Season Two Talk

[formerlyfreedom]

Welcome to the spot to discuss season two of Barry!

[thuganomics85]

Season Two teaser!

Of course, I was going to be back no matter what, but the teaser answered my biggest wish: Noho Hank will be back!

[formerlyfreedom]

Counting the days....

[shapeshifter]

9 hours ago, saoirse said:

https://youtu.be/ir1_hjemxNA

Hah! Even the f'n' season 2 trailer has a punch line!

So glad this new season of Barry is starting after Counterpart and True Detective have ended.

[carrps]

O.k. I just binged the show, and I'm in for season two!

I'm with thuganomics85...NoHo Hank is gonna be back, yay!

Now, I have to go back and read from the beginning.

[carrps]

On 5/14/2018 at 8:28 AM, 100Proof said:

Didn't Janice the cop go over Gene's apt. or house at some point? I don't remember. If so, was it the kind of place a guy with money would have? He does drive a big black SUV. Lol, none of this is important.  Maybe the writers overlooked his backstory. I dunno, he just seems like one of them hack actors who had a few, as you say, standing in line roles, and then opens up an acting school. However, maybe that's a stereotype fostered in me from movies and tv shows in the first place, lol.

Gene's house in town may look small, but that's an expensive place (and kinda my dream house). Those Spanish style houses are really desirable. Mountain homes can be pretty cheap in certain areas, so that didn't seem unrealistic to me. Also, I wondered if Gene was doing an all-cash business to save on his taxes.

One thing I didn't see mentioned in this thread was Grosse Pointe Blank. In the scene where Hader is waiting for confirmation that the bullet had arrived in Bolivia while staking out the Bolivian, he's even dressed exactly like John Cusack (all black clothes with a black baseball cap and an earpiece).  Then, I saw a name in the credits with the last name of Boudreau, and I cracked the hell up.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S2.E1: The Show Must Go On, Probably?

Quote

Barry tries to convince Sally and the rest of the class to go ahead with a performance, despite the absence of teacher Gene Cousineau, who's grief-stricken after the disappearance of Detective Moss. With Goran gone, Noho Hank and Cristobal's new partnership faces growing pains and jealousy issues. Back in Cleveland, Fuches learns that replacement hitmen don't come easy.

Written by Alec Berg & Bill Hader; directed by Hiro Murai.

Original air date: 3/31/19

Edited March 25, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[scrb]

Looking forward to this.  They had to write this season after all the acclaim they got for the first season, which was written like a year or two before it finally aired.  Or maybe that was just the pilot.

It'll be interesting to see how they keep Barry in both worlds or how he tries to shake his hitman life but can't?

Of course if he does manage to get rid of shady characters from his past, at least for awhile, the show may not be as interesting.  But Barry would be more vulnerable to being found out if he's always consorting with the likes of Noho Hank or those ex-military guys he served with.

Or Fuches.

I think of A History of Violence, where the main character was a former mobster but has given up that life and is trying to have a normal life but then in a quick flash has to use his deadly skills and this new life kind of unravels for him.

Of course Barry's not going to have a tragic end or his acting friends won't, unless some of them find out his secret like that detective who tried to take him in.  He wants to put his past behind him but they won't let him is a good conceit but maybe they can't sustain that forever.

[cpcathy]

Hader has said this season is darker. Darker than murdering Cosineau's girl friend the detective?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S1 recap in case you need a quick refresher before the season 2 premiere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mieCZg3YAew

ETA: HBO is being a pain in the ass so this video can't be embedded. Click the link to watch!

[shapeshifter]

So we see the origin story of Barry the Super Hitman, but his acting class doesn't. Or do they? Maybe sobbing Barry was the real Barry—but just not the one he ever expressed.

Was Fuches one of the soldiers clapping Barry on the back and praising him after he took out 3 guys at 700 ft. yards?
    
  
  
  

On March 25, 2019 at 2:22 AM, scrb said:

They had to write this season after all the acclaim they got for the first season

And no problem. They got this.

Edited April 1, 2019 by shapeshifter
Because I can pretty much only remember numbers

[scrb]

Barry can’t get rid of Hank or Fuches.

Noho Hank isn’t much fun any more since he’s being squeezed from two sides, so he has to blackmail Barry to do more hits.

Why wouldn’t Barry just kill Hank?  Because he’s the amiable mobster!

Fuches refuses to give a DNA sample, which would involve them swabbing the inside of his cheek.  So he hands the cop who wanted his DNA sample the Coke can he’s been chugging!

