Barry, season 1 (2018)
An excellent dark comedy from the mind of Bill Hader and Alex Berg.
The show follows the eponymous Barry Berkman (Hader), a former marine-turned-hitman who lives in Cleveland and shows signs of detached depression. This begins to change when Barry is sent to Hollywood on a job, where he inadvertently finds himself catching the acting bug after seeing a run-of-the-mill acting class in progress. The maladjusted Barry begins to try and dip his toes in the waters of the self-obsessed and artificial world of aspiring actors, all while trying to divest himself from his excessively violent occupation.
In a recent interview, show star and co-creator Bill Hader said that he and fellow creator Alex Berg pitched the Barry character to HBO as "Clint Eastwood's character in Unforgiven, but in a community theater acting class." And that's a pretty good description of what you get here. Like Eastwood's Will Munney character in that Western classic, Barry is a truly tortured man will a preternatural skill for assassination. Seeing such a dark and disturbed man in the middle of an acting class is bound to go one of two ways: be a completely awkward and potentially offensive disaster, or make for genius black comedy. Barry is clearly the latter.
There are a few reasons that black comedies are rare. One is that, while well-done dark comedies have dedicated fans, they simply don't appeal to a mass audience. Hence, there simply isn't a great profit motive out there for major TV networks and movie studios to support them. The greater reason, though, is that they are extremely difficult to pull off. Dark subject matter like violent death, murder, and depression don't typically mesh well with humor. And yet, when handled correctly, it really makes its mark. Movies like Dr. Strangelove or Fargo show that one can laugh at the most horrific circumstances if the story is told with the correct tone and approach. Barry follows in the footsteps of those other great films and gives us a sometimes disturbing look at what amounts to a severely - possibly irredeemably - damaged, murderous human being. And it can be hilarious.
In short, the most imposing darkness is seeded deep within Barry - a former marine who seems to have never been good at anything but killing. And he's frighteningly good at it. Other dark elements are to be found in the words and actions of some of his associates - his main contact Fuches (Stephen Root), the Chechnyan gangsters he works with, and a few others. The comedy springs mostly from two places. One is the contrast between the ridiculously out-of-touch and self-involved actors in the acting class Barry finds himself enamored of and his own all-too authentic pain and mental distress. Another is from the oft-hapless Chechnyans and their bumbling through the process of trying to make their mark on the criminal underworld of Hollywood. Not every character or situation is as funny as I think it was meant to be, but there are plenty of great laughs to be had, along with a handful of truly disturbing murders.
The cast is great, with special mention needed for Henry Winkler. The man who is probably still best-known as "The Fonz" from Happy Days in the 1970s once again shows his pure comedic chops here as Gene Cousineau, the acting instructor with hilariously outsized confidence. Thanks to great writing and Winkler's brilliant performance, Cousineau quickly becomes one of those characters who threaten to steal nearly every scene they're in, and Winkler usually does. All of the other parts are played well, too, though I did find the character NoHo Hank overly silly most of the time.
I'm not sure just how long the writers will be able to spin this tale out, but there's definitely still enough material for another short season (this one was a mere eight episodes). It has already been renewed, and I'm happy to know it.
Silicon Valley, season 5 (2018)
Still one of the best comedies on TV.
Season 5 of the show picks up with Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) and his Pied Piper crew trying to get their "New Internet," or "Pipernet," truly off the ground after their near-disastrous program leak at the end of season four. The fledgling company's issue now is how to find enough up-and-coming online companies to get the necessary usage to kick-start the entire thing. It all involves a high level of salesmanship and hobnobbing - two things that are far from the painfully awkward Richard's forte. As with previous seasons, the main Pied Piper crew of Richard, Dinesh, Gilfoyle, and Jarod have to navigate through and around the predatory environment of Silicon Valley and its vicious raiders. The carrot dangling is that the New Internet, if it can get far enough off the ground to achieve a certain exit velocity, could potentially dwarf any online revolution that the world has ever seen. And that potential prize attracts a lot of envious and thoroughly unscrupulous eyes.
The general arc of this season follows a path similar to previous ones: the guys have a grand idea that they're trying to get off the ground, they meet various difficulties along the way, and they triumph in some fashion. But also in keeping with tradition, Pied Piper's triumph is often in a fashion that none of its members quite expect, and it often opens up new issues that they hadn't yet anticipated. It's a time-tested formula that show creators Mike Judge and Alex Berg have perfected. Even though it's nothing especially novel, the journey is well worth it, thanks mostly to the characters.
This season is right on par with any previous ones, despite being only eight episodes (all previous seasons have been ten). I also didn't miss, for a moment, T.J. Miller as Erlich Bachman, who was written off the show for well-publicized issues with the show-runners. For my part, I often found the Erlich character more of a nuisance, although he did provide some solid laughs thanks to Miller's spot-on performance as the insanely overconfident braggart. But he was always used best very sparingly. Now that he is completely gone (the character is lazing in a never-ending opium stupor somewhere in Tibet). The rest of the cast more than picks up the slack. Kumail Nanjiani ratchets up the desperation as Dinesh, madly looking for any opportunity to show off the slightest bit of success, while his in-office arch-nemesis Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) continues to stoically and relentlessly egg him on. The seventh episode of the season is actually one of the greatest "Gilfoyle" episodes ever, as he fires off multiple fantastic digs and observations. And as usual, Zach Woods kills it as Donald 'Jared' Dunn, the soft-spoken but oddly intense Chief Operating Officer with a wild past. It was also nice to see a return of the Monica Hall character by season's end - a more prominent character in the first couple of seasons but who had faded in seasons three and four.
