Despite this new life full of potential happiness and an escape from his depression at his fingertips, danger has to be right around the corner. The episode made it very clear that these mobsters were extremely dangerous and Barry killed 3 of them to end the episode. Moving into the more analysis based portion of this review, the setup for the rest of this season is intriguing. We see exactly how lethal and proficient he is as a hit-man, yet in the scene that follows, Barry tells a waitress, an aspiring actress, that he’s an actor too and seems genuinely happy saying so. When he doesn’t kill the aspiring actor in time, the mobsters do, leading to a gun being pulled on Barry and Barry disposing of all three mobsters. He winds up onstage (sharing a scene with his intended victim) and feels completely alive by the praise he receives. Barry follows his intended mark into an acting class and this is where everything changes for him. He’s been hired by some very deadly mobsters to kill an aspiring actor who was sleeping with one of the mobster’s wives. In Los Angeles, Barry is introduced to what we can assume will become the regular cast. This first episode depicts exactly how depressed Barry has become several years into his career as a contract killer, simply going through the motions in life. Barry is persuaded to become a contract killer, killing people that he describes as bad guys. He is approached by a friend of his father, a man he describes as being like an uncle to him about taking his skill set from the war and using it to make a living. I will be going into spoiler territory here after this first paragraph so if you’re looking for a simple watch or don’t watch this is definitely a show you’ll want to give a shot.īarry (played by Bill Hader) is an ex-Marine who upon returning home from the war in Afghanistan finds himself depressed and lacking direction in life. Series lead Bill Hader directed the episode in addition to co-writing it with series co-creator Alec Berg ( Silicon Valley). Last night, Barry debuted on HBO, it’s first of an eight-episode season.