Cousineau cancels the show and was going to cancel the class — no refunds! —  so Barry has to dig deep and relive his first kills as sniper in Afghanistan.  The improv guy thinks Barry was a sniveling mess but he’s been a stone cold killer since.

Gene can tell Barry has been through some intense experiences so he keeps the class open just to draw them out?

Meanwhile Barry is not out of the woods with the law either.  Lonely Detective Moss has been replaced by the Lieutenant, who’s cranky from going through a bad divorce.

Janice Moss hadn’t yet become a regular character but Barry having to kill her was tough.  If he has to kill regular characters like Hank or Fuches or Gene or Sally, it would be hard to wrest humor from the show thereafter.

Hope they never go there.

Edited April 1, 2019 by scrb

[formerlyfreedom]

11 minutes ago, scrb said:

Fuches refuses to give a DNA sample, which would involve them swabbing the inside of his cheek.  So he hands the cop who wanted his DNA sample the Coke can he’s been chugging!

I loved this detail - even the amiable 'thanks' for taking the can - Stephen Root nailed that scene!

[MrWhyt]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

So we see the origin story of Barry the Super Hitman, but his acting class doesn't. Or do they? Maybe sobbing Barry was the real Barry—but just not the one he ever expressed.

Was Fuches one of the soldiers clapping Barry on the back and praising him after he took out 3 guys at 700 ft.?
    
  
  
  

And no problem. They got this.

nope and it was 700 yards.

Loved seeing NoHo Hank again and he got to be menacing!, but I think Esther is pretty neat too.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Awwww, Hank was so happy to tell his cousin how great things were going and then BLAM!

For some reason, Barry working at Lululemon and using an Australian accent just cracked me up.

[thuganomics85]

Barry is back, and already diving right into balancing out the dark humor with the sudden violent and dramatic moments!

Loved the episode opening up with Fuches trying out a new hitman/protege and it all blowing up in his face.  And, of course, he smugly thinks he can outmaneuver the cops, only to fall for the easiest trick in the book.  Fuches continues to be the worst, but damn, if Stephen Root isn't nailing it.  And it looks like they've planted some interesting ideas over him factoring in the main story soon.

The way they flip between what really happen during Barry's first kill and what the acting class thought (and performed) was well done.  Bill Hader really is showing off his dramatic chops here, despite the show being considered a comedy.

I'm not sure what to make of all the mystery surrounding Moss' disappearance.  On one hand, Paula Newsome is/was awesome and I wouldn't be against seeing her again, but I really can't think of a realistic way for them to not have Barry kill her after she found out the truth.  I wonder what Hader, Berg, and crew have planned here?  Definitely curious to see how this will keep effecting Gene going forward.

Glad that all of the acting trope is back.  Liked having more Sasha with Barry being her new co-worker, since Kirby Howell-Baptiste was all kinds of awesome as Simone on The Good Place.  And, of course, D'Arcy Carden as Natalie!

Finally, NoHo Hank!  Anthony Carrigan continues to be perfection as the world's friendliest, psychopathic gangster!  But I did like seeing some of that politeness drop at the end, and being reminded that he is still a deadly criminal, who is out for himself.  Can't wait for more scenes with him and Barry in the upcoming episodes.

Edited April 1, 2019 by thuganomics85

[Blakeston]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

For some reason, Barry working at Lululemon and using an Australian accent just cracked me up.

And I loved the gag of Simone from The Good Place insisting that she would never do an Australian accent.

The woman stabbing herself in the hand confused me. Was that just supposed to be a display of how tough she is? That would cause serious damage - it seemed like something out of a cartoon. Or is it supposed to be a prosthetic hand or something?

[shapeshifter]

Thank you for this on-point post, @thuganomics85, especially:

2 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

I'm not sure what to make of all the mystery surrounding Moss' disappearance. On one hand, Paula Newsome is/was awesome and I wouldn't be against seeing her again, but I really can't think of a realistic way for them to not have Barry kill her after she found out the truth. I wonder what Hader, Berg, and crew have planned here? Definitely curious to see how this will keep effecting Gene going forward.

—because I entirely missed the possibility that Janice could still be alive. I thought we saw them retrieve her body at the end of season 1, but that must've been in my head or some other show, because Gene wouldn't be complaining about the cops and FBI not looking for her if they had a body. Right? And y'all know the serialized TV trope: No body equals a really strong possibility that the person is not dead. But all the acting class characters seem to think she's dead, and the law enforcement characters too.

