After what felt like an endless wait for fans, the third season of HBO's Barry has finally started to come to TV screens across the world. The series, which follows the less than simple life of a hitman who wants to leave assassinations behind to become an actor, is the brainchild of writer/director Alec Berg and Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader, quickly became a smash hit for the premium cable network.
While the dark humor and odd situations the main characters seem to keep finding themselves in is a major part of what fans love about the series, none of it would work if the characters themselves weren't so well crafted by the writers, the directors, and the actors who portray them.
8 Detective Mae Dunn May Not Be Long For This World
People who look into Barry's life have a tendency to die in sudden and horrific ways. Introduced in the second season and becoming the lead investigator on the case surrounding Barry's murders, Detective Mae Dunn has picked up the clues left behind by the two previous detectives looking into the murders committed by Barry Berkman and appears to be getting closer to catching him than anyone has before.
Of course, Detective Dunn does have to work around the lies and red herrings being thrown at her by the likes of NoHo Hank, as everyone keeps trying to lay the blame on Fuches, who has now picked up the ominous nickname, "The Raven."
7 Detective John Loach Wanted His Wife Back
Detective John Loach, the partner of Detective Janice Moss, was about as sad as sad can be. Unable to get over his wife leaving him for another man. Things got worse for Loach after Detective Moss went missing, but when he discovered that Barry was indeed the killer he and Moss had been investigating, he saw a chance to turn his life around.
For Loach, turning his life around was less about solving a crime and more about forcing Barry to kill the man his wife left him for. This led to what may be the best episode of Barry yet, "ronny/lily" from Season 2. An entire episode that sees Barry facing off against a Taekwondo master and the Taekwondo master's daughter ends with Loach getting his neck broken by the Taekwondo master, reminding everyone that if you seek revenge, you should dig two graves.
6 Detective Janice Moss Is Gone But Not Forgotten
It could be argued that the driving force of Barry is Detective Janice Moss, even though she was killed off in the first season. Detective Moss was the first person to suspect Barry for the murder of the Chechens that kicked off the events of the series, and her investigation not only put her on Barry's radar but on Gene Cousineau's as well.
While Barry wanted nothing more than to get Detective Moss away from him, Gene wanted nothing more than to get closer to her. Sadly, the different wants of the two men would lead to the murder of Detective Moss, which continues to haunt both Barry and Gene.
5 Fuches Is A Terrible Father Figure
Monroe Fuches an old friend of Barry's dad who took Barry under his wing and brought him into the hitman lifestyle. Fuches is a fast-talking conman who has consistently managed to stumble his way out of every deadly situation he's found himself in over the course of the series, but sooner or later, his luck will run out.
Working as Barry's manager, Fuches did all he could to keep Barry from retiring from the hired killer life, and when that didn't work, he turned against his one-time protégée, tricking Gene Cousineau into trusting him and telling Gene that Barry was the one who killed Detective Moss. Now on his own and on the run from Barry, Fuches is more than likely looking at the last days of his life.
4 NoHo Hank Is The Lighter Side Of Crime
From the moment he showed up in the first episode of Barry, it was clear that NoHo Hank would become a fan favorite. While he started off as the chipper right-hand man of the leader of the Chechen mafia, NoHo Hank has somehow found his way to leading the crew and doing all he can to keep the organization alive even though he abhors violence.
If Hank had his way, all the different mafias of Los Angeles would be best friends and just hang out together. Sadly, his dream of friendly crime is unlikely to happen, but his endless optimism and his honest love for his crew makes him stand out as one of the nicest characters in the show, even if he has had a number of people killed.
3 Barry Really Needs Therapy
The titular character of the show, Barry Berkman is a man who really needs to go to therapy. A former Marine turned hitman, Barry is clearly dealing with PTSD from his time in Afghanistan, and his amoral mentality when it comes to the sanctity of life isn't helping any. Barry seems to want nothing more than to walk away from a life of murder, and yet he keeps putting himself in situations where he ends up having to kill people.
Along the way, Barry has also started to get sloppy. No longer working with Fuches, Barry has started to turn to Craigslist and the dark web to find low-paying hits, and he is finding it harder to keep his anger in check, taking it out on Sally, Gene, and anyone else who annoys him. Barry may be the main character of the show, but it is getting harder and harder for viewers to root for him.
2 Gene Cousineau Is Living The Tragic Life That Could Win An Actor An Emmy
An egotistical acting teacher who drops names more often than Barry drops bodies, Gene Cousineau is quite likely the most tragic figure in the show. Gene had long ago settled into a life of giving acting lessons to marginally talented students in North Hollywood after having messed up his own once-promising career, but then Barry Berkman walked into his class looking for a person he was hired to kill and everything changed.
Because of Barry's crimes, Gene met and fell in love with Detective Janice Moss. When she went missing, Gene was distraught, and when Fuches brought Gene to Janice's body and revealed that it was Barry who killed her, Gene was destroyed. Now, Gene finds himself caught in an endless living hell where he knows who killed the woman he loved, but can't do anything about it without risking the life of his son and grandson. It is impossible to watch the path Gene's life has taken and not want to cry for him.
1 Sally Reed Has A Lot Going On
At the start of Barry, Sally Reed seems to be the cliché wannabe actress with an oversized sense of self and an inability to actually pay attention to those around her, but in truth there is a great deal more to her. Sally's past, including a long relationship with an abusive man, has clearly been less than great, and her dream of being famous clearly comes from a need to show the world - and herself - that she is so much more than what her family and her ex think she is. This drive has helped Sally reach levels of success, including getting her own TV series, that may be more than her talent alone could give her.
Sadly, it seems that Sally is trapped in another abusive relationship, this time with Barry. While Barry has not been physical with Sally, in Season 3, Episode 2, "limonada," he appears to come very close. Instead of leaving Barry after he spent a good three minutes screaming in her face, Sally makes sure to order him his favorite dinner and buys him a new controller for his Xbox. At this point, fans can only hope that Sally is able to get away from Barry before his violent tendencies fully come out.