Bill Hader as "Barry" on HBO *

I’ve liked GoT through its run as great event TV, (even this last season and ending) but IMO it’s never been competing for best show on TV. Barry is easily the best show on HBO, even if it’s not the one they market heavily.

 

there were moments of the first season that felt low-budget, but since it was a critical darling and award winner, they really seemed to go for it in season 2. i still can't get over how cool the martial arts episode was.

 

The episode tonight was pretty intense with Barry losing it.

 

I love this show but the finale was too dark for me. Too much carnage. I didn’t particularly enjoy it.

 

Yeah, too much carnage in lieu of a script as good as the previous ones.

 

I loved the darkness for this episode.Barry had reached the end of his rope.

 

Love this series. Binge watched both seasons over three nights. Powerful finali to Season 2 that sets up several potential predicaments for Barry next season.


Cat

 

But the real cliffhanger is...did he get the Jay Roach movie role???

 

What is remarkable to me is that Hader directed the finale (and also the karate one). That dude is just beyond talented.

 

I agree. The violence of the finale was over the top, and I increasingly find the hitman plot to be less interesting than the acting class plot.

 

But the hitman plot is paramount to Barry's character. Without that backstory, it is just a show about a struggling actor.

 

Indeed. This series has given me a whole new respect for his talent.

 

See, I find the hitman plot much more interesting than the acting plot. I find a lot of those scenes with the class very tedious.

 

I actually find both plot lines interesting, and the juxtaposition and merging very entertaining.

 

Yeah, definitely; it's the two different worlds thing that makes the show so entertaining. Wanna be actor guy or pure hitman show has been done. Combining the two and dynamics of the characters is what makes 'Barry' so good and unique.

 

Yes, and the excellent acting, writing and direction help a lot.

 

I'm rewatching season one and once again I am blown away with how impressive Henry Winkler is in this. In every scene, in every line he delivers, he is superb!

 

If I’m wrong, I’ll let you punch me in the genitals.

 

agree. he's so great. the man is a national treasure.

 

Agreed. Don't get me wrong, the hitman plot has to be there, but stuff like the episode with the father and daughter/karate stuff was absurd, and the finale with him killing nearly everyone in the place yet managing to get avoid getting hit once was a bit too over the top.

That aside, I watched all two seasons last week and loved most of it. Good stuff. Hank is an incredible character, and the four main stars (Hader, Root, Winkler and Goldberg) are all killing it with their roles. And I like the fast pacing of the storyline. Season 3 can't come soon enough.

 

Personally, I thought that was not only the best episode of the series, but one of the best episodes of TV I've seen in a long long time.

 

The young girl playing Lili? Both her parents are stunt coordinators, she's been learning to do this stuff her whole life.

 

I thought it was (barely) credible. Barry was pissed and out for vengeance. Fuches had stolen everything he had loved - acting, his relationships with Cousineau and Sally - and at that point he really didn't care if he lived or he died. Though he was an antihero, he was in the same state that men who were given the Congressional Medal of Honor were sometimes in when they did the things for which they were honored - charging a machine gun nest with a revolver, throwing themselves on a grenade, etc. None of these people he killed had ever been in battle or had a reasonable level of training, just Barry's Two Week Wonder Course. They didn't know anything Barry hadn't taught them.

So I'd say it would be less credible if he were going up against a team of hardened killers, or a genuine army. Instead, he was mowing down mooks.

 

Release date for S02 on dvd?