Barry

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flyonthewall2983
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Barry

#1 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Apr 04, 2018 2:05 pm

I really liked the first 2 episodes of Barry. It's tough to do what they're trying to accomplish with regards to the humor and the violence, but if that pair of shows was any indication they're doing a good job.

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Re: TV of 2018

#2 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:42 pm

Barry renewed by HBO for a season 2. I'm going to have to do a remit on my earlier thoughts and say it's probably my new favorite comedy, and one I don't think I've loved this strong coming out of the gate since BoJack Horseman. Bill Hader and Stephen Root are tremendous together and it's really got potential to turn both the comedy and thriller genres on their heads.

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Re: TV of 2018

#3 Post by Murdoch » Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:06 pm

I've been enjoying Barry as well. It's struggling to balance the acting portion with the hitman parts but its premise and the talent involved are enough to keep me watching. I was also pleasantly surprised to see The Good Place's D'Arcy Carden (aka Janet) in a supporting role. I'm hoping after a few more episodes Barry's entry into acting will take more of the lead since the hitman parts of the show I've found to be kind of a drag.

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Re: Barry

#4 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:58 pm

In the fourth episode I found both sides to be a bit of a drag, but I feel like this will be rewarded in the end somehow. The detective's date with the acting coach (Henry Winkler might be this show's MVP) was the funniest part of the whole episode, and did a good deal when it comes to humanizing Cousineau.

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Re: Barry

#5 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Apr 19, 2018 1:31 pm

The show's fine, but I have a difficult time caring about any of it. Wish there were no investigation that was ongoing, because I know that within the universe of a show like this nothing is going to happen to the main character, or frankly to any of the show's other breakout stars. So why waste so much time on it? I'll need to see how it develops, but it seems to be taking on that signature Alec Berg circling of the plot wagons that has made Silicon Valley feel like such an unpleasant teacup ride for the last few years. Wake me up when there are actual stakes, or better yet, fade the stakes to the background altogether.

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Re: Barry

#6 Post by MongooseCmr » Thu Apr 19, 2018 6:47 pm

I had the same bad Silicon Valley vibes during the first episode before checking who Alec Berg was, and I haven't brought myself to watch past the second now. Both shows have this unsatisfying way of progressing the plot just enough every episode to bring things up to next weeks chunk, ending on a cliffhanger that gets resolved at the start of the next episode, and just sort of wasting time in between. I think it's the worst possible way to write for television. I don't think Barry is even particularly bad, I'm just reluctant to get fooled by Berg again.

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Re: Barry

#7 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:26 pm

MongooseCmr wrote:I think it's the worst possible way to write for television.
Yeah, I know sitcoms are like, completely a dirty word at this point, but would it be so harmful post-Arrested Development to ever have a single camera show consist of standalone plotlines again? Maybe mix in a little bit of that Seinfeld fabric where there are recurring characters and settings but not feel the need to fully stir the pot every time you air a half hour of your program? Serialized TV is a great device in the bingewatch era, of course, but not every program has to employ this device just because they can.

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Re: Barry

#8 Post by Murdoch » Thu Apr 19, 2018 9:32 pm

Silicon Valley really does stretch its plot as far as possible, only to drag everything back to zero in a new season and start the cycle all over again (Richard starts a venture, outside force or internal team struggle complicates development, Richard gets idea for a work-around, everything falls into place only for the process to start over again next season). I'm willing to give Barry a pass for now given its infancy. Although after the latest episode I'm getting frustrated with the titular character, who the writers can't decide between making him out-of-touch, numb or just lacking personality.

I also think the Berg model of plotting is especially frustrating in the age of Netflix, but if I were to watch SV in bulk its flaws would likely become much more apparent. It's difficult to make a half-hour serial in comedy or drama, which is what makes a show like Search Party such a remarkable feat to me (I will plug this show until I'm blue in the face!).

Anyway, Barry might just be a season long series for me unless things pick up or I read some review down the line when it's in its third season that pulls me back.

