HBO's Barry [Spoilers] - Selectively Listening to God

[Veltigar]

Barry was brilliant. Definitely preferred it over Succession, so I will break a lance for its greatness if there ever is a need for partisans of either show to come forward.

I'll second the love for Henry Winkler. The great thing about his character is that I'm always fooled by his earnest wish to change, before the inevitable flip flop. I didn't think he would turn his coat again, and then they threw Daniel Day Lewis at him 

My favourite intellectual presence of the season is The Raven though. I really think his final speech about letting go of the bullshit and embracing your true self encapsulated this show's message perfectly. I'm not sure whether I agree with it, but given the outcome for the characters it was very much gospel truth:

1.  Raven => Let go of the bullshit, reconciled himself with Barry and is now still at large. Presumably enjoying life
2. Cousineau => Not capable of letting go of his bullshit, pretended to be a saint and therefore accidentally ended up looking like a criminal mastermind. Incarcerated for life.
3. NoHo Hank => Couldn't admit to what he had wroth on Cristobal, he died needlessly. I do believe that he could have walked away scot free if he had just admitted to The Raven what he had done to Cristobal.
4.  Barry => Not capable to admit how horrid of a person he was (his religious evocations near the end of the episode were brilliant), when the realization finally downed on him, he was killed.
5. Sally => Admitted to herself she was not happy and that guilt was wrecking her. Now she seems to have a nice, quiet life with her son.

I do wonder what this means for John. The Mask Collector was hilarious, but philosophically speaking, I found it quite threatening. Will John choose the pretence over reality and thus also be consumed?

[Kalbear]

What I absolutely appreciate about the ending is how well it subverted the expectations of what it would be like. We've seen repeatedly Barry go on a killing rampage and it was 100% set up to have him go and do that to save his son and resolve Hank and Fuchs that way. Instead we see an incredible closure and confrontation between Hank and Fuchs, Fuchs choosing to do something to earn some redemption for his past misdeeds with Barry as a boy and get his own form of closure and Barry doing...well, nothing in his wheelhouse. It was both completely surprising, completely on brand in terms of absolute chaos and mayhem, and significantly better for all the characters and their arcs.

And yeah, I'd watch the shit about a spinoff about the Raven. Holy crap did Root own that. He has always been a great part of this show and basically of any show he shows up in but this might be my favoritest ever past Milton in Office Space. 

[RumHam]

1 hour ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

I'd watch the shit about a spinoff about the Raven. 

Seems unlikely, but imagine Hader does another seemingly unrelated show for HBO and one episode THE RAVEN shows up. 

[SpaceChampion]

 

[IFR]

I have to agree with everyone that this was an excellent show. 

Too often I find myself grumpily deriding the quality of TV shows and movies. So it's always a pleasure when I find something that is utterly fantastic. Succession was a recent example. I'm glad Barry can join that group of great shows. Well done, Hader.