I just finished the first season of this, and I checked to see if there were any discussions here. This is a shockingly good show, hilarious, tense and dramatic at the same time, and is one of the best things airing on HBO at the moment. Plus, you can't go wrong with Henry Winkler.
Barry has its moments, but I'm not a fan of Hollywood's endless navel-gazing. I definitely would've liked the series more if he were a hair-dresser or a high school teacher.
I'm about midway through season two and have been liking it a lot. My only complaint so far is that a lot of Sally's solo scenes of trying to make it in Hollywood seem largely disconnected from everything else and feel like they're part of a different show. Those bits feel more like something out of an ensemble sitcom rather than a show where the other 95% of the story directly connects back to a central character.
I have no words other than Bill Hader is doing something no one will ever come close to with this show. Season 3 has to be one of the best seasons of television of all time.
Ending was retarded. Either Barry is someone who can wipe out a monastery, or he's the retard that walked into that obvious trap. It can't be both.
And don't give me this shit that his character was wiped out, had survived a poisoning, wasn't thinking straight, blablabla.
The whole point of Barry is that we've been shown that he's a machine who can do that shit in his sleep. He thinks about all of the angles. If he's so close to getting busted, there is no way he takes Cousineau's gun (which was unlikely to be loaded if the cops were there, and just walks in without doing a fucking perimeter check?
Him getting surprised by that chick who poisoned him, I can buy. Him just out of the hospital knocked out by surprised, I can buy. Him on his way out, wanting to get a clean slate, going in like that without preparation, recon, not even considering it might be a trap?
Retarded and out of character.
Honestly this whole season has felt off, like their success has gone to their head and they are trying to go way more artsy than they should. Like Atlanta Season 3, but not as bad.
Ending was retarded. Either Barry is someone who can wipe out a monastery, or he's the retard that walked into that obvious trap. It can't be both.
And don't give me this shit that his character was wiped out, had survived a poisoning, wasn't thinking straight, blablabla.
The whole point of Barry is that we've been shown that he's a machine who can do that shit in his sleep. He thinks about all of the angles. If he's so close to getting busted, there is no way he takes Cousineau's gun (which was unlikely to be loaded if the cops were there, and just walks in without doing a fucking perimeter check?
Him getting surprised by that chick who poisoned him, I can buy. Him just out of the hospital knocked out by surprised, I can buy. Him on his way out, wanting to get a clean slate, going in like that without preparation, recon, not even considering it might be a trap?
Retarded and out of character.
Honestly this whole season has felt off, like their success has gone to their head and they are trying to go way more artsy than they should. Like Atlanta Season 3, but not as bad.
Either you're right and this some S8 GoT levels of writing, or, as the episode has shown, Barry is far worse off than not thinking straight. You're right about him not checking the perimeter, but this is the final of three instances this episode (you can include the ones prior to this episode) where he isn't properly doing what I'd think Barry/a hitman/ex-Military (or whatever he was) would do as a viewer.
The guy from the interstate chase? He didn't die? Shocker. But after what happened with the poisoning and seeing Kenneth Goulet's card last episode, we'd expect him to check around his apartment before entering to hear of a rather dubious deed coming from an unstable person (ironic) just in case. Nope. Gets snuck up on within 2ish minutes.
He's burying the body at the site from the 1st episode, which although it seems to be an elevated location, it seems to be pretty open so I'd expect Barry to see if he was being trailed. Again, nope. Albert gets the drop on him and his sanity is 404'd.
So either this is some D&D level writing or Barry is mentally still shook up from last episode, defenses lowered due to not wanting Sally and Gene dying, which costs him majorly but I think is plausible. I am no means some 160 IQ viewer but, to me, I think him doing something like that end is understandable. However, that was the dumbest thing about the episode, and requires more pondering before I somewhat agree with because I understand where you're coming from. Because after what happened in the 2nd instance, you'd expect him to not do any more killing with how he reacted. Nope, and that's what really gets me out of this entire episode, but the Hank/Cristobal was awfully bizarre. I think episodes 6 & 7 are better than this one (the finale) but this was a decent ending.
Dude....this is a dumb comedy show. Meant to be silly. It is well written but the characters exist in like a fantasy world where everything is absurd. Barry is a high ranking CIA level James Bond assassin. He kills entire mafia armies by himself. Yet what beats him in the end and gets him to let his guard down?
Acting.
He loses to 'acting'. He is invincible against bullets and bombs and poison. But stupid Hollywood acting defeats him. It is a joke that the show has been setting up since season one. He gets caught by the police because Mr Cousineau convinces him to go into the house with a gun due to his acting performance. Setting up his arrest. It was meant to be goofy.
