When Bill Hader left SNL a few years ago, it felt like the biggest part of the show was leaving (Thankfully Kate McKinnon was ready in waiting to become the main attraction). He signed a developmental deal with HBO and we’ve been waiting years to see what that collaboration would bring. Now we have our answer in ‘Barry’ a dark action comedy from the mind of Hader and former Seinfeld writer Alec Berg.
The first two episodes of the series were screened at SXSW this week and gave a great glimpse of how the show will play for audiences when it premiers next month on HBO. The first episode starts with Barry, played by Hader, after he’s executed someone in a hotel. When he gets home we discover that he is what can only be described as a middle-class hitman. His job pays the bills but his apartment is a little run down and he’s based out of Cleveland, clearly he is not living a John Wick style existence . His handler Fuches (Stephen Root) comes to him the next day and informs him of his next assignment. He also points out that Barry seems to be dissatisfied in his work lately and seems to not enjoy his job of contract killing. Root plays Fuches like a friend who’s doing his best to be a father figure to Barry. Bill Hader told the audience after the screening that Root’s character was modeled after his own father which lead to a humorous first meeting between that actor and his inspiration.
Barry’s newest job takes him to Los Angeles, more specifically the valley. He finds out he will be working for the Chechnyan mafia and executing a trainer who’s been caught sleeping with the wrong woman. Barry’s tailing of the man leads him to a warehouse where he discovers the trainer has hollywood dreams is taking acting classes. At that class, we’re introduced to this incredibly weird world of struggling actors in LA with a teach who’s a perfect mix of bizarre and cruel played by Henry Winkler. Through a series of funny circumstances and moments that I won’t spoil here, Barry finds himself at a bar with the class getting drinks.
At that bar Barry’s new friends and community instill a new sense of purpose in him and he resolves to become an actor. The second episode follows the conflict that exists between who his is now and who he desires to be to funny and horrifying places. The series is oddly touching on a really universal feeling about how we’re all looking for a community to be a part of. Bill Hader mentioned in his post screening Q&A that the feeling Barry has around his new actor friends of thinking everyone seems so cool and how he hopes to be a part of that community was similar to his experience at SNL sitting at similar tables in bars with Amy Poehler, Tina Fey & Fred Armisen.
Hader is really good at playing the straight man to everyone else in this. He’s shown his ability to handle more dramatic, less “steffan-related” material before But when he’s placed in a word of cartoonish gangsters and over the top actors, his subtle stoicism really adds to the comedy. The cast of aspiring actors around him are also really funny as well. Sarah Goldberg really shines and has good chemistry with Hader. The two actors playing the heads of the small Chechnyan mafia operation (Glenn Fleshler & Anthony Carrigan) also deliver over the top performances that are quite fun to watch.
The real standout performance from the two episodes is the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler. Having Winkler be a foul mouthed acting teacher would be worth tuning in for on its own. Hader and Berg also make his character Cousineau a greedy and conniving man who cares about his students, as long as they pay and pay up front. It was really great to see Winkler as a hysterical as a profane acting teacher who’s seems to be as far away from the friendly Henry Winkler we’ve all come to know and love the past 40 years.
Hader and Berg are also doing some really interesting things with sitcom conventions. It definitely has traditional sitcom bones when it comes to its narrative structure. Every episode appears to involve placing Barry in conflict between an A & B plot. The big difference with Barry being that one plot will be all about him trying to further his career as an struggling actor while the other will be his attempt to leave the criminal underworld behind. There are incredibly high stakes that naturally come out of those two worlds constantly encroaching and overlapping on each other. I also really loved that it really avoids the problems I have with action comedies. Something as recent as Game Night (a movie I really enjoyed) seemed to make a decision during the last half hour to make a decision to just attempt to be an action film with little to no jokes. Maybe it’s because is a serialized series and no given chapter is longer than a half hour, but the we never go too long without humor. Who knows? Maybe episodic television is the best way to tell these kinds of stories.
Barry Will arrive on HBO March 25, 2018 and should not be missed. It is a truly winning, edgy comedy.
