Barry: Starting now
June 13, 2022 4:46 AM - Season 3, Episode 8 - Subscribe
NoHo Hank hatches an escape. Sally lets out more aggression. Barry encounters more traps sprung by Fuches.
So, did Gene give Barry an unloaded gun so Jim Moss wouldn't be in any danger?
Also, the entire episode really was one long panic attack. The last biker guy strangling Sally was one of the scariest scenes this whole season.
posted by cowlick at 7:36 AM on June 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
Also, the entire episode really was one long panic attack. The last biker guy strangling Sally was one of the scariest scenes this whole season.
posted by cowlick at 7:36 AM on June 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't know what the show was getting at with Sally going HAM on the biker in the soundproof booth, I'm just gonna cite Rule of Cool and rewatch it awestruck.
posted by whuppy at 8:25 AM on June 13, 2022
posted by whuppy at 8:25 AM on June 13, 2022
My Emmy stanning for Rhea Seahorn is second to none, but a blood-spattered Sarah Goldberg deserves at least a nom.
posted by whuppy at 8:28 AM on June 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by whuppy at 8:28 AM on June 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
That was intense, but I was mostly left feeling grateful that Noho Hank made it out of the episode alive. He really should take beignet dude up on the franchising offer.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:49 AM on June 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by betweenthebars at 9:49 AM on June 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
I seriously think this is the best show since Breaking Bad. It builds and builds and by the end of each episode I'm just left thinking "Holy shit...". I never saw what Gene did coming. I thought he was serious with gun because he had finally become successful and wanted to protect that. I thought he was going to the dark side for it. But "acting"! It's been a brilliant season and I have no fucking clue what's going to happen next season.
posted by downtohisturtles at 8:04 PM on June 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 8:04 PM on June 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
> I seriously think this is the best show since Breaking Bad. It builds and builds and by the end of each episode I'm just left thinking "Holy shit...". I never saw what Gene did coming. I thought he was serious with gun because he had finally become successful and wanted to protect that. I thought he was going to the dark side for it.
And the way the show sells it is by showing us Sally's dalliance with the Dark Side. She asks Barry to do to Natalie what he had offered to do for the showrunner, which primes us for thinking that Gene has also been corrupted by Barry's influence.
> I have no fucking clue what's going to happen next season.
You and me both.
posted by kandinski at 11:46 PM on June 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
And the way the show sells it is by showing us Sally's dalliance with the Dark Side. She asks Barry to do to Natalie what he had offered to do for the showrunner, which primes us for thinking that Gene has also been corrupted by Barry's influence.
> I have no fucking clue what's going to happen next season.
You and me both.
posted by kandinski at 11:46 PM on June 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
They stuck the landing.
Though the scene with Albert felt oddly unresolved; he gives Barry a pass even though he catches him burying a body, tells him this has to end "starting now" and then fade to black. Didn't really work for me, but that was the only thing.
Loved NoHo Hank's rescue of Cristobal, plus the final look of pure panic in his eyes.
Loved Fuches' turn to the Raven, and Sally exorcising her demons and also fleeing Barry.
And Mr Cousineau's star turn: chef's kiss.
What a great show!
posted by chavenet at 3:35 AM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Though the scene with Albert felt oddly unresolved; he gives Barry a pass even though he catches him burying a body, tells him this has to end "starting now" and then fade to black. Didn't really work for me, but that was the only thing.
Loved NoHo Hank's rescue of Cristobal, plus the final look of pure panic in his eyes.
Loved Fuches' turn to the Raven, and Sally exorcising her demons and also fleeing Barry.
And Mr Cousineau's star turn: chef's kiss.
What a great show!
posted by chavenet at 3:35 AM on June 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
> Though the scene with Albert felt oddly unresolved; he gives Barry a pass even though he catches him burying a body, tells him this has to end "starting now" and then fade to black. Didn't really work for me, but that was the only thing.
I'm not saying this authoritatively, and I've only watched this episode once, but...
When I saw Albert confront Barry, I thought it was a residual hallucination from the previous episode.
posted by kandinski at 4:30 AM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm not saying this authoritatively, and I've only watched this episode once, but...
When I saw Albert confront Barry, I thought it was a residual hallucination from the previous episode.
posted by kandinski at 4:30 AM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
So, did Gene give Barry an unloaded gun so Jim Moss wouldn't be in any danger?