Either you're right and this some S8 GoT levels of writing, or, as the episode has shown, Barry is far worse off than not thinking straight. You're right about him not checking the perimeter, but this is the final of three instances this episode (you can include the ones prior to this episode) where he isn't properly doing what I'd think Barry/a hitman/ex-Military (or whatever he was) would do as a viewer.
The guy from the interstate chase? He didn't die? Shocker. But after what happened with the poisoning and seeing Kenneth Goulet's card last episode, we'd expect him to check around his apartment before entering to hear of a rather dubious deed coming from an unstable person (ironic) just in case. Nope. Gets snuck up on within 2ish minutes.
He's burying the body at the site from the 1st episode, which although it seems to be an elevated location, it seems to be pretty open so I'd expect Barry to see if he was being trailed. Again, nope. Albert gets the drop on him and his sanity is 404'd.
This season might as well have been called 'Everyone Shits on Barry'. That's why it doesn't make any sense. He was betrayed by basically everyone this season. Fuches. Cousineau. Military Wife. Sally. I'm sure NoHo fucks him over at some point too. That's why when ChinkBI shows up in the desert, it's such a 'Hey, here's ONE person who doesn't treat Barry like shit!' twist that it actually works.
Let's deal first with Barry's state of mind.
You are completely wrong about that first instance: He enters his apartment, literally as he walks in, and the second he hears the floor creak (even though he's in the middle of reading something), he's already located the source of the possible threat, got a knife and is ready to kill.
Did he get sneak on by the other guy? Yes, sure, but he's in the middle of a conversation about saving Sally's soul. About as important a conversation as he's ever had, and he has no reason to think that anyone is coming for him. So he was distracted by that, but it doesn't show in any way that he's too mentally shook for his training not to take over properly.
Second instance: ChinkBI was in the army, is now in the FBI, and has Barry's phone number. There's absolutely no reason to think that he was trailing him, because if he had been trailing him, he would have seen put him a body in the trunk in the first place. When he shows up, he's absolutely alone, you do not see a car in the shot anywhere, they make a point out of it, that means he got off on foot at a far distance, and walked. There's no reason to think that Barry would have heard him walk because the environment is too loud and most likely the only think he would be careful for are cars. He's also fairly traumatized as we can see he breaks the fuck down because he wants to be done with killing and all of that shit.
That doesn't, in any way, show that Barry's skills have been affected by his situation. Immediately after, however, he starts the blunders:
1) Calls Cousineau, and hints at illegal activity on the phone ('What did you tell him') when there's no way anyone with a brain would say something this sus as fuck on a phone line to someone who was threatening to go to the cops a few days ago.
2) He parks straight in front of the house, after screeching his tire. Might as well be screaming HEY GUYS I'M HERE.
3) Gene keeps telling him 'He knows, I told him everything, don't go in there, let's just go'... which leads us to the biggest problem:
So why doesn't he just go? That's literally what he was about to do when he got Cousineau's call. You took his gun, Cousineau is leaving, so why the fuck isn't he leaving? There's no way he doesn't have fake papers or a way to get out of town, that he doesn't have cash stashed somewhere, that he doesn't have an exit plan. What does the other guy even have on him? Cousineau's "confession"? That's not proof of shit, it's all hearsay and any lawyer worth their salt would be able to show that a) Cousineau was coerced into telling the other guy what he wanted and b) there's no actual proof for that. There's no way he'd even get a warrant out for his arrest, and even if there was, he could already be in Mexico on his legal name before that shit even gets processed, much less disappear entirely until that shit goes cold (which would be immediately). Cousineau could recant, etc...It's not like he gave him a piece of evidence that links Barry to any crime and, once again, it's not like Barry won't have contingencies to just run the fuck away somewhere else.
That's an even bigger retarded plot hole than him getting caught. They have given us zero reasons for Barry to have to kill him, and now that he has Cousineau's gun, zero reason for us to expect that Gene would just run in and try to beat him to death or some shit. There's no reason for Barry to go in and kill him, especially since he doesn't know whether the guy has mentioned his name to other people, etc..
4) Not doing recon. How does he know that there's not 5 people inside of that house? How does he know that he's there for sure? Why doesn't he fucking do a perimeter check. If anything his mental state was much better because he feels like he has another lease on life, ChinkBI let him go, Sally wants to be back with him, he doesn't want to kill anymore, and then it's like 'Fuck it let's kill that guy without taking any precautions I guess'. What the fuck is that? Why not tell Gene that he'll take care of him in the morning then flee? Or actually wait til the morning?
