Season Two, which debuted almost exactly three years ago. The first season was such a deft juggling of farce and tragedy, and the concluding sequence — Barry, on the verge of getting the happy, violence-free ending he feels he’s earned, instead murders the police detective girlfriend of his acting teacher Gene Cousineau to protect his true identity — was such a perfect summation of the show’s tones and motifs, that the very idea of a sequel seemed beside the point.
Couple that pre-existing agnosticism with the Covid-lengthened wait for new episodes, and my expectations for Season Three were modest. But, better late than never,more than justifies its existence as an ongoing series with a run of episodes that puts all of the show’s elements back in ridiculous, cruel harmony — and in some cases go beyond anything Hader did in that immaculate first season. Heck, they even retroactively made me like “ronny/lilly” more.
In case you’ve forgotten, Season Two ended with Barry and Fuches going to war, with collateral damage that included nearly all of NoHo Hank’s gang and most of their rivals from the Bolivian cartel, along with Fuches telling Gene that it was Barry who murdered Detective Moss. And on the Hollywood end of things, Barry’s girlfriend Sally scored big with an acting showcase inspired by an abusive relationship from her past. Season Three picks up well after.
I honestly could barely remember any of this — and still don’t quite recall how Barry and Fuches gotOne of the things that makes a show like this so tricky to do over the long haul is that it only works if you take the core idea seriously, but the more seriously you take it, the more you risk it losing the sense of fun that was so crucial to begin with. There are life-and-death consequences to the path Barry has chosen — not just for his victims, but for the survivors like Gene.
Through Sally, the series continues to cut into Hollywood’s many ills with laser-like precision. An upcoming episode finds her enduring one inane, soul-destroying question after another during a junket for the new show, while another brings in Vanessa Bayer for an incredible cameo as a streaming executive who largely offers notes through grunts and changes in expression. gives itself permission to be funny and awful in the same moment in a way that didn’t happen very often in Season Two.
Hate the bald guy. Kinda ruins the show for me. Barry