Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) has done one thing his entire life – kill people. He went from being in the military to being a hitman. Starting to feel like he has no purpose so his boss, Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root), decides he needs to go LA for some nicer weather and to take out a guy by the name of Ryan Madison for the Chechen mob.
Barry goes to LA and meets Goran Pazar and his henchman, Noho Hank, who explains that Pazar’s wife is sleeping with her personal trainer, Ryan Madison. They want him taken out and Barry agrees after a hilarious discussion that he can shoot him.
Photo Source: Barry, HBO
The next day Barry tracks him to an acting class taught by the famous Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler). After a while of waiting for Ryan to come out, Barry goes into the class and ends up doing a scene with him and becomes intoxicated by the applause. After the class one of the girls comes up to him, Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), and invites him to go to a bar with them.
Photo Source: Barry, HBO
After the bar, Barry drives Ryan home and ends up hugging him as he gets out of the car. Noho Hank had been spying on Barry and records the entire thing.
Fuches scolds Barry for befriending his target and, after a bit of protest, agrees to go through with the hit and not pursue acting. Barry goes to the class parking lot and asks Gene if he thinks he could have been good at acting and ends up telling him that he is a hitman. Thinking Barry was improvising a monologue, Gene is very impressed with Barry’s “acting”.
Barry drives to Ryan’s house to kill him and discovers him dead. He then sees the Chechens loading a gun to kill him. Barry strikes first and kills all three of them, but doesn’t notice the camera they have in their car.
Photo Source: Barry, HBO
I absolutely loved everything about this first episode. First of all, I am in love with the concept of the show – a hitman getting bit by the acting bug. I think it is an absolutely genius idea. Secondly, the acting is phenomenal. Everyone is perfect in the roles they have. Bill Hader is such a wonderful actor. I always forget how good of an actor he is because most of the time I think of him playing a character on SNL or something. Dude can act.
I am so excited to continue to watch this show. If it stays this good throughout the season, it will for sure be up for some Emmy’s.
Photo Source: Barry, IMDb
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