Bill Hader in HBO's Barry

that's a fair point about digging herself in too deep early by not turning him in and then one thing leading to another. however, the implausibility combined with the lynchian surreal landscape does still make me wonder if this is ultimately going to be some kind of delusional fever dream, or at least not be quite what it seems

really good interview with Sarah Goldberg who plays Sally, where she talks about Sally's trauma driving her towards Barry: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/barry-time-jump-sally-sarah-goldberg-1235604728/

We thought with Episodes 1-4, how are we going to get Sally to a place where this tracks, and she’s wanting to go with Barry?

That’s why there’s the moment in Episode 2 when Sally says, “I feel safe with you.” The idea is that she’s been through so much in her life and she’s been through abusive relationships. Barry was the one person who witnessed her crime and her most animal self in this terrible thing that she did, and he chooses to love her anyway. Sally’s the only character in the show who murders someone when murder isn’t a part of her regular life and isn’t her career. She’s in his terrible trauma state from what’s happened, and Barry, for some reason, is the only person that makes her feel safe because he was there. It’s like him being around her annuls the experience. It makes it all quiet. It’s tragic, really.

bleaker and more messed up every week, so good

omg this show! we watched ep 4 yesterday.

I dunno if I can keep watching thi

oh no they got to him too

bill hader needs to direct a horror movie or something

Stephen Root was so entertaining in this ep.

My only puzzlement is what happened to the guy’s eye with the door?

It was a hallucination. The eye thing was from the episode where she kills that guy.

Doh, of course!

It’s purposely disorienting because according to Hader they used the actual audio from that scene but also brought back the actor to record new dialogue where he talks about the kid, etc.

Gotta admit I found that whole scene confusing. I understood there was some level of hallucination but I also thought something real was happening in the house? Wasn’t the house still trashed after she was sitting on the floor calling Barry?

i "read" it as flashback to the trauma she has of murdering someone

She probably trashed the house. There might be some level of intentional uncertainty about it though.

There's a lot of the last/latest season of Twin Peaks in this season. I think the last few episodes have been an extended fever dream. He'd fall briefly into these kinds of fantasies about a perfect life outside of Fuches, etc, so it wouldn't be totally out of nowhere. And now, at the end of this last episode, it picks up from whatever happened after Barry showed up at Sally's.

It was a hallucination. The eye thing was from the episode where she kills that guy.

Ohhh, thank you. I knew that sounded familiar but I wrongly assumed that the intruder in black was the dude from the diner. Or maybe it was, but she hallucinated some of the elements? There have been some obvious fantasy scenes this scene, and I initially wondered if the whole flash forward thing would be a hallucination, but this one was more ambiguous and eerie (haven't seen the new ep yet).

Appreciate that this week's episode maintained a reasonable amount of humor. The last two eps, as already said above, were f'ing bleak.

The 501 joke was fucking great, I'm perplexed that Sally would have Gene's mobile number though.

amazing episode--so much more satisfying than the end episodes of Succession

Wait what was the 501 joke

Hank's comment after '500 confirmed kills' when the assassins were being introduced.

the only joke I liked in this episode was hank saying "why do I keep opening these boxes?"

yeah didn't love this ep, felt a little too all over the place. i appreciate them getting away from the nonstop bleak by bringing back some of the humor that used to be a more significant ingredient, but tonally this one just felt all over the map

Oh, right. Yeah the jokes were mostly Hank-based as usual and felt a little rote, but I'm looking forward to the finale. Lol @ Daniel Day Lewis + Mark Wahlberg though.

I do love seeing Stephen Root in his gang boss incarnation, and the phone call bit between him & Hank.

barry finale beat succession at its own game.

Fucking hell, bleak

Oh man.

I found this very unsatisfying but I can’t really say why.

I found it unsatisfying yet also much of it was inevitable and was very “Barry.”

Appreciated this take, which made me appreciate how the redemption of Barry could only be fake redemption. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/28/arts/television/barry-finale.html

I wasn't feeling this season much apart from a few Hank scenes. The writers were certainly trying some new ideas but most of it left me cold