IMDb has a bunch of guest star characters listed for coming episodes, but unless they're going to have Afghanistan flashbacks in every episode, they are probably not accurate. I know IMDb often doesn't get the complete cast information until a few days after episosdes air. Anyway,M none of the main characters are listed for 2.2-2.8 yet.

Edited April 1, 2019 by shapeshifter
TL;DR

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Blakeston said:

The woman stabbing herself in the hand confused me. Was that just supposed to be a display of how tough she is? That would cause serious damage - it seemed like something out of a cartoon. Or is it supposed to be a prosthetic hand or something?

I know! WTH? I mean, *maybe* if the knife went in parallel to all the bones and tendons and muscles and nerves, but it cut across everything. Maybe she's a magician and can be a warmup act for the acting class's productions???

Edited April 1, 2019 by shapeshifter

[cpcathy]

That episode was laugh out loud funny AND terrifying. No Ho Hank is already killing it this season. Outstanding season premiere.

LOL, Simone saying she'd never do an Australian accent.

I still can't stand Sally.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S2.E1 - Inside the episode:

[cardigirl]

1 hour ago, cpcathy said:

That episode was laugh out loud funny AND terrifying. No Ho Hank is already killing it this season. Outstanding season premiere.

LOL, Simone saying she'd never do an Australian accent.

I still can't stand Sally.

I don't think we're supposed to like Sally. She's truly horrible. 

So glad the show is back, and it doesn't seem to have lost any steam from the first season yet.   Brilliant! 

[cpcathy]

I was hoping we didn't have to like Sally, she's shallow and selfish, and stupid to boot.

[atlantaloves]

Oh I hate Sally too....I believe we are suppose to hate her guts, she is worthless. The new episode rocked....God I love NoHo Hank, he is walking off with this show. Where in the bloody hell did this actor come from? He is amazing. 

[meowmommy]

13 hours ago, Blakeston said:

Or is it supposed to be a prosthetic hand or something?

Seems like it could have been.  If she'd stabbed herself in the hand, we would have seen blood on top of the wound, and blood coming out from underneath her hand.  It's not like HBO is squeamish about showing the results of violence.

14 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

But I did like seeing some of that politeness drop at the end, and being reminded that he is still a deadly criminal, who is out for himself. 

Really well done, and really showing the dark side of someone who only on the surface is a comic book criminal.  The fine line this show as a dramedy/black comedy walks is oh so very very fine.

[tennisgurl]

Barry returns to us, to skip back and fourth between comedy and drama like it aint no thing! After how things ended last season, with Barry probably killing Moss to cover up his hitman life, I wasnt sure how this season would go, but I am very interested. Bill Hader is really giving a career redefining performance here. 

The contrast between what Barry's acting class imagined his first kill was like, and what it was actually like, was very affecting and well done, and I think says a lot about how Barry got to the place he is in. You can really feel Barry's desperation to keep up with acting, and finishing the show. After all, if Barry doesent do this play and keep going with his new dream, what was even the point of killing Moss? He killed her for nothing.

NoHo is just too great, every scene he is in is just electric. But my favorite part was the end, where they remind you, oh yeah, this guy is a scary and violent criminal, no matter how jovial and polite he is. 

On a show with so many bad guys, Fuches might be the one that I loath the most. He is just such a smug bastard, and while he is certainly a smart guy, especially when it comes to manipulating people, he is no where near as smart as he thinks he is, like missing the oldest trick in the cop book during the interrogation. 

Love that it looks like Simon from The Good Place is getting more to do this season. And she would NEVER do an Australian accent!

Edited April 2, 2019 by tennisgurl

[kay1864]

 "Don't fuck with me, Barry." (beat) "It's not polite."

[meep.meep]

10 hours ago, cpcathy said:

I was hoping we didn't have to like Sally, she's shallow and selfish, and stupid to boot.

You are free to like whomever you want to.  Sally is awful.  And her stupid Facebook page for Barry, that is arguably responsible for a lot of his problems, just raised its ugly head again.

[shapeshifter]

Sally is arguably wonderfully awful.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S2.E2: The Power of No

Quote

Facing pressure from Noho Hank, Barry struggles to pull off an important hit. After asking the class to mine their personal traumas for an original piece, Gene decides to confront his own past. A visit to her agents leaves Sally disappointed. Fuches tries to evade questions in Cleveland.

Promo:

Original air date: 4/7/19

[scrb]

Barry didn’t pull the trigger because of Sally?

