I don’t think the show will redeem Barry, nor should they, I think it was more just giving the character an honest reaction. I think there’s this odd innocence to Barry (not in a way that makes him likeable, just one that makes it understandable how he was able to be manipulated into a horrible person) that was kind…

Yeah, you can acknowledge that they suck without acting like the show has no sympathy for them. The writers wouldn’t write the entirety of this episode, or Shiv and Tom’s scene at the end of S4E1, or pretty much any dramatic scene in this show without at least some sympathy for the characters. People can view the show…

Art famously only has one interpretation.

I think the ones for Barry were pretty good (I’m unsure if they did any for the third season, but they definitely did it for the first two), because they were just Hader and Berg briefly talking about the writing process. It was pretty interesting to see how the writers room got to certain decisions.

Plus, he doesn’t have to deal with all of the typical biopic issues. If he just makes a new character inspired by Kael, he can have her do whatever he wants without internet losers complaining about historical inaccuracies.

What did Cera do?

Eh, I’d say that Murphy was on the upswing back in 2019, but he’s in a bit of stasis now. Not an insult, he’s great, it just seems like he hasn’t had a real hit since Dolemite.

I won’t go as far to say that she is manipulating him, but I do think that it’s fair to say that Conor is too inept to be outright manipulative. He is always pretty blatant with Willa about it. Even when he proposed, it was cut-and-dried: she’ll be more comfortable, he’ll be slightly more electable. Honestly, it’s…

Do we think the season will feature these guys?

Lot of number humor in this episode.

I love how Greg has gone from disgust at the main characters, to engaging in doing bad stuff while also trying to pretend to be better than it, to gleefully calling himself a “disgusting brother”.

They should have spelled it “Logue”

Absolutely. The fact that there are only a handful of child actors that grew up to be relatively well adjusted (Williams despite him saying it was rough, Nicholas Hoult, I thought Fred Savage until he turned out to be a piece of shit) is a sign that it’s really impossible for a kid to act and not turn out majorly…

You have to admit - he wears that hat as well as someone could possible wear it.

Somewhat off-topic, but I think it is interesting that three critically acclaimed comedy-drama shows (Ted Lasso, Succession, and Barry) are all starting their final season within a month of each other, and airing their final episode within three days of each other (Ted Lasso technically hasn’t been officially…

They’re trying to meet weekly releases, the objectively better option, by half.

Pinocchio was so good. My new metric for every film adaptation of any book ever is “did they decide to change the framework so that it is a commentary on fascism?”

I’m not stupid. I’m smarter than yew!

If the rest of the movie is as good as the animation, this is going to be great. I’m really excited to see what the next few years of animated movies are going to be like as people keep using this.

I know he dropped out a while ago, but I hope this doesn’t lead to another 16 year Todd Field hiatus.