Title. I watched and loved the first two seasons of Barry a few years ago and couldn’t wait to see what was next. The botched hit episode in the second season was absolutely peak TV, and with what they set up in the finale I had high hopes for an unbelievably strong third outing. When new episodes did come out, all I heard for them was gushing praise, which was right in line with what I expected. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up meshing with em the same way other people did, which really bummed me out. I think that the show dropped off hard after the S2 finale.

The second half of the show was FAR from bad, but just sort of lacked a lot of what was great about the first two seasons. I really enjoyed the whole ‘psychologically damaged hitman tries to be an actor’ premise but that just sort of gets left behind as things go along. Barry (understandably) becomes much more psychotic and detached, which in context makes total sense but IMO makes for a less compelling narrative protagonist. It gets way less funny too, which was one of the reasons I even liked the show to begin with. Not saying I don’t understand why it got darker, but I am saying that I think that change made for a worse show.

The final season especially didn’t do it for me. I was astonished after the way the third season ended that there was still more, and I don’t think that ‘more’ justified its existence. There were a few moments, but on the whole it felt unnecessary and really, really indulgent. Wholly inorganic too, with things happening because the writers said so, not because they made any sense. Like I enjoy the concept of Barry getting cleared of everything and being remembered as a hero, it’s an ironic and funny ending. But it makes very, very little sense in universe. Same with everything getting pinned on Gene, it feels like something the writers wanted more than what would actually have made sense. Everything was tied up in a neat little narrative bow at the end, but it felt sooooo forced.

There are certainly much worse shows out there, and I wouldn’t even call the final two seasons of Barry bad. I just have seen nothing but high praise, and that’s really confusing for me.