‘Barry’ Season 4 Review: Bill Hader Gives Hitman a Thrilling Hollywood Farewell

Bill Hader in ‘Barry’

towards the end of the first episode of the final season of Barry, our eponymous lead scolds himself bitterly. Now in prison for the murder of Janice Moss, Barry finds himself alone. Jean Cazineau has helped the police capture the acting teacher he was trying to protect; His girlfriend Sally calls him a liar and refuses to speak to him; And he parted ways with Fuches last season on a bitter note.

The normality that Barry had built up over the years – a loving relationship, an acting career – is taken from him. A violent murderer behind bars, Barry finds himself exactly where society believes him to be. For a moment it looks as if he too is making peace with his evils. He doesn’t want to separate his actions from the consequences, at least no longer. A prison guard catches her insulting herself in the mirror, and tries to reassure her. “You did a bad thing, but I bet you’re not a bad guy… you were in the Marines!” He says.

And along those lines, Bill Hader delivers the finale season’s guiding philosophy; In the pursuit of happiness, Barry will not count his worst actions to be who he is.

From its first season to now, the show has changed directions to focus on darker themes. While the first season relied on the friction between Barry’s life as a hitman and his longing for a normal life as an actor, the fourth gives us an incredible Barry. And yet, Hader and his team manage to serve up eight episodes that embody a sad ending to the story.

Spoilers ahead for the entire season…

As Barry laments in prison, the show gives everyone else a scorched earth start to his life. After the failure of her show, Sally finds herself back in her childhood home, horrified to learn of Barry’s actions. Cousineau, meanwhile, hosts an acting masterclass. Cristobal and Noho Hank try their hand at the slightly illegitimate but far less bloody business of importing sand.

However, as the story progresses, each cannot help but fall back on their faults. In need of validation from his Chechen superiors, Hank brutally kills any competitors to take over the business. Unable to stay away from the limelight, Kazinyu agrees to tell a reporter everything about his girlfriend’s murder. In the end, Sally fails to find acceptance anywhere except in her relationship with Barry and visits him in prison, telling him that he ‘makes her feel safe.’ Encouraged by Sally’s confession and fearing what Cousineau might say to the reporter, Barry makes a protection deal with the FBI by promising to sell out to the Chechen. Disturbed by this, Hank sends assassins to eliminate Barry, but he manages to break out of prison and flees with Sally to a fugitive future.

Hader packs it all into the first three episodes of this season. The show only moves forward, experimenting heavily with cinematic devices and pushing the envelope of traditional storytelling.

Each episode after that neatly folds into the central path of these people trapped in a futile cycle of redemption. They are racing at full speed toward a perceived happiness, while denying that they are simultaneously hurting at its worst. The show’s complex statements on morality are also supported by technically strong cinematic choices. The sound effects from the next scene fade into the previous one. Often the header lets a play take place, as from a certain POV the audience sees a scene in the distance. Barry Elevates what it means to fit the comedy and drama genres within the same show.

For the final episode, Hader gives viewers an excellent allegory on America. Without giving it away too much in this piece, the story sneakily flashes back to the second season when Cajunyu asks his students to work on their personal truths. Barrie had revised a murder he had committed while serving in Afghanistan and recounted it to present himself as a war hero. Sally bends her own truth to appear as a courageous woman who opposes her abusive husband. Barry and Sally’s hidden aspirations about who they could have been as a person are realized. A deeply disruptive man praised as a war hero, and a woman who chose to leave this violence behind. The world works for Barry, which he could not achieve in his life.

Concluding its penultimate final season, Barry proves a testament to the power of cohesive storytelling, a rarity in today’s TV landscape dependent on long episodes with little payoff. Barry Answered every question raised along the way, most importantly – what defines us better, our actions or the intentions behind them? The final scene dismisses both; After all, in Hollywood you are what you are perceived to be.

All episodes of Barry are now streaming on JioCinema