Entertainment

‘Barry’s’ tense finale reignites the ‘Is this really a comedy?’ debate

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For Emmy classification functions, that ship has sailed, with “Barry” having earned awards up to now for Hader and Henry Winkler because the title character’s appearing coach, Gene Cousineau. However the twisty and pretty surprising end — which included a brutal battle and the shootout from hell — ought to solely stoke the questions on whether or not this HBO sequence principally defies easy classification. (Like CNN, HBO is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

The finale featured Barry’s girlfriend, Sally (Sarah Goldberg), saving herself from a brutal assault, stabbing her attacker earlier than pounding him to demise. The aftermath compelled a surprised Barry to intervene (he wasn’t a lot assist throughout the battle) as a way to get rid of the physique, telling her he was accountable, not her.

That segued to NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), who escaped from a wild scene through which he was held in a dungeon earlier than being reunited along with his boyfriend, who was being subjected to shock remedy and torture.

The closing twists got here quick and furiously, with Sally boarding a airplane for Missouri and Barry showing at first to flee justice but once more, earlier than legislation enforcement lastly closed in on him, in what seemed to be a entice sprung with Cousineau’s assist. That adopted a riveting alternate between Cousineau and the daddy of his late girlfriend, Jim Moss (Robert Knowledge), which underscored simply how visceral the present may be.

Directed by Hader (who co-wrote the episode with sequence co-creator Alec Berg), the “Barry” finale captured every part that has made the present one of the vital buzzworthy on TV, and the way it occupies a distinct segment the place the “comedy” label has at the least as a lot to do with the 30-minute size of the episodes because the content material.

By concluding with Barry in custody, the season finale seemingly closed sure doorways relating to the place the sequence goes — and the way lengthy it would moderately run — whereas throwing open some others.

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“Barry” additionally served discover, if there have been any lingering doubt, that this season can be again within the awards dialog in an enormous method. And if meaning additional dialogue and even grumbling as as to whether a sequence this darkish and edgy is considerably misplaced amongst extra standard comedies, not like many of the challenges that the protagonist confronted all through this season, contemplate {that a} high-class downside.

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