Warning: spoilers for Succession, Barry, The Sopranos, Mad Men and Breaking Bad ahead! Scroll straight down to Take Five to avoid them.
Bring me the head of HBO’s chief scheduler! Somehow the US network has landed on the baffling decision to air the final-ever episodes of two of the best shows of the last 10 years on the same Sunday night (Monday morning in the UK). The shows in question are Barry, Bill Hader’s absurdist comedy-drama about a board-treading hitman, and of course Succession, Jesse Armstrong’s cheerful look at fascist-courting media elites. These are shows that deserve space to be savoured, rather than being stacked together in some sort of “everything must go” sale. It seems particularly unfair on Barry, which is likely to be overlooked amid the attention lavished on the bigger, more buzzy Succession. But, here we are.
