Barry is the kind of series that will make you unbearable to be around. It is the kind of series that will drive you to pester your friends, relatives, co-workers until they watch it. The kind that will lead you into a series of manic recaps and loud “remember the bit where…” moments whenever you encounter a fellow fan. A decade or two ago, it would have been embraced by box set snobs and placed proudly on DVD shelves between Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Wire. Yet in the age of streaming and with a cacophonous mass of possibilities at our fingertips, it has never been given the attention it truly deserves.
The series, which begins its third season tonight, focuses on Barry Berkman (Saturday Night Live alumni Bill Hader, who co-created the series with former Seinfeld writer Alec Berg), a skilled war vet turned contract killer, who stumbles into a Los Angeles acting class led by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), a vain, faded thespian. Somehow Barry becomes more and more invested in the class, which quickly and serendipitously blossoms into a TV career, despite his abject lack of talent. He struggles to reconcile his newfound hobby with the pressures of his prolific hitman duties, however, with police investigations, shootouts and gang warfare involving the Chechan mafia running alongside his new Hollywood life. It’s a lot. The story’s twists and bends are impossible to predict; the superb season three premiere left me open-jawed.
