Bill Hader in HBO's Barry

oops i mean dessert. i have inadvertently revealed when i eat donuts

Beignet oracle guy was great.

I haven't seen the finale yet so this post might be redundant but I predict next season will see Sally ask for Barry's favour she turned down (and caused their split) to be called in.

;)

lol

I probably shouldn't be, but I'm surprised at just how unhinged Sally got, like freaking out at Natalie and then casually asking Barry to fuck w her

Does anybody want the lottery numbers for next week? ;-)

The scene between Jim Moss and Gene in the garage, was that a callback to an actor's exercise in 'finding the truth in your statement' or something like that? Felt structured that way rather than an interrogation or hypnosis setup.

I thought it was kind of a dark reflection of the acting exercises in season one, the mirroring thing, but yeah it felt very theater-y.

just blasted through this season, iirc from my acting days the gene and jim in the garage scene was explicitly referencing the meisner technique

Pulling a Succession!

Exclusive! I talked to Bill Hader about why he's ending #Barry with Season 4. https://t.co/6gwlR0afog

— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) March 7, 2023

While I'm all in favor of shows not being dragged out way past their expiration dates, I am bummed about the more recent trend of shows ending before it feels like they should. That said, it's definitely easier to accept when it's the creators making the decision and not just dumbfuck tax avoidance bullshit.

i totally trust Hader--feel like s. 2 was slightly better than s. 3 but watching the new trailer makes me wanna watch the whole thing over again

idk if i agree with succession, but i def think it's smart to end this one earlier than later. the premise is not built to last forever.

do i think it's a coincidence that hbo's critically-beloved but lightly-viewed series are all deciding it's time to hang up the cleats at the same time? sure.

Have loved Barry so far but S3 was a bit weaker than S1/S2 and I can easily see this show providing diminishing returns. I'm fine with it ending

Same, seems like a perfect time for it to end, looking forward to the final season though.

First two episodes were decent, but I'll be honest I'm way more looking forward to the NoHo Hank and Cristobal scenes than anything with Barry (although Fuchs trying to round up his prison gang was pretty funny).

There needs to be a NoHoHank/Cristobal spin-off.

The umpty-leven shifts in alliances and motivations in a half hour were a little OTT for me, even for this show. It was like watching Jonathan Winters or Robin Williams pull out props and hats from a box and make a one-liner, then move on to the next prop. I have to re-acclimate myself to its cartoon rhythms. Still good though.

Only watched ep1, but we were meant to think that Cristobal had died at the end of last season, right? I mean, easy enough for them to say he was only mostly dead, but is there any chance all the Hank/Cristobal stuff is an extended fantasy?

Haven't watched the new series yet but as I remembered it Elena had elctro-shocked him to a vegetative state.

this look just killed me:

https://www.looper.com/img/gallery/noho-hank-actor-anthony-carrigan-details-work-with-bill-hader-on-barry-and-a-film-icons-season-4-cameo-exclusive-interview/intro-1681491237.jpg

i watched ALL of this show and couldn't tell you what happened at the end of the last ep i watched if my life depended on it

this show is maybe a little bit too confusing/hard to follow for me

I have to re-acclimate myself to its cartoon rhythms.

OK, re-acclimation complete, this was terrific. Great cameos from GdT and Armisen.

what's so funny to me about the Gene/Gene's agent breaking into Lon's house, is Gene's agent being 100% sure that all of the hard drive info is in the monitor--maybe if it was a Mac??--but it looked like a PC, and not only that, Lon def has backups and stuff saved to the cloud, but Gene's agent is too old (I guess?) to understand this.

Amazing episode--one of the best in the past two seasons

I guess what I'm saying is, I don't know of any PCs that have hard drives in the monitor, but I could be wrong

People who complain the show forgot it's a comedy are wrong. Moss doing something to the reporter that left him delirious, speaking German, and switching snacks from Skittles to gummy bears is so absurdist.