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Re: Barry

#9 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon May 07, 2018 1:32 pm

Last night's penultimate episode featured some pretty intense moments from Hader that for me has truly lifted the show to some of that potential I mentioned before.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Fri May 11, 2018 8:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Barry

#10 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon May 07, 2018 2:17 pm

Wait, what made the episode penultimate? It's the 7th epiosde of a 9 episode first season.

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Re: Barry

#11 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon May 07, 2018 3:13 pm

The preview for next week's episode said it was the finale, and IMDB has no listings for a 9th episode.

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Re: Barry

#12 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon May 07, 2018 3:14 pm

Interesting, I could have sworn. Stand corrected.

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Re: Barry

#13 Post by BigMack3000 » Mon May 07, 2018 4:51 pm

The main Barry page on IMDB says 9 episodes because its including episode one of season 2.

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Re: Barry

#14 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon May 14, 2018 7:42 pm

Last night's finale ended on such a perfect note with knowledge that they plan on going for a darker route for next season. It's going to be a very thin rope the creators will walk, between keeping the show funny yet serious when it needs to.

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Re: Barry

#15 Post by Roger Ryan » Fri May 18, 2018 11:46 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Last night's finale ended on such a perfect note with knowledge that they plan on going for a darker route for next season. It's going to be a very thin rope the creators will walk, between keeping the show funny yet serious when it needs to.
Having just watched the last episode of Season 1, I have to think...
SpoilerShow
...the long final scene was one of Barry's fantasies. An "Inside the Episode" segment featured in the On Demand version acknowledged that the intent was to make the scene feel like a fantasy, then to stretch it out and turn it unexpectedly darker...but neither Bill Hader nor producer Alec Berg came out and said the scene takes place in the reality of Barry's life. The idea that Gene, the drama teacher who auditions for "man at the back of the line" roles, could afford a house on a lake, or to even rent one for a week or two, seems too far-fetched to fit into the reality of the show. My prediction is the first episode of the second season will reveal that this scene was a paranoid fantasy where Barry imagined how he could be exposed as the hit man. Either way, the scene was effective and the change from dark comedy to Breaking Bad-style drama with comedic overtones made the final three episodes particularly exciting.
Also, with Atlanta, the "This is America" video and (the best) two episodes of this show, director Hiro Murai is having a great year.

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Re: Barry

#16 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri May 18, 2018 11:51 am

Roger Ryan wrote:
SpoilerShow
...the long final scene was one of Barry's fantasies. An "Inside the Episode" segment featured in the On Demand version acknowledged that the intent was to make the scene feel like a fantasy, then to stretch it out and turn it unexpectedly darker...but neither Bill Hader nor producer Alec Berg came out and said the scene takes place in the reality of Barry's life. The idea that Gene, the drama teacher who auditions for "man at the back of the line" roles, could afford a house on a lake, or to even rent one for a week or two, seems too far-fetched to fit into the reality of the show. My prediction is the first episode of the second season will reveal that this scene was a paranoid fantasy where Barry imagined how he could be exposed as the hit man. Either way, the scene was effective and the change from dark comedy to Breaking Bad-style drama with comedic overtones made the final three episodes particularly exciting.
Would be so irritating that I would stop watching the show immediately. So let's hope not!

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Re: Barry

#17 Post by Murdoch » Fri May 18, 2018 1:31 pm

It would certainly fit Berg's MO with Silicon Valley - whatever can be drawn out, will be drawn out.

I wasn't too pleased with the finale. A lot of the resolutions felt too clean and it seemed like the show just wanted to move on from most of the events of season 1.
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This is a small detail to get worked up over but the cop at the airport was very concerned with Fuches and Barry being illegally parked, so much that he completely ignored Fuches' bloody and bruised face! This was played really straight so it just had me and my friend scratching our heads.

The final part at the cabin took way too long for the shoe to drop with the monologue callback and the Facebook findings, and neither felt like that "oh shit" moment the writers seemed to want.