And almost got killed for it?

Turns out Sally is a domestic abuse survivor, though still a bit narcissistic.

Cousineau longs for a relationship with his son so is he going to take Barry on as the son who won’t reject him?

In fact Barry wanted to do his scene about meeting Cousineau and how it changed his life. But Cousineau wants him to do Afghanistan, which Barry would rather forget.

That cop is right on top of Barry and Fuches.

Barry is going to have to kill him or kill his ex’s new man.

p

[shapeshifter]

20 minutes ago, scrb said:

Barry didn’t pull the trigger because of Sally?

And almost got killed for it?

Yeah. Which makes us (the viewers) hate Sally more than we already did.

And Fuches too. 

It seems that all the characters are cannon fodder for the "military industrial complex."

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Gene may be a lot of things but he was right to stay silent after Sally’s poor me monologue. It’s a classic therapy technique. You wouldn’t believe all the things people will say to fill the silence. 

I was cracking up over Esther listening to Genius of Love while she was meditating. 

[thuganomics85]

Well, that certainly could have gone better for you, Barry!  I guess his conscience/guilt is still kicking in (probably not helped by Sally's revelation over being married to a violent man.)  I'm sure NoHo isn't going to be happy about this!

Got a kick out of Sally's acting reel and all of the minor roles she was in.  I imagine there are a lot of actors who totally go through those experiences.  Added bonus with the familiar faces that showed up in the main roles that I could totally see happening in real life, like Michael Beach in the cop show and Patrick Fabian (Howard!) as some kind of space captain.  But I equally enjoyed out much the rest of the acting trope is over her shit and how Gene still knows how to handle her.

Speaking of which, of course the acting trope would use Barry's story from last episode to do their own performances about their tragic pasts.  And then Gene turns it all into a big-ass play.  I love how this gang somehow makes Barry of all fucking people come off like the normal one, until he pulls out a gun and then it is back to "Oh, yeah.  He's the one who actually kills people!"

Totally knew Fuches was flipped at the end, so I'm glad they're aren't trying to hide it from the audience.  And once again, Stephen Root is owning the character's sliminess and ability to always look out for numero uno.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Inside the episode:

[Blakeston]

The best moment was the revelation that the "lead prosecutors" were those early-twenty-somethings (with Sally of course being the secretary).

I am so sick of ridiculously young people being cast as seasoned prosecutors. Like 26-year-old Katie Holmes becoming the District Attorney of Gotham in Batman Begins!

Edited April 8, 2019 by Blakeston

[kay1864]

Why wasn't Barry wearing gloves?  Fingerprints on the gate, on doors...wtf?

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, kay1864 said:

Why wasn't Barry wearing gloves?  Fingerprints on the gate, on doors...wtf?

I missed that. Surely it has to be on purpose by the Show, right?
  
  
  

Speaking of things done on purpose or not: The casting of Andrew Leeds as Gene's son definitely woke me up, since he will always be to me the Bones serial killer, Pelant.
  
  
  

Is there any chance that Fuches will wind up taking the fall for Moss's murder? Like maybe Sally wants to believe that Barry was trying to stop Fuches? Moss could still come back from the dead with some partial amnesia, heh.
  
  
  

During Sally's meeting to see her reel, we see a large picture in the background that seems pretty intentionally symbolic: 

Sally says later in her acting class that never again will she be with a "violent man," after which Barry is unable to shoot his target, even though Esther is likely much more worthy of elimination than the enemy combatants Barry took out legally in Afghanistan. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by shapeshifter

[cardigirl]

Awww, so now I'm supposed to empathize with Sally a bit, I guess.  Dammit. 

Barry is starting to second guess himself.  Making mistakes.  That's not good. 

So glad the show is back. 

[cpcathy]

Lordy, Barry sure is in a pickle.

This shows cements that being a barely working actor seems awful.

I don't care about Gene's son or ex wife. I barely care about Gene.

[tennisgurl]

It really is sad that Barry so often seems like the most normal person in the whole acting class. And Barry is the one that kills people! Of course Gene and everyone are all jealous that Barry has traumatic war memories, think of everything that he can draw upon! 

Sally's brief show clips all looked awful, in the kind of awful that could really exist. I especially loved/rolled my eyes at the law show with the three new DAs who all look about twenty, while Sally is the secretary. And they had to overcome sexism AND misogyny!