I assume so. I also think that Season 1 Barry would have checked the cylinder immediately after picking up the gun.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:42 AM on June 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
I assume so. I also think that Season 1 Barry would have checked the cylinder immediately after picking up the gun.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 8:42 AM on June 14, 2022 [4 favorites]
A blank would have been the best choice but since we don't get a shot of Barry checking, we'll never know.
posted by dragstroke at 9:24 AM on June 14, 2022
posted by dragstroke at 9:24 AM on June 14, 2022
I seriously think this is the best show since Breaking Bad.
Better Call Saul says, "Um, could we talk to you over here for a minute?"
Right now I think Barry has surpassed The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, and Bill Hader is giving Vince Gilligan a run for the money.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:48 PM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
Better Call Saul says, "Um, could we talk to you over here for a minute?"
Right now I think Barry has surpassed The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, and Bill Hader is giving Vince Gilligan a run for the money.
posted by fuse theorem at 12:48 PM on June 14, 2022 [3 favorites]
I wish I liked Better Call Saul more but it just never sucked me in as much as Breaking Bad. And it pains me cause I've loved Bob Odenkirk for 20 years. Mr. Show is one of my favorite shows ever and when he finally got the recognition for his greatness with Breaking Bad it warmed my heart. But it hasn't hit me the same. I should probably take another shot at watching it.
posted by downtohisturtles at 1:12 PM on June 14, 2022
posted by downtohisturtles at 1:12 PM on June 14, 2022
So, a lot of this hinges on Barry's willingness/ability to lie, but I think a good defense lawyer could get him out of trouble. So much of the evidence is circumstantial at best.
Ryan was legitimately killed by the Chechens; witnesses could vouch that he'd been with the boss's wife.
The key witness to Barry's guilt regarding Janice Moss is "Kenneth Goulet" aka Fuches, aka The Raven, who Noho Hank told the cops is a Chechen assassin. They could say that Fuches is using Barry as a fall guy.
Albert did see Barry with a corpse, but that specific guy was actually killed in self-defense by Sally.
Barry would be portrayed as a poor veteran with PTSD who was taken advantage of by a family friend who had ties to organized crime (all true). Then they just need to control the narrative to make it clear that Barry did some odd jobs, perhaps some slightly shady things, but nothing so far as to murder a police officer.
posted by explosion at 9:13 AM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Ryan was legitimately killed by the Chechens; witnesses could vouch that he'd been with the boss's wife.
The key witness to Barry's guilt regarding Janice Moss is "Kenneth Goulet" aka Fuches, aka The Raven, who Noho Hank told the cops is a Chechen assassin. They could say that Fuches is using Barry as a fall guy.
Albert did see Barry with a corpse, but that specific guy was actually killed in self-defense by Sally.
Barry would be portrayed as a poor veteran with PTSD who was taken advantage of by a family friend who had ties to organized crime (all true). Then they just need to control the narrative to make it clear that Barry did some odd jobs, perhaps some slightly shady things, but nothing so far as to murder a police officer.
posted by explosion at 9:13 AM on June 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hmmm, could a defense lawyer argue Gene has a grudge against Barry? They did catch Barry trying to shoot Moss. Maybe the relatives of Barry's victims may come out of the woodwork somehow.
posted by cowlick at 10:03 AM on June 15, 2022
posted by cowlick at 10:03 AM on June 15, 2022
I am not going to second-guess this show, ever. I kinda-not-saw this coming—like I knew something was catalyzing in each scenario, but I could not for the life of me figure out how they were going to tie things up. Like for instance, you could see Sally losing her shit last episode, and you knew it was going somewhere, and maybe the wrong ways—and now her kind of core psychopathy, having been laid bare, has kinda flipped a switch, and now she's on a mission. I didn't see that coming until Barry walked in the door with a small knife. Now we know why Barry saw her in the dream. They are actors—shie is now an actor in the "perpetrator" sense, and it's combining with her narcissistic theatric sensibilities, but also her "fight or die" animal instincts. The only thing I "saw coming" in that episode was that she was going to board a plane to Joplin, MO.
Now I have a lot more clarity on Albert's psychological dilemma, and I'm wondering how the combination of Albert, Noho/Cristobal, Natalie, Sally, and Fuches—and definitely Moss—how all these characters out in the world are going to bring things all back into the same circle, with Barry and Fuches now effectively shackled. But Fuches and the pin are connected to Noho, so you know he's coming back to the States. And what Sally could do—without Barry's guidance and with her mind just having been turned inside-out—regarding Natalie kinda intrigues me.
