One of the regular mechanisms that has accompanied “Barry” since the beginning of the series is to introduce threatening characters in their non-threatening moments. Barry is a hired killer with a list of corpses that was supposed to place him long ago at the top of the FBI wanted list but most of the first season he spent in a game workshop, trying to connect to his feelings along with a bunch of lost hipsters from Los Angeles. Fuchs (his operator) is no less dangerous and cunning than he is, but “Barry” prefers to present him as a kind of grumpy uncle with a penchant for bad lies. On the contrary, Noho Hank is repeatedly presented to us as a likable, sentimental and slightly hyperactive type, until one really has to make an effort to remember that he is also a gangster and a heroin wholesaler whose tattoos hint at a rich past in a Russian prison.
So when “Barry” introduces us in this episode to two characters whose toughness is not undermined throughout the episode, we know immediately that we need to pay attention to them. First we meet Albert Wong, an FBI agent attached to the investigation file of the murder of Detective Janice Moss, who Barry killed at the end of the first season. Coincidentally, of course Wong is deeply connected to Barry’s history – they served together in Iraq, Wong trained Barry in sniping and on the other hand, Barry was there when Wong was shot in the face (he now has a large scar on his cheek). The other is the wife of Cristobal, the Bolivian mobster, a former business rival and now the partner of Noah Hank, who came to settle matters in Los Angeles after Barry killed (on Hank’s mission) her father. Hank and Cristobal were given a moment of contentment at the end of the previous episode, but in “Barry” moments of contentment do not last too long.
Wong’s performance, in particular, instantly responds to the “Barry” universe something of the tone that accompanied it mostly throughout the second season and is abandoned in the present: the crime comedy. The encounter between the FBI agent is serious explanation and the amiable local cops, who are supposed to solve a crime but deep down are excited that they finally have an investigation that justifies IDF, involvement of the FBI and other things “from TV”, very reminiscent of the Cohen brothers’ humor, Read and burn “Underrated” and “Fargo.” Fake that Noah Hank tried to dress up on Fox in his interrogation at the beginning of the season) – all this is fun and funny in a non-threatening way, and in such an intense season it is oxygen needed for viewers.
Scar face vs. The big cat. “Barry” screenshot
And there’s Sally. It has to be said: Sarah Goldberg is a fantastic actress, but what’s happening with her character and series, “Joplin,” is currently the weak side of “Barry.” There is a sense that this plot line is presented to us primarily for the sake of maintaining a DNA connection with the first season, which has a relatively simplistic parallel to the world of crime and the world of entertainment. Most of the scenes with Sally so far have worked simply because she really manages to give her character a lot of depth even in relatively short scenes, and to some extent that happens in this episode as well – she still gets some of the best replicas in the episode – but with this plot line more focused, how to say – It does not work. We do not really know what happened to “Joplin” so it is hard to feel anything when she gets good reviews, or is canceled after a day because she does not come well to the algorithm knows all about her streaming service. Besides, satire on a content services algorithm has been done so many times – including by Netflix itself (“Bujack Horseman,” “Lady Dynamite”) – that it’s hard to get excited about it.
The final scene (technically, the penultimate) finally puts into Barry and Sally’s broken relationship something a little beyond frustration and distance. It starts from what appears to be another visual gag on top of the emotional immaturity of Barry (who made her a collage), develops into a conversation between them about the cancellation of “Joplin” – but Barry’s attempt to listen and be emotionally available to Sally degenerates into Barry’s pseudo-murderous show. He of course does not offer to shoot the woman who canceled the series for Sally, but does come up with some ideas for other things that could be done – to replace her dog with another, similar dog, or to replace her larger furniture so that she thinks she is shrinking, until she “hangs herself, Nothing violent. ” Of course it makes Sally scream at Barry to get out of her life; Just as she was warned in previous episodes, he is violent. This warning seemed a little ridiculous for the last few episodes because it was true and because she, and no one else, could appreciate the true extent of Barry’s violence. Just ask the family duo who have been waiting outside Libya. At the end of the episode we find Barry exactly where we found him at the end of the previous episode: on the street, all alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQtoCm-KoPo
- Articles by Nohu Hank: Hank and Cristobal are great relationship counselors – “then you become a pressure cooker, and you kill all these people, and then you yell at your girlfriend,” but the medal here goes to Bill Hyder with a perfect submission of the answer: “I did not yell at my girlfriend.”
- Everything at an angle: The situation is predictable, but the photography in the scene where we get a top-down view of the Chechen nursery (with the secret heroin depot) just so the Bolivians arrive with black vehicles and guns drawn is just great.
- Mathematics of creation: According to BanShe’s algorithm, these are the things that if they appear in the first two minutes of the episode, they dramatically increase the likelihood that viewers will finish the season: someone eating dessert, Central Park, kittens and “Mumbai Riddle Boy” star Dov Patel.
- Yakshimsh: Is one of the senior Chechen mobsters coming up in a video call straight from Grozny a Ken Debitian, who played Azamat Bogtov, the producer on “Borat” (and yes, from that scene)? IMDB does not approve, but the similarity is stressful.
- Pride Week: When Elena finds out about the affair of Cristobal and Noah Hank, Hank is literally in the closet at that moment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqv0o-PJst0
Barry’s third season airs on HOT HBO and yes, a new episode every Monday at 11pm. To read the previous recaps