My guess is the second season will pick up with Barry inventing a story that Det. Moss left early and the rest of the season will deal with her body being found and Barry stressing over the investigation as he pursues his acting. I didn't get the sense from the behind the scenes extra that Hader and Berg intended the final act as a fantasy, but rather they wanted it too feel like one until Gene brought up the monologue and caused everything around Barry to come crashing down.

And like mfunk I would be so done with this show if it was all fake.
Last edited by Murdoch on Fri May 18, 2018 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Barry

#18 Post by Roscoe » Fri May 18, 2018 1:59 pm

It's also worth remembering that ---
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the cops picked up Fuches's tooth at the murder scene -- will they be able to do some magical police DNA tracing thing on it?

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Re: Barry

#19 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri May 18, 2018 2:04 pm

You all make great points. I know that praising premium cable/streaming TV is the default at this point, but I'm not particularly convinced that this is a good show, let alone a great one. It's pretty middling through one season, but the amount of swooning around it makes me wonder if they are going to make some much-needed changes and improvements headed into the second season and it'll be doomed to series-long mediocrity.

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Re: Barry

#20 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Apr 01, 2019 7:33 am

Really good season 2 opener. The balance between funny and dark continues to hold strong.
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Fortunately everyone's prediction that the shooting was a fantasy sequence was not true. I have to think we'll see less of the dream sequences as the show goes on. As evidenced during the scene where he's mimicking the mannerisms of his class-partner/now fellow employee, I think we'll see what drove those dreams manifest itself more with other members of his class.

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Re: Barry

#21 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:58 pm

Hader in the NYT on last night's episode. Absolutely bonkers storytelling for 30 straight minutes.

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Re: Barry

#22 Post by cdnchris » Mon Apr 29, 2019 9:24 pm

SpoilerShow
It was pretty nuts. I remember thinking how disappointed I was going to be if it turned out to be a dream, and it appears that wasn't the case.

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Re: Barry

#23 Post by jazzo » Tue Apr 30, 2019 10:20 am

In many ways it was just as, if not more exhausting as the 80 minutes Game of Thrones episode that preceded it.

It had a very Coen Bros. vibe to it, referencing, at least to my mind, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing and Blood Simple, or those episodes of Netflix’s Daredevil where the lead character battles a horde of bad guys in a single 10 minute shot until, in the end, its just two battered pieces of meat trying to outlast the other.

And then it pivots once Lily enters the episode into a horror gong show, recalling not just films with demonically possessed children at their core, but also Cronenberg’s The Brood and the Richard Matheson novel, I Am Legend, as she runs around her suburban neighborhood like a feral animal.

I was very impressed with it, and with Hader's direction.

It's funny. I think Hiro Murai's direction in this and, more specifically, in Atlanta, has been exemplary. He has a very distinct voice that is quite often absent from even the best of modern television’s direction, which can still be somewhat flat even when the writing is incredible. Murai’s work is cinematic and engaging, and he brings a real consistency to the feel of his shows. But in both cases, specific episodes directed by the stars/creators of their respective shows have been even more impressive. I almost feel bad for him that they get more attention!

And did anyone else, for a half-a-second there, think they were looking at a slyly disguised Jon Hamm as Ronny? It’s just the type of thing he would do for fun.

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Re: Barry

#24 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:27 pm

To me he reminded me a little of the guy who played Harold in S2 of Twin Peaks. And the Fuches in Barry's dream looked like James Lipton.
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As impressive as it all was, the most impressive story detail is that it did manage to tie up loose ends with the cop, and thus likely the whole S1 climax.

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Re: Barry

#25 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Thu May 02, 2019 4:14 pm

I liked the first series of this, and I don't know Hader's stuff at all besides the odd SNL clip (that said, his Vincent Price Halloween special with Wiig as Gloria Swanson and Hamm as James Mason is great fun).

And speaking of Hamm, he's great in Toast of London (UK cult comedy - he plays himself).

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