Though "Barry" has been on my radar for a while, it wasn't until the third season came on up the Guardian's Top TV of 2022 that I was inspired to actually start it. Naturally, we went and began with the first season, which actually aired all the way back in 2018.
Formerly a US Marine, but now working as contract killer, Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) arrives in Los Angeles to execute a job for the Chechen mob. He follows his target to his acting class, and inadvertently becomes involved. Despite his poor performance, he finds in acting a satisfaction that isn't coming from other areas of his life and is smitten with fellow student Sally (Sarah Goldberg). He stays in L. A, and begins to attend the class, but his ties to the local gangsters and the bodycount from his real profession constantly threaten to expose him.
I really liked this first season of "Barry". It helps that I like shows and films about filmmaking and those, even tangential, links to other movies and TV productions is a factor I enjoyed here. They're not essential elements, though as "Barry" was, for me, a very funny black comedy, that married its great performances and occasional grim moments with some absolute belly laughs. Hader and Goldberg are both great and I really like that the show is not about a bad, or clumsy, hitman, like it might have been in lesser hands. Barry is reasonably proficient at this job, but it's his desperation to get out and make some proper connections that cause him to make several tactical errors.
The best humour comes from a triumvirate of co-stars though, I really liked Anthony Carrigan in "Gotham" where he was often sardonically funny and given the opportunity to be more traditionally funny here, he's great. Stephen Root, a comedic actor whose never got the recognition he deserves despite the career of brilliance is again...well... brilliant as Barry's handler Fuches. One perhaps stands above all though, Henry Winkler has proved a versatile comedic actor since his days on "Happy Days", but I don't think he's ever been better than he is in this as Gene Cousineau, who runs the acting class that Barry joins. So much great character work, and delivery of excellent lines ("Equal parts loud and wrong"), it very much deserved the Emmy he won.
I understand that I've timed this pretty well, as there are two more seasons to watch before the fourth and final begins this month. Can't wait.