Because you know Bill Hader and Alec Berg have been honing this shit down FINELY over the past couple years while everything had been shut down. And it shows. This is some strange nightmarish combination of everything that unsettles me while watching a Kubrick or a David Lynch movie. Everything about its production is meticulous. I don't usually go for the "watch bad people do bad things and squirm about it" genre, no matter how well it's shot—I watched two episodes of the Sopranos, one of Breaking Bad, etc. But I wasn't impressed by the filmic techniques until this. This is Citizen Kane level shit.
It started out as a dark comedy—that's what sucked me in! And now the needle has tilted way toward the dark side, and I cannot stop watching what started as a neat major demolition project go seriously, absurdly, supernaturally wrong.
BUT MOSTLY I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE GROWLING THING WAS!
posted by not_on_display at 11:37 PM on June 15, 2022 [5 favorites]
Now I have a lot more clarity on Albert's psychological dilemma, and I'm wondering how the combination of Albert, Noho/Cristobal, Natalie, Sally, and Fuches—and definitely Moss—how all these characters out in the world are going to bring things all back into the same circle, with Barry and Fuches now effectively shackled. But Fuches and the pin are connected to Noho, so you know he's coming back to the States. And what Sally could do—without Barry's guidance and with her mind just having been turned inside-out—regarding Natalie kinda intrigues me.
Because you know Bill Hader and Alec Berg have been honing this shit down FINELY over the past couple years while everything had been shut down. And it shows. This is some strange nightmarish combination of everything that unsettles me while watching a Kubrick or a David Lynch movie. Everything about its production is meticulous. I don't usually go for the "watch bad people do bad things and squirm about it" genre, no matter how well it's shot—I watched two episodes of the Sopranos, one of Breaking Bad, etc. But I wasn't impressed by the filmic techniques until this. This is Citizen Kane level shit.
It started out as a dark comedy—that's what sucked me in! And now the needle has tilted way toward the dark side, and I cannot stop watching what started as a neat major demolition project go seriously, absurdly, supernaturally wrong.
BUT MOSTLY I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE GROWLING THING WAS!
posted by not_on_display at 11:37 PM on June 15, 2022 [5 favorites]
And oh yeah, this season it was Albert saying, "Starting Now". (Agreed: I thought it was another dream for a second, too.)
And Jim Moss was staring at his shoes in the last frame. I wonder what those two scenes portent.
"I am the Raven."
posted by not_on_display at 12:16 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
And Jim Moss was staring at his shoes in the last frame. I wonder what those two scenes portent.
"I am the Raven."
posted by not_on_display at 12:16 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I initially thought the growling monster was a jaguar, but I don't know if a jaguar could damage the wall like that. Half-expected a DemiGorgon to pop through the wall.
posted by ishmael at 9:59 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ishmael at 9:59 AM on June 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
MOSTLY I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE GROWLING THING WAS
Hader called it a jaguar in an interview. Sounded way more terrifying to me...
posted by ominous_paws at 10:58 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Hader called it a jaguar in an interview. Sounded way more terrifying to me...
posted by ominous_paws at 10:58 AM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
The slight magical realism of this show meant I would not have been surprised to learn it was a minotaur.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:19 PM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:19 PM on June 16, 2022 [2 favorites]
Or maybe that ferocious little kid from season 2.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:28 PM on June 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:28 PM on June 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
Someone please cast Bill Hader in a David Letterman biopic immediately.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:01 PM on June 16, 2022
posted by kirkaracha at 11:01 PM on June 16, 2022
When I saw Albert confront Barry, I thought it was a residual hallucination from the previous episode.
That was my impression as well - there's been so much surreality in the last ep or two (even before the full-blown hallucinations) that it felt more like Barry breaking down over how he's impacting Sally's life. The scene where he's convincing her to say that he 'did this' to save her from potentially admitting to killing a guy, while actually confessing that he 'did this' as in was responsible for the guy being there in the first place... phenomenal.
MOSTLY I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE GROWLING THING WAS
Not unlike how the karate fights in S02 were a better White Walker battle than the ending of GOT, this was a better 'Prison Monster' scene than the entire needlessly drawn out b-plot of Stranger Things S04.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:16 AM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
That was my impression as well - there's been so much surreality in the last ep or two (even before the full-blown hallucinations) that it felt more like Barry breaking down over how he's impacting Sally's life. The scene where he's convincing her to say that he 'did this' to save her from potentially admitting to killing a guy, while actually confessing that he 'did this' as in was responsible for the guy being there in the first place... phenomenal.