No, he literally has a screaming match in the summer when it's likely windows are opened in front of his house about killing the dude inside. And then he immediately goes in. Without even a perimeter check, just goes in the first random door. What if Cousineau is wrong and it's the fucking neighbor's house! What if he rented? Nothing, nope, just going in gun's blazing.
We also know that he's a crack shot, so why does he take his time to shoot him, walking to him to shoot him in the head IN FRONT OF OPENED WINDOWS where neighbors could see him when he could have shot him in the head where he was standing in the first place?
So either this is some D&D level writing or Barry is mentally still shook up from last episode, defenses lowered due to not wanting Sally and Gene dying, which costs him majorly but I think is plausible. I am no means some 160 IQ viewer but, to me, I think him doing something like that end is understandable. However, that was the dumbest thing about the episode, and requires more pondering before I somewhat agree with because I understand where you're coming from. Because after what happened in the 2nd instance, you'd expect him to not do any more killing with how he reacted. Nope, and that's what really gets me out of this entire episode, but the Hank/Cristobal was awfully bizarre. I think episodes 6 & 7 are better than this one (the finale) but this was a decent ending.
It is D&D level writing. They've decided to eschew most of the humor and what made season 1 and 2 great and got high on their own farts.
Sure, this show was never meant to be realistic, I agree 100% that it's meant to be surrealist. The thing is, the show has spent three seasons building up Barry to be this machine hitman who doesn't make mistake and isn't even on the FBI's radar, to doing the fucking stupidest move in the history of retarded moves.
They went for the shock ending, but as far as next season goes, I don't know where they can go at this point and the show stays what it was. Feels like a massive fucking mistake.
Ending was retarded. Either Barry is someone who can wipe out a monastery, or he's the retard that walked into that obvious trap. It can't be both.
And don't give me this shit that his character was wiped out, had survived a poisoning, wasn't thinking straight, blablabla.
The whole point of Barry is that we've been shown that he's a machine who can do that shit in his sleep. He thinks about all of the angles. If he's so close to getting busted, there is no way he takes Cousineau's gun (which was unlikely to be loaded if the cops were there, and just walks in without doing a fucking perimeter check?
Him getting surprised by that chick who poisoned him, I can buy. Him just out of the hospital knocked out by surprised, I can buy. Him on his way out, wanting to get a clean slate, going in like that without preparation, recon, not even considering it might be a trap?
Retarded and out of character.
Honestly this whole season has felt off, like their success has gone to their head and they are trying to go way more artsy than they should. Like Atlanta Season 3, but not as bad.
It won't let me reply to your latest post. I could spin my hamster wheel and say "hey, Gene is his weakspot. It was episode 3, I think, where he said 'I love you. Do you love me?' He lost all sense and rationality when it came to protecting his 'loved one' " but I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt. I will credit Berg and Hader for letting him get caught, because it makes for a more interesting S4 than the one where he's free and having to deal with Jim Moss, whether he's dead or alive. So the ending isn't the best, but it sets up for a more intriguing season. They've shown they're willing to go to depths we wouldn't expect and playing on that rather than playing safe like House of Cards when Kevin Spacey was still in it. I'm not comparing Game of Thrones because it feels like Fire Emblem: Three houses with perma-death on but you killed non-vital characters.
It won't let me reply to your latest post. I could spin my hamster wheel and say "hey, Gene is his weakspot. It was episode 3, I think, where he said 'I love you. Do you love me?' He lost all sense and rationality when it came to protecting his 'loved one' " but I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt. I will credit Berg and Hader for letting him get caught, because it makes for a more interesting S4 than the one where he's free and having to deal with Jim Moss, whether he's dead or alive. So the ending isn't the best, but it sets up for a more intriguing season. They've shown they're willing to go to depths we wouldn't expect and playing on that rather than playing safe like House of Cards when Kevin Spacey was still in it. I'm not comparing Game of Thrones because it feels like Fire Emblem: Three houses with perma-death on but you killed non-vital characters.
See my problem is that basically now they have to entirely retool the show.
In Season 3 they tried a change of tone and imo it didn't work nearly as well as they thought it would, and came off as really pretentious instead of making fun of really pretentious people, Hollywood excesses and nobodies who act like they are stars.
Barry can't go back to a normal life. So where are we going next? Prison? Trial?
There are tons of possibilities. Prison. Trial. Psyche ward. NoHo Hank breaks him out. The CIA recruits him as an assassin. He somehow fights his way out of getting captured. But a very public trial where Barry gets to 'star' in his trial would make the most sense.
