Barry Season 3 Ep 1 Review: Bill Hader's long-awaited series is back with an 'unhinged, gobsmacking' bang

Barry Season 3

Barry Season 3 Cast: Bill Hader, Henry Wrinkler, Anthony Carrigan, Sarah Goldberg, Stephen Root

Barry Season 3 Creators: Alec Berg, Bill Hader

Streaming Platform: Disney+Hotstar

*SPOILERS ALERT* After an exhausting wait game of almost three years, especially with fans left aghast by the bloody massacre cliffhanger in Season 2, the Emmy-winning series Barry is back and is even more bonkers than was deemed possible. For many like myself, it may seem difficult to accurately recall what exactly happened in the prior two seasons, given the time gap due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, because of how invested we are not just in Barry Berkman (Bill Hader, also co-creator with Alec Berg), but in the tremendous supporting cast as well, you're willing to give Barry Season 3 your undivided time and attention.

In Barry Season 3 Ep 1 titled Forgiving Jeff, we see Barry in a mentally unstable headspace, particularly after his ruthless killing spree in the prior season. He's now limited to shady encounter jobs and is looking for some semblance amidst his murderous guilt trip. Given his tainted mind frame, Barry is stuck in a rock and hard place between forgiving and unforgiving. He wants to start afresh, away from his violent shenanigans, but does he really? In parallel, Barry's acting teacher Gene Cousineau (Henry Wrinkler) is now well aware of the hard truth that his favourite student killed the love of his life, Detective Janice Moss (Paula Newsome), and is a man hell-bent on revenge.

As for everyone's favourite Barry character, Chechen mafia leader NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), while troubled with Barry's violent actions past season what with the latter wiping out hoards of his hunchmen, finds a partner in Bolivian mafia leader Cristobal Sifuentes (Michael Irby), with dreams of his own. Also living out her dream, but with a vulnerable callback to her traumatic past, is Barry's girlfriend Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), who finally gets a big break with a streaming platform series on her life story. As for Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root), he's under protection in Chechnya. While the supporting characters were mostly tied to Barry's surroundings in the previous two seasons, this time around, each character has a story of their own to tell and the stakes are at an all-time high!

When it comes to the performances in Barry Season 3 Ep 1, Bill Hader hasn't missed a step in portraying the raw complexity that Barry brings to the table. Between being a brutal cold-hearted killer to suffering from PTSD effects, owing to his painful marine-turned-hitman life, there's something intriguing and equally terrifying about Barry's character study, making him one of the best TV protagonists seen in the recent past. Although his actions shouldn't be surprising, you're still left shocked whenever Barry pulls the trigger, and that's due credits to both Bill's acting prowess as well as his and Alec's remarkable writing (Bill also directed Barry Season 3 Ep 1), with the dialogues at their wittiest to date. When it comes to NoHo Hank, this is a character whose shenanigans could have had a premature expiry date, but Anthony Carrigan infuses such vibrant light into the goofball that you're rooting for him, as a character, in spite of not being all that interested in the gang wars.

From the premiere episode, it's known that Sarah Goldberg is going to get her own spotlight to shine, albeit on an extremely emotional tangent and I can't wait to witness what's in store for Sally. This includes the underlying tension between the lovers, who are on opposite trajectories in their respective lives. Henry Wrinkle continues to add layers to Cousineau's downfall, between a dead girlfriend and a dead-er career. In spite of minimal sequences in Ep 1, Barry's encounters with both Hank and Cousineau are the premiere highlights, where you're both laughing and at the edge of your seat, anticipating whether the bullet wound on the forehead with blood dripping is real or a figment of Barry's imagination and madness (These sequences are also an aesthetically visual delight!). Even Stephen Root's Monroe Fuches manages to bring out the chuckles in his funny "Where's he at?" patent sequence.

ALSO READ: Emmys 2019: Bill Hader hilariously pokes fun at Barry co creator Alec Berg during winning speech

Barry Season 3 kicks off on a darker note, with comic elements sprinkled here and there, and surprisingly, the emotional undertones make this season even more likeable to the viewers. You're immediately curious to know what happens to the characters while fearing just how bats**t crazy it's going to get for Barry and Co., mostly because of Barry, and especially their eventual fates! It's like Game of Thrones, where every character's death will mean something, and hence, you'll be eagerly awaiting the rest of the nine episodes. This is witnessed in the final few "tension-infused" minutes with Barry holding an important character at gunpoint, where you're petrified of just diabolical our deranged lead protagonist can get, laying waste to anyone even remotely getting in his way. It's mood swings at its highest peak, not just for Barry but the viewers too, as you're always on the edge between empathising with Barry and being repulsed by his violent streak all the same!

With Barry Season 2's highlight episode ronny/lily, the series further established itself as genre-bending and good 'ol gobsmacking fun, and the expectations for Season 3 will be nothing less than extraordinary. If Ep 1 is any indication, and with a delectable ensemble led by the phenomenal Bill Hader, Barry Season 3 is off to a "killer" start! All the pun intended.