Barry: The Truth Has a Ring to It

May 5, 2019 9:56 PM - Season 2, Episode 6

Barry works with Gene to get into character; Sally embraces her truth; Fuches goes on a mission.
posted by rhizome (6 comments total)

Two more episodes to see how these turns of events shake out, or they might continue into a 3rd season (Variety).

Adding to the general image of Fuches playing hardcore para-military type: 5.11 Tactical makes FBI and police gear, but is also popular with civilian shooters and private military contractors (per Wikipedia). And FYI, it started out as a climbing gear company, named after the highest rock climbing difficulty level that was listed in the Yosemite Decimal System, which was created by the company's founder, mountain climber Royal Robbins.

Anyway, back to the episode -- I enjoy seeing Bill Hader play someone who's learning how to act. He includes small actions and motions that seem so real, like going to pretend to choke Sally, but stopping a few inches short, so she can grab his hand and put it on her throat. That also shows that while he's in the moment, he's not lost in the moment. Also, playing surprised to hear that Sally went to see Sam, which he plays well enough to not make Sally suspicious. Sarah Goldberg is also great in her role, but Hader plays up some goofy facial expressions, which make everything a bit surreal.

In further consideration, I think as the co-creator and a co-writer, as well as a known comedian, he has that latitude to add the moments of goofiness that others don't get to play. Maybe Sarah isn't as much of a comedic actor, or maybe Bill and Alec Berg decided that only Hader could go over the top in this way. Anthony Carrigan is something else, though -- his whole character is a bit surreal, but it feels closer to a real character. Again, perhaps because Bill Hader is known for comedy? I dunno, I'll stop here.

Final fun fact from "Inside the Episode" -- Bill Hader was looking down or away in the scene where NoHo Hank yells at Khazam for ruining the his goodbye moment because Bill was trying to not laugh.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:20 PM on May 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed hearing that last bit on the "inside the episode" as well. I kind of want to go back and see how many other scenes Hader has to turn/lower his head because Anthony Carrigan is making him laugh.

Carrigan is really good. He does that goofy sunny sunshine thing perfectly, but when he switches back to scary dude, he is really scary.
posted by queensissy at 3:26 PM on May 7, 2019 [4 favorites]

This felt like a perfect follow up to the previous episode. Agree about Carrigan, I really hope to see him in more stuff.

I'm curious about Fuches backstory. We are seeing more about Sally, Gene, and Barry's past but I don't recall any pre-Barry scenes or backstory for Fuches.

Still at the top of its game, really enjoying this show.
posted by jzb at 12:59 AM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

I had this weird intertextual moment in this episode where I was afraid he had actually choked her -- I didn't think it was likely but I couldn't figure out why it seemed familiar, until I realized I was thinking of Bojack Horseman. I can't imagine they weren't aware of that scene when writing this one, though I'm not sure what that says about this show (which I like!) that their attitude seems to be, Don't worry, you can still like this one, he didn't actually choke her (he's just a mass-murdering psychopath).
posted by chortly at 11:55 PM on May 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

The "Barry" scene that broke Bill Hader.
posted by Brittanie at 7:19 PM on May 16, 2019 [4 favorites]

Wow, Fuches gets a lot of facial injuries. Is this four distinct ones in fifteen episodes?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:14 PM on May 3, 2022