My PC has a hard drive in the monitor.

yeah like i said. was still funny to throw a monitor in the pool

and assume that. . . that was that! all taken care of

I wonder if the single shot “next time on Barry” previews are a tribute to the hilariously empty episode previews (I think?) Mad Men that largely consisted of scenes of people going “what” or “huh” and staring

Some grim stuff in the latest episode. Kinda hoping the final scene was a fakeout that will be resolved right away in the next ep.

Despite the lack of any murders, this was possibly the grimmest episode yet.

it really was almost unbearably bleak

Barry's disappearance was eight years earlier but John seems older than that — I guess the fed-provided new life included a kid.

God damn that was indeed bleak. Wow.

Am I projecting, or did the cast start to change the way they said the show 'Laws of Humanity' to 'Loss of Humanity' instead?

along those lines: is it just me or does every character pronounce “cousineau” differently?

I think everyone says KOO-suh-no, except for Winkler himself, who says KOO-suh-now.

I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt for these last few episodes, but based on this week, I’m not convinced that a time jump was necessary.

i wasn't into it for the last 5-10 minutes anymore, until the last line that Barry says and I'm all in now

Just hoping for more NoHo Hank, though my hopes for the Cristobal/NoHo Hank spin-off sitcom were cruelly dashed.

I feel like I must be missing something very obvious here but why on earth would Sally go with Barry to start this new life? I'm not even asking with the hindsight of how depressing and dead that life is, but in the moment where he shows up in her apartment. I read his earlier confidence that she would come with him because "she said I make her feel safe" as completely delusional. Is she just so beaten down by the craziness of the plot machinations to this point, and thinks Barry will always find her somehow? Does she feel held hostage by the dude she killed? It feels inconsistent with her character that she would give up on her independent life to that degree just based on the professional setbacks she's had with being the crazy c**t girl or whatever...

she doesn't want her independent life as it exists--she has a dream to become an actress and that's not achievable when Barry shows up. it's more than setbacks---there's no way she's getting a real job again. she's at the scott biao level as he exists now

doesn't track for me. Her acting student's agent wants to represent her, and while he tells her she'll never get a real good gig anymore with her rep, she's proven herself a) way too strong to be cowed by that, and b) too smart to think it's true, that being cancelled lasts forever. Going with Barry feels like a level of giving up that isn't consistent with her character or at least that we skipped over some steps of her downfall

I guess the one piece that makes it more believable though is her history as a domestic violence victim. As depressing as that is.

Nice that they have that fiber internet connection in the middle of nowhere

FWIW, this was Vulture's take on Sally:

Sally will likely never again be able to do what she truly wants. She had that opportunity with Joplin, but the vagaries of the streaming economy ended that, and her own increasing megalomania, combined with the unfortunate news about her ex-boyfriend, closed off any potential path back.

Still, she could claw her way to finding something in the industry if she were open to lowering her ambitions. But the news from Kristen about Barry’s escape helps crystallize a suspicion that has likely been on her mind all day on the Mega Girls set: There’s no longer anything for her in Hollywood. What Sally wants now is safety and love, and in her mind, the easiest place to find those is with Barry.

yeah i dunno about all that about hollywood. i think the way it makes sense, which is really her DV victim mindset, is that she's seen the ugliness and violence of the world and while Barry is as emblematic of it as anyone, she is convinced that he and he alone can be trusted to never direct it towards her (witness her family being so useless and unsupportive). I don't love it and it is heartbreaking but that's my read

I agree Lavator, I didn’t believe Sally would truly desire this level of exile. She already tried exile with her family and couldn’t stand it. And she went back and even despite everything, she was still shooting her shot any chance she got. The scene where she seamlessly went from coaching to auditioning was peak Sally, and I don’t believe that even being rejected in that moment would be enough for her to 1) go with Barry 2) to the middle of nowhere 3) and become a mother 4) who works a dead-end job 5) where she has to put up with still yet more toxic men, only this time 6) men without any power to do anything for her

All it needs to be is enough for her to run with Barry in the heat of that first moment. After that she’s trapped because she’s helped harbour a dangerous fugitive, and then trapped again because she has a child.