The only way one could say that this show is slowing down is merely in the 20% reduction in episodes. Aside from that, the series is an astounding five-for-five, with not a single season being anything less than great. Season six can't get here soon enough.
An excellent dark comedy from the mind of Bill Hader and Alex Berg.
The show follows the eponymous Barry Berkman (Hader), a former marine-turned-hitman who lives in Cleveland and shows signs of detached depression. This begins to change when Barry is sent to Hollywood on a job, where he inadvertently finds himself catching the acting bug after seeing a run-of-the-mill acting class in progress. The maladjusted Barry begins to try and dip his toes in the waters of the self-obsessed and artificial world of aspiring actors, all while trying to divest himself from his excessively violent occupation.
 |
| Hader as Barry (left) and Henry Winkler as his dramatic acting teacher, Gene Cousineau. Unlike Gene and his oblivious classmates, Barry comes by his haunted look and demeanor all too honestly. |
There are a few reasons that black comedies are rare. One is that, while well-done dark comedies have dedicated fans, they simply don't appeal to a mass audience. Hence, there simply isn't a great profit motive out there for major TV networks and movie studios to support them. The greater reason, though, is that they are extremely difficult to pull off. Dark subject matter like violent death, murder, and depression don't typically mesh well with humor. And yet, when handled correctly, it really makes its mark. Movies like Dr. Strangelove or Fargo show that one can laugh at the most horrific circumstances if the story is told with the correct tone and approach. Barry follows in the footsteps of those other great films and gives us a sometimes disturbing look at what amounts to a severely - possibly irredeemably - damaged, murderous human being. And it can be hilarious.
In short, the most imposing darkness is seeded deep within Barry - a former marine who seems to have never been good at anything but killing. And he's frighteningly good at it. Other dark elements are to be found in the words and actions of some of his associates - his main contact Fuches (Stephen Root), the Chechnyan gangsters he works with, and a few others. The comedy springs mostly from two places. One is the contrast between the ridiculously out-of-touch and self-involved actors in the acting class Barry finds himself enamored of and his own all-too authentic pain and mental distress. Another is from the oft-hapless Chechnyans and their bumbling through the process of trying to make their mark on the criminal underworld of Hollywood. Not every character or situation is as funny as I think it was meant to be, but there are plenty of great laughs to be had, along with a handful of truly disturbing murders.
The cast is great, with special mention needed for Henry Winkler. The man who is probably still best-known as "The Fonz" from Happy Days in the 1970s once again shows his pure comedic chops here as Gene Cousineau, the acting instructor with hilariously outsized confidence. Thanks to great writing and Winkler's brilliant performance, Cousineau quickly becomes one of those characters who threaten to steal nearly every scene they're in, and Winkler usually does. All of the other parts are played well, too, though I did find the character NoHo Hank overly silly most of the time.
I'm not sure just how long the writers will be able to spin this tale out, but there's definitely still enough material for another short season (this one was a mere eight episodes). It has already been renewed, and I'm happy to know it.
Silicon Valley, season 5 (2018)
Still one of the best comedies on TV.
 |
| And then there were four. Though Erlich Bachman's absence may be conspicuous in the first episode or two, I found that the bombastic character was hardly missed. The rest of the crew, plus Monica Hall, easily picked up any slack. |
The general arc of this season follows a path similar to previous ones: the guys have a grand idea that they're trying to get off the ground, they meet various difficulties along the way, and they triumph in some fashion. But also in keeping with tradition, Pied Piper's triumph is often in a fashion that none of its members quite expect, and it often opens up new issues that they hadn't yet anticipated. It's a time-tested formula that show creators Mike Judge and Alex Berg have perfected. Even though it's nothing especially novel, the journey is well worth it, thanks mostly to the characters.
This season is right on par with any previous ones, despite being only eight episodes (all previous seasons have been ten). I also didn't miss, for a moment, T.J. Miller as Erlich Bachman, who was written off the show for well-publicized issues with the show-runners. For my part, I often found the Erlich character more of a nuisance, although he did provide some solid laughs thanks to Miller's spot-on performance as the insanely overconfident braggart. But he was always used best very sparingly. Now that he is completely gone (the character is lazing in a never-ending opium stupor somewhere in Tibet). The rest of the cast more than picks up the slack. Kumail Nanjiani ratchets up the desperation as Dinesh, madly looking for any opportunity to show off the slightest bit of success, while his in-office arch-nemesis Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) continues to stoically and relentlessly egg him on. The seventh episode of the season is actually one of the greatest "Gilfoyle" episodes ever, as he fires off multiple fantastic digs and observations. And as usual, Zach Woods kills it as Donald 'Jared' Dunn, the soft-spoken but oddly intense Chief Operating Officer with a wild past. It was also nice to see a return of the Monica Hall character by season's end - a more prominent character in the first couple of seasons but who had faded in seasons three and four.
The only way one could say that this show is slowing down is merely in the 20% reduction in episodes. Aside from that, the series is an astounding five-for-five, with not a single season being anything less than great. Season six can't get here soon enough.
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