May will be a brutal month for fans of great television. Succession hangs up its necktie on 28 May at the end of its fourth season, bringing an end to the best drama of the last decade or so. The same night, on the same channel (HBO in the US; Sky and NOW in the UK), Barry will also finish up its own stellar four-season run. Bill Hader’s showbiz satire/crime drama fusion has never quite hit the zeitgeist like its HBO compatriot, but those who did tune in have been transfixed by its inventive, blackly comic sensibility and first-rate performances. Season four, thankfully, sees it go out on a high.
The series picks back up with assassin-turned-actor Barry Berkman (Hader) at a low point, locked up in prison for the murder of police officer Janice Moss. Having been turned in by his former acting coach, the conceited Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), Barry is a man unravelling at the seams. Joining him in prison is Fuches (Stephen Root), another eccentric father figure from his past. Outside prison, the other characters have to contend with his absence. They include Chechen mobster NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), now living in domestic bliss with former rival Cristobal (Michael Irby), and Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), Barry’s ex-girlfriend, whose meltdown at the end of last season, coupled with her ties to an accused killer, has abruptly tanked a promising career in TV.
