The fourth and final season of HBO’s “Barry” returns with its title character, the ex-Marine turned hitman (turned actor, turned abusive boyfriend), behind bars and about to go down for at least one of his crimes. Everything’s come to a head. Or has it?
The show’s co-creators Alec Berg and Bill Hader (Hader also stars) keep us guessing while exploring a larger, tantalizing theme: Can you ever really start over — whether that means mending a toxic relationship, or going legit, or simply running away from your past? Maybe it’s an impossibility in the end. We are who we are. You can never right these kinds of wrongs.
Barry has always been an elusive character, both self-hating and entitled, and one of the show’s strengths is how well it captures that inner chaos and shame. He’s incapable of real honesty, even with the man in the mirror, which has led to all kinds of erratic behavior. He thought acting might give him something — truth, relief, a sense of self — but like everything else in his life, that was a lie. Throughout the series, his release valve has consistently been aiming a gun at human targets.
