Barry

TV-MA

Barry closely follows the life of a former marine, Barry Berkman (played by Bill Hader), who served in Afghanistan, but now spends his time carrying out hits for those willing to pay. The kills are easy, the money is good, but Barry is clearly dissatisfied with life; missing something.

His next job hits a snag when his target heads into a building. Following him in, he soon finds out he’s just walked into an acting workshop. Unsure of what to do, Barry decides to watch what’s going on for a bit. With each passing moment, he becomes more amazed with what he sees up on stage; with the “talent” shown in even in that rehearsal. Leaving the class he decides he wants to take acting. For the first time in years he feels excited about something; something years of killing made seemingly impossible.

As he starts to make friends with his fellow actors, he realizes more and more that he doesn’t want the life of a killer, and that he just wants to quietly settle down with a girl. But that dream proves difficult with a boss constantly setting him up with more jobs, and the police nearing the close of an investigation linked to him.

Co-produced, written, and directed by Bill Hader and Alec Berg, I think they both did a fantastic job creating this show. Touching the series’ darkness with Hader’s natural comedy was a fresh concept, and gave a nice feel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I’ve been happy to find that 2018, so far, has provided some great stories in TV and film alike. As we see, lots of indie films have been appearing in the theaters; for the first time, Netflix is finally being rivaled in the streaming game; with new ideas and the challenge to one up companies like Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video in new content. A very interesting year all around. I can’t wait to watch the creativity this year will continue to bring to the screen.