Bill Hader's Barry takes on TV's antihero fixation with an unappealing and terrifying beta male

Slate

Hader's HBO hitman series is essentially the anti-antihero. "Barry, a people-killing protagonist, is a throwback not to the distant past, but to just a few years ago, when the antihero was TV’s cutting-edge archetype," says Willa Paskin. "But Barry is also an of-the-moment leading man, which is to say, he’s actively difficult to like. Atlanta’s Earn Marks and Girls’ Hannah Horvath are objectively less evil, though purposefully less appealing than Walter White or Tony Soprano, horrible men whose charisma drew audiences to them anyway. Barry is akin to the first set of characters, even though he breaks the law like the second. Like Earn, Barry’s depressed, repressed, lethargic. He’s a uniquely passive gunslinger, a sad man with a self-serving interior justification that’s as dull as it is twisted: He’s a middle manager of violence, just doing what he’s told. Barry’s the unappealing, unambitious antihero, a villain who dreams of being a boring suburban dad."

ALSO:

• Barry should be off-putting, yet the pacing and acting make it addictive
• HBO puts so much emphasis on finding the perfect one-hour drama when its half-hour dramedies are more effective
• Barry is a mashup that "puts the chocolate of premium cable into its peanut butter, its gun into its greasepaint"
• Bill Hader's "hot" flexing facial muscle is the true star of Barry
• Barry is a direct descendant of 1940s film noir
• Barry is full of smart choices, balancing Hollywood satire, character comedy, and noir tendencies beautifully with a perfect cast
• Barry is two shows: A Hollywood satire and a dark comedy that hangs together more often than not, but not everything works
• It's a bittersweet dramedy that's uncomfortably funny and simultaneously dark and tense
• How Saturday Night Live inspired Barry