‘Barry’ Season 4 Episode 3 Review: ‘You’re Charming’ – Spoilers

April 24, 2023

The show’s best have always struck a balance between the weird and the tragic. This week’s “You are charming” is no exception.

(Editor’s note: Included in the following review spoilers for “Barry” Season 4, Episode 3, “You’re Charming.”)

Strange things happen in ‘Barry’. They always have them. Despite all the talk about the show getting darker with each passing season, part of that is because of how that weirdness is woven into the fabric of the show. In the beginning, the oddities that popped up were almost novelties, things that distracted from the soul-sucking of a person with each job. “Ronny/Lily” was something to unpack, a mystery where you could still find a strange sense of cathartic comfort in Stephen Root shouting from behind the wheel of a car.

Over time, it turned into something else. By last season’s ‘710N’, the wild non-blue parts of ‘Barry’ had become more dangerous. The highway chase not only presented a larger scale action game, but also a bigger threat. By the time Hank (Anthony Carrigan) finds himself chained to a radiator in the Season 3 finale as he listens to a giant animal attack his captors, the bizarre becomes something menacing. This inexplicable, dreamlike feeling has turned into a complete nightmare.

So, in its own way, this week’s “You’re Charming” finds “Barry” recapturing his old spirit. From the opening sequence to a “Hey, this guy looks like Guillermo Del Toro… Wait, there is Guillermo Del Toro!” moment, all the way through the ever-reliable Richard Riehle, who played “Shit. Where the hell he’s Berkman!” button, the weirdness here is welcomed back to being an integral part of the show rather than something that just happens. to the people at its center.

Take Gene (Henry Winkler), a man who has not lived a normal life. Rip Torn gave him a gun! (What a trio in this first scene in the officer’s office. Winkler and Fred Melamed are national treasures, but let’s not overlook Charles Parnell, who has become the ideal corpse for the chaos of the Berkman case.) So a two- Man tries to destroy a reporter’s hard drive into something , which you can quickly get used to, no matter how inconvenient it is to break a window or two. Becoming a tour guide, showing Lon Oneil’s wife through his own house, is an immediate transformation for him. Meanwhile, in the background, with Tom throwing the table into the pool (a perfectly blended “Hyah!!”), “Barry” is at his best: a little surreal, integrated into a scene so effortlessly that he has no choice. just accept it.

At Gene’s theater, Sally (Sarah Goldberg) finds out what happens when a new group of students rejects their own idea of normal. Using Gene’s emotional intimidation tactics to try to coax a great performance out of his loneliness, the remaining student is a perfect example of how physical violence isn’t the only cyclical thing in “Barry.” His teaching methods are another in a long line of things that are given on this show, intended as a gift but taken as an injury. Barry’s misguided sense of being a good boyfriend or a good friend led to some of these. Fuches (Root), who constantly employs Barry (Bill Hader), can be considered another. Hader puts the audience in the shoes of Kristen (Ellyn Jameson) behind the camera as Sally walks in and really confronts her with a stream of harsh assumptions and provocations. A perfect little detail in Emma Barrie’s script is the idea that Sally never bothered to find out Kristen’s name before falling for her.

Sarah Goldberg in Barry

Merrick Morton/HBO

After an entire episode of weirdness, under every Hans Zimmer “Rain Man” musical montage and Gummi Bear, the closing centerpiece of “You’re Charming” brings it all to the surface. When Barry scowls during his meeting with the witness protection team, it’s a moment that hooks the audience for the rest of the episode. If he recognizes that something is wrong, that’s the only clue because he’s the only one who can sense it. To paraphrase of a Duke of Florinthat’s why he’s still alive.

This is also why Fred Armisen’s cameo makes sense here. You might recognize Dan Bakkedahl as the guy who “broke a few eggs,” but at least he makes sense as a slippery guy who works for the government, who’s made his share of mistakes and still has a job. He played it for years on “Veep.” But once you see Armisen, it’s something of a deliberate dissonance. “I had a dream that I met the FBI, but then Fred Armisen showed up and tried to shoot me with a pen and his hand flew off.” There’s still a sense of weight and shock as bullets fly and bodies fall, but it’s the kind of weirdness that Barry can (and has) encountered on his own terms.

In the briefing room, the entire sequence is paced and blocked in a way that undermines how chaotic everything is. Clearly, Barry takes the shooter’s spot on the ceiling panel, puts on a makeshift shield, looks down to the floor to grab the gun, and heads for a safe corner. You see Barry see a life-threatening situation. It’s a puzzle and a blueprint you can follow to save yourself. Since this is “Barry,” that means we also get a world-class double whammy from Hader when the hitman falls through the roof. It’s all gory and dangerous… and a farce at the same time. This is “Barry”.

It’s also Season 4 of “Barry,” so it all comes with swirling thoughts of misunderstandings and betrayals, and the show and the turmoil of leaving it all behind. He can’t let Len (Patrick Fischler) crash on his wife’s doorstep and suddenly speak German without Jim Moss (Robert Wisdom) cleaning out his trunk first. Barry and Hank’s conversations about taking advantage of friendship, Barry yelling to himself in the prison yard, Fuches’ uneasiness about nicknames: these are all the actions of people trying to make sense of a world where strange things are part of them. their daily lives. Each of them trying to take control of these mysteries and use them for their own ends is a decision that has consequences. Whatever clarity Barry may gain in the coming weeks, now that he has a path to the outside world, it may come at a price.