Barry: Season 1 - TV Reviews (2024)

Barry is hilarious, and at the same time holds no punches. It creates the perfect scenario for a controversial protagonist. Bill Hader is incredible. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 22, 2021

Cousineau's troupe of hopefuls is fairly diverse, but they're so one-dimensional that it's mostly symbolic.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Aug 18, 2019

Barry might be shadowy but it's never grim, and it is unexpectedly insightful.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2019

Bill Hader's Barry isn't refreshing because of how casually it reverses all the crime-thriller tropes but because of how cleverly it employs them.

Full Review | Mar 11, 2019

The show [Hader] has created, and for which he even directed the first three of the eight episodes, has him in a delicately nuanced, understated performance. But make no mistake this is a comedy, perhaps morbidly so.

Full Review | Dec 20, 2018

Great work from Hader and Henry Winkler as his acting teacher elevates the story to something that stuck with me stubbornly all year.

Full Review | Dec 17, 2018

The premise of the show is a little tired, but the tonal tightrope Hader and his co-creator Alec Berg walk over the course of eight episodes is thrilling.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2018

Barry isn't a funny character. As a depressed murderer, he's the intersection of a very serious Venn diagram. But Bill Hader is extremely funny.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2018

Hader is a revelation here: It's a portrait of someone who is so unhappy in their own skin that they're trying to claw their way out by any means necessary.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2018

Equal parts punchline and gut punch, Barry should be your next summer binge.

Full Review | Dec 15, 2018

[A] lethal co*cktail of Breaking Bad's compelling narrative drive, Fargo's dark humor, and the psychological drama of Taxi Driver, and yet it still feels wholly unique.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 15, 2018

Bill Hader leads this fantastic series that pulls off nearly impossible tonal shifts, going from downright comedy to horrific violence in the blink of an eye.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 29, 2018

[Seems] pleasantly uninterested in what the audience wants. Normally this would feel like a cop out, but in a time when all media is micro-targeted and meticulously curated for us, this unsympathetic ambivalence is refreshing.

Full Review | Oct 17, 2018

Hader's performance is incredibly subtle, but this works to highlight the insanity of what is going on around him.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 10, 2018

Barry quietly bakes the pathos of Mad Men into a cake made with the buffoonery of Veep.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Aug 27, 2018

Barry is an exquisite narrative series, with great direction, performances and colorful characters that seem to be a stereotype but at times are able to surprise us, even in the most absurd way. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 6, 2018

Hader is a tragicomic marvel as a bad man trying to be a better human by becoming a terrible actor.

Full Review | Jun 28, 2018

It may be a comedy series, but Barry is more serious than you might assume, especially as it explores the effects of trauma and PTSD on its protagonist's psyche.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2018

At times both funny and bleak, Barry boldly mixes comedy and violence to create a show that stands out in an increasingly crowded TV landscape.

Full Review | Jun 19, 2018

I can't stress enough how this isn't the typical comedy. You're really not going to see s**t coming. You'll be laughing one minute, in a shootout the next.

Full Review | Jun 11, 2018