Barry is starting to second guess himself, especially after Sally talking about how she "will never be with a violent man again". And now Fuches is working with the cops to try to catch him. Not a great time to make rookie mistakes, Barry!

[shapeshifter]

Killing enemy combatants and violent criminals is one thing. But the actor who Barry planned to kill killed in the first season was an innocent. I wonder how frequently he killed innocents? 

Even if Janice crawled out of the pond with amnesia and is living with some off-the-grid types, Barry still can't expect to just start over with no consequences.

IDK. How far can you legally skate with a very clear case of PTSD?

Edited April 10, 2019 by shapeshifter

[scrb]

I think TV shows have just been successful at getting viewers to identify with problematic characters, to say the least.

Tony Soprano was clearly a killer, a predator.  But until the end, millions of viewers were on his side.

I thought he was irredeemable.

Barry probably can't pay for  what he's done.  Yet you want him to be able to make a go at his new life, to change his life around.

So Janice was an obstacle to that and so far, viewers haven't condemned Barry for it -- well, I don't know the ratings, for all we know, HBO won't renew, even though there's wide acclaim and anticipation for this season.

[arc]

For my money, Barry is at least as deranged as any of the Chechen gangsters or the struggling actors. Probably more, because he is both the remorseless killer and the actor who dreams of making it big in Hollywood. His particular coping mechanisms this season have made him seem a bit more sane than the rest of the actors, but it’s all in service of his own delusions.

I don’t want Esther to die, but I do hope the season doesn’t end up with a three way gang treaty, sort of just a linear one-upping of how the Bolivian-Chechen gang war ended up in s1.

[scrb]

He wants to leave the life but the show's hook is about this guy living a double life.

If he was able to completely leave his past and the show only was about him trying to become an actor or maybe going to therapy to deal with what he's done, it wouldn't have quite the same pull.

A lot of viewers might be disappointed that he's not a badass any more or that he's making these improbable escapes a la Walter White.

Probably wouldn't be as entertaining if all it showed was him being a struggling actor with just mundane problems, like paying the bills, being frustrated at not getting roles, etc.

Or if they showed him spending a lot of time on the couch talking to a therapist.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, arc said:

For my money, Barry is at least as deranged as any of the Chechen gangsters or the struggling actors. Probably more, because he is both the remorseless killer and the actor who dreams of making it big in Hollywood.

Is Barry really a "remorseless" killer? I thought the message of Barry's flashback to his fellow soldiers cheering his first kills is that the remorselessness is just an act to cover up his real feelings — or not? He did break out in a grin pretty quickly after they started cheering, but wasn't there an initial reaction of horror at having killed someone?
And has Barry even considered "making it big in Hollywood"? I thought he was still all about flying under the radar, so to speak. 
Or was that just Fuches telling Barry to stay under the radar?
I thought Barry not wanting to act the part of his life of his first kill in Afghanistan was part of his keeping a low profile — but maybe it was just leaving that part behind. Or both.

In a way, Barry's life as a hit man has been mostly acting a part, so being an actor should come naturally to him. But his natural skills that led to him being a sniper and then a hit man were things like hand-eye coordination, quick reaction, and accuracy. IDK, do those things make a good actor?

Barry's flat affect should prevent him from acting, but was that his natural state before becoming a sniper? 

In an alternate version of this show, Barry would get identity-altering plastic surgery and become a stunt man.

Edited April 9, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Lady Iris]

On ‎4‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 2:30 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Totally knew Fuches was flipped at the end, so I'm glad they're aren't trying to hide it from the audience.  And once again, Stephen Root is owning the character's sliminess and ability to always look out for numero uno.

Aww man. Just goes to show how naïve I am. I thought the cop tailed Fuches. It didn't occur to me that Fuches turned on Barry. This is why I love these forums.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 minutes ago, Lady Iris said:

Aww man. Just goes to show how naïve I am. I thought the cop tailed Fuches. It didn't occur to me that Fuches turned on Barry. This is why I love these forums.

Fuches was wearing a wire and the cops had cameras set up. After Barry told him to leave, Fuches turned toward the camera and told the cops that he could get Barry to incriminate himself if the cops let him try again. 

[Blakeston]

16 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Killing enemy combatants and violent criminals is one thing. But the actor who Barry killed in the first season was an innocent. I wonder how frequently he killed innocents? 

Remind me, which actor did Barry kill in season one?

[cpcathy]

I forget his name, the blonde guy who was having an affair with Goren's wife. He and Barry became chummy during the first episode (forgive me if I have the episodes wrong).