MOSTLY I WANNA KNOW WHAT THE GROWLING THING WAS
Not unlike how the karate fights in S02 were a better White Walker battle than the ending of GOT, this was a better 'Prison Monster' scene than the entire needlessly drawn out b-plot of Stranger Things S04.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:16 AM on June 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love that they brought back Chris. I remember his death left me very suspicious of Barry's loudly repeated good intentions in the first two seasons; to be honest, the pandemic break pushed him entirely out of my memory (and by then, the death of Moss served the same purpose).
I liked that Albert caught up to Barry at the same place where Barry assassinated his target and the client who hired him after the client decided he forgave the guy and tried to abort the mission. It kind of put the cap on how absurd all this "starting now" stuff is -- for whatever reason, Barry is not good at not killing people. (It also makes me wonder if Albert worked on the setup. If Barry had refused to get pulled in, that sting operation wouldn't have gone anywhere.)
Re: the dark comedy just being dark now, I think that's just the insistence on taking the killing stuff seriously. They could've followed a much lighter story about goofy Barry as he tried to break into acting but kept finding himself blowing up drug lords instead. By focusing on all the collateral damage of the violence...well it's a little less funny but a better show for it. I'm really not sure where they could go for the next season though -- the only thing I see is Fuches reinventing himself as a mythical crime god.
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:30 PM on June 18, 2022
I liked that Albert caught up to Barry at the same place where Barry assassinated his target and the client who hired him after the client decided he forgave the guy and tried to abort the mission. It kind of put the cap on how absurd all this "starting now" stuff is -- for whatever reason, Barry is not good at not killing people. (It also makes me wonder if Albert worked on the setup. If Barry had refused to get pulled in, that sting operation wouldn't have gone anywhere.)
Re: the dark comedy just being dark now, I think that's just the insistence on taking the killing stuff seriously. They could've followed a much lighter story about goofy Barry as he tried to break into acting but kept finding himself blowing up drug lords instead. By focusing on all the collateral damage of the violence...well it's a little less funny but a better show for it. I'm really not sure where they could go for the next season though -- the only thing I see is Fuches reinventing himself as a mythical crime god.
posted by grandiloquiet at 8:30 PM on June 18, 2022
I don't see Fuches reinventing himself—i.e. he already is a decently entrenched crime god—only spending a little time off to plot his next move, and to try his new moniker on (Thanks, Hank!). I see The Raven as the cause of all this, and Barry being his power-tool. Now that his tool has spun out of control and got away from him (until it unplugged itself from the wall), Fuches has some time to assess the damage and effect what he can from the inside. Where his tool also will be spending some time, maybe in the same facility. I wonder if they will be sharing a yard. The possibilities are endless just for those two, never mind the myriad of people they've dragged into this.
posted by not_on_display at 9:04 PM on June 18, 2022
posted by not_on_display at 9:04 PM on June 18, 2022
‘Barry’ and the Importance of Consequences
But—and this is the key to the show, as well as the point that makes it relevant to our own lives—he’ll never be done if he’s never made to pay any price for what he’s done. In the parlance of our times: he fucked around and didn’t find out, so he’s going to keep fucking around, to the detriment of society. Barry is, at heart, a show about a guy you like and want to see get his act together to the point that you’re willing to repeatedly overlook his gross violations of the social contract on multiple fronts if it’ll help him out.
posted by chavenet at 4:32 AM on June 20, 2022
But—and this is the key to the show, as well as the point that makes it relevant to our own lives—he’ll never be done if he’s never made to pay any price for what he’s done. In the parlance of our times: he fucked around and didn’t find out, so he’s going to keep fucking around, to the detriment of society. Barry is, at heart, a show about a guy you like and want to see get his act together to the point that you’re willing to repeatedly overlook his gross violations of the social contract on multiple fronts if it’ll help him out.
posted by chavenet at 4:32 AM on June 20, 2022
That should be Trump's '24 campaign pitch OK I'LL SHUT UP NOW :D
posted by not_on_display at 9:44 PM on June 21, 2022
posted by not_on_display at 9:44 PM on June 21, 2022
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A Very Sunny Chat With Henry Winkler About Barry’s Very Dark Finale [Vulture / Archive]
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posted by ellieBOA at 5:03 AM on June 13, 2022 [5 favorites]