.

None of that changes that she's written to not be all that likeable which is why the actress was gravitated to this character.

I completely agree with your assessment of Sally. To even draw a comparison of her to Skylar is fucking bonkers.

Everyone knows there's only one likable character in this show and his name does bear a resemblance to BB.

beelulzebub · Jan 6, 2019

Cheapstare said:
ALSO HE'S A MURDERER

All that needs to be said. JFC. How people react to characters like Skylar and Sally compared to the "protagonists" of their respective shows, who could say whether or not it reflects upon the viewer's character, but it without a doubt reflects upon their viewing habits.

FaceHugger · Jan 6, 2019

Cheapstare said:
Oh god is this the fucking Skylar thing all over again?

I liked the season overall, even if at times it feels like a competent rethread of other popular anti-hero shows, just with the acting gimmick bolted on.

edit: Oops, sorry for the necrobump. This was the latest thread posted and I didn't check the date.

I doubt the necro is a problem, it's the only thread for the show, there isn't a new season yet, in the world of streaming media what are we going to create a brand new thread every time someone discovers a new a show a month after the last post was made?

Einchy said:
She treats that one girl like shit constantly. She's very obviously written to be a shitty friend, I mean, it's also written to be funny but it's not like people calling out her shiftiness is a Skylar situation. Skylar wasn't shitty, Sally is.

The actress even talked about her character's unlikability.

Yea, she's basically one of the leads of Difficult People, only not in an absurdist way. She's just a piece of a shit.

Ramala · Jan 6, 2019

Barry makes a great double bill with The Kominsky Method!

ForgeForsaken · Jan 6, 2019

Ramala said:
Barry makes a great double bill with The Kominsky Method!

I was thinking the Get Shorty series.

Ramala · Jan 6, 2019

ForgeForsaken said:
I was thinking the Get Shorty series.

I could definitely see it going in that direction. Barry using his actual skills to progress Sally and his acting careers.

PhilosopherDirtBike · Feb 8, 2019

Back on March 31st

Cornballer · Feb 15, 2019

RatskyWatsky · Feb 15, 2019

Barry was voted #12 on ERA's TV Show of the Year 2018 list!

https://www.resetera.com/threads/resetera-tv-show-of-the-year-2018-results-thread.99537/

Deleted member 42055 · Feb 17, 2019

JUst binged this over the last day and a half or so. Wow... so good, telling everyone I know about this show

FlowersisBritish · Feb 17, 2019

Really excited the new season is so soon! Season 1 was such a pleasant surprise for me in almost every way

Border · Feb 17, 2019

I am looking forward to the new season!

-Pyromaniac- · Feb 17, 2019

Yay. Not a long wait between seasons.

FlowersisBritish · Feb 17, 2019

I came in late to the show long after it aired but I'm curious what people thought about the ending? I was not too hot about it for a variety of reasons but one of the big things was I felt the show left off on kind of a weird place. A little too cleanly resolved.

Seesaw15 · Feb 17, 2019

FlowersisBritish said:
I came in late to the show long after it aired but I'm curious what people thought about the ending? I was not too hot about it for a variety of reasons but one of the big things was I felt the show left off on kind of a weird place. A little too cleanly resolved.

That's interesting. Clean is the last world I'd use to describe the ending lol. I loved it and thought it would have made a perfect one season show but am interested how they write themselves out of this corner for season 2.

Sparky2112 · Feb 19, 2019

Seesaw15 said:
That's interesting. Clean is the last world I'd use to describe the ending lol. I loved it and thought it would have made a perfect one season show but am interested how they write themselves out of this corner for season 2.

I have a hard time believing you go into something like Barry without some idea of what you're going to do for round 2, but I might be wrong.

WhoTurgled · Feb 19, 2019

I just realized that fuches is bill doughtrieve (spelling?) From king of the hill

Wraith · Feb 19, 2019

WhoTurgled said:
I just realized that fuches is bill doughtrieve (spelling?) From king of the hill

Milton in Office Space, Jimmy James on Newsradio, and has an IMDB as long as your arm.

DanGo · Feb 19, 2019

FlowersisBritish said:
I came in late to the show long after it aired but I'm curious what people thought about the ending? I was not too hot about it for a variety of reasons but one of the big things was I felt the show left off on kind of a weird place. A little too cleanly resolved.

I kinda hated everything about the time jump. Not a fan of Barry getting with the actress or of the detective being killed. That combo rubbed me the wrong way.

Seesaw15 · Feb 19, 2019

Sparky2112 said:
I have a hard time believing you go into something like Barry without some idea of what you're going to do for round 2, but I might be wrong.

Really depends. Vince Gilligan's writers room famously liked to write themselves into corners and figure it out during the off season. I'm sure they have an outline but I doubt everything was planned out from day one.

FlowersisBritish · Feb 19, 2019

DanGo said:
I kinda hated everything about the time jump. Not a fan of Barry getting with the actress or of the detective being killed. That combo rubbed me the wrong way.

Same. I'm really hoping that since they didn't kill her on screen there will be shinanegans and she'll still be around but not holding out much hope.

Seesaw15 said:
That's interesting. Clean is the last world I'd use to describe the ending lol. I loved it and thought it would have made a perfect one season show but am interested how they write themselves out of this corner for season 2.

I meant clean in the sense that, you're right, it is a perfect one season show. They didn't leave a lot of plot threads that really needed to go any further. If it had not gotten a season 2 I would have been pretty content actually, no lingering questions I need answered.

Cornballer · Feb 22, 2019

I Am Captain America · Feb 22, 2019

Cornballer said:

DrewFu · Feb 22, 2019

I'm hyped. This show is so good.

mantis · Feb 22, 2019

That wig.

Border · Feb 22, 2019

I hope D'arcy Carden has a bigger role in Season 2. It would be great to see her during the time Good Place isn't airing.

CallMeShaft · Feb 23, 2019

That was a fantastic trailer. Got the biggest smile on my face when Noho Hank said "shit".

Sparky2112 · Feb 24, 2019

Noho Hank better go down in history as one of the best characters EVER.

lacer · Feb 24, 2019

Sparky2112 said:
Noho Hank better go down in history as one of the best characters EVER.

this sealed his position on the list for me:

Cornballer · Feb 25, 2019

Sparky2112 · Feb 28, 2019

I can't tell you how many times I've watched the whole thing, but I watched the last two episodes last night, and...jeebus, just perfection.

spyder_ur · Feb 28, 2019

I actually grew up and went to school with the actor who plays Noho Hank - knew him fairly well.

I'm not sure why I never followed through watching the whole series after enjoying the first couple episodes. Need to catch up in March.

Sparky2112 · Mar 1, 2019

spyder_ur said:
I actually grew up and went to school with the actor who plays Noho Hank - knew him fairly well.

Cool.

"He killed my brother."
"Okay, you need to let that go."

Cornballer · Mar 11, 2019

Lengthy Bill Hader profile in The New Yorker this week:

Bill Hader Kills

With "Barry," his bleakly funny TV show, Hollywood's favorite impressionist reinvents himself as a writer-director.

EDIT: Note that this has a ton of S2 spoilers in it. Decent read, though.

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

Are we human or are we dancer?

Resettlement Advisor

Are we human or are we dancer?

User requested account closure

Resettlement Advisor

Attempted to circumvent ban with an alt-account

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account

Resettlement Advisor

Resettlement Advisor