Barry is a TV show from 2018 created by Alec Berg and Saturday Night Live star and comedian Bill Hader. Hader plays the lead and titular Barry Berkman, a former military man turned hitman, now looking to start a new life in Los Angeles. Barry happens to stumble into a potential acting career path. Dealing with PTSD, mental trauma and anxiety, Barry finds the world of acting a good outlet for him and decides to follow it. 

Barry had been doing hitman jobs since coming home from his time in Afghanistan, working with Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root), a family friend and former ally in the military that took advantage of the easily-manipulated and unstable Barry, who was looking for purpose after the military. Monroe coordinates his jobs, picks his targets and handles his payouts, grooming him to be a perfect tool to make him lots of money, all while feigning a fatherly care for Barry that keeps him under his wing and in his good favor. 

Barry follows his most recent target into an acting class ran by acting coach Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), a former star that has burned all his bridges in Hollywood and now runs this very small acting class. In order to maintain cover when asked why he’s there, Barry improvises and comes up with the stage name Barry Block, claiming he’s there to take the class. 

Despite his ornery and antisocial behavior, Gene and the rest of the class welcome Barry among them. Barry especially takes note of Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), the most promising student of the class and the most eager to climb to the top by any means necessary. Naturally, Sally finds Barry odd, but Barry, despite his lack of training and anxious mental state, does possess an element of talent when pushed enough. 

Gene, realizing that technical skill isn’t where Barry shines, gets him to use his emotions and PTSD from the army to fuel his acting. Barry masks these outbursts with undisclosed, fabricated or edited traumatic stories, obviously not wanting to reveal his real past. 

Barry and Sally eventually become friends, supporting each other’s careers, Sally helps Barry with technical gaps and ways to handle his raw emotional work and Barry aids Sally as a great rehearsal partner as his emotinal performances help in drawing out Sally’s own best work by working off the energy he gives her. 

Barry comes back to Fuches without killing his target, saying he needs more time to make sure the hit is clean, using this excuse as a reason to stay in the acting class, which he thinks may be his way out of this life. 

As much as Barry tries to put his life as a hitman behind him, it tends to come back regardless, mainly via the Los Angeles branch of the Chechen Mafia, led by Goran Pazar (Glenn Fleshler) and his right hand man NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), Goran hires Barry to do a hit, but through his newfound goal of changing his lifestyle through acting, he’s forced to postpone the job, much to Goran’s irritation leading to feuds between them. 

Barry strikes up a tenuous friendship with NoHo Hank, a contrastingly positive and upbeat member of the Mafia, not so much matching the ruthless edge of Goran or the other members. Barry wants to exit this life and Hank wants to take the Chechen Mafia into more legitimate business, but he’s torn between his current allegiances and his aspirations, resulting in another wrinkle in Barry’s life. The two spend their relationship flipping between begrudging allies and enemies, always dealing with their own goals and outside forces making them come to dangerous encounters. 

Barry is a fantastic show, showcasing the struggle of someone dealing with PTSD but also wanting to genuinely improve through a risky and difficult career, using trauma as a tool to overcome it. The show has incredible direction and acting from the whole cast, leading to a perfect balance of tragedy and comedy, always knowing where and when to use which tone. No character is set in one tone and role; everyone sways between the two sides perfectly resulting in a very entertaining suite of performances and scenes always keeping you on a tonal swivel. 

I’d definitely recommend Barry, as the show’s four seasons all keep up a great level of consistency of its tone, acting and a story I greatly enjoyed. It became one of my favorite shows quickly, and has a lovely cast with stellar acting and chemistry and strong emotional performances from all involved. Even as the serious nature of the story ramped up it always kept its comedic tone up front, coming through in action scenes that don’t lose their impact even when paired with comedy. 

In case you missed it, all four seasons of Barry are currently available on HBO Max.