In Season 2, Barry has essentially become a half-hour drama

The Hollywood Reporter

Co-creators Bill Hader and Alec Berg have apparently accepted that their HBO series ended as a comedy, or dramedy, at the end of Season 1. Season 2, says Daniel Fienberg, "has become something different and something that's largely unfunny, it's a caution and not a criticism. Through its first three episodes of the season, Barry has simply become a half-hour drama, albeit one with occasional snarky jabs at the entertainment industry and a Chechen mobster with alopecia, but a drama nonetheless. I miss the punchlines, while finding plenty to admire in the show's not-totally-new incarnation." Fienberg adds: "The biggest difference between the first and second season, then, isn't that Barry is more tortured. It's that everybody around him has been pushed to join him there. The series succeeded as a comedy in the first season because there was a grounded and semi-dramatic central performance in an absurd situation and he was surrounded by marvelously comic foils. Most of the lost laughs in the second season are from the comic foils slipping into the void around Barry."

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• Barry is thankfully still dark in Season 2 because the dark place suits Barry Berkman
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• Season 2 is harder to watch, yet Barry succeeds in no longer playing it safe
• Bill Hader says his SNL experience has enabled him to deal with Barry's success: "Just because I have this trophy and this amazing Emmy and massive honor in my apartment doesn’t mean I’m magically better at my job"