Barry: limonada (3x02)

Well, gosh, this is a good television show.

Cons:

So far, the stuff with Hank and Cristobal feels very disconnected from everything going on with Barry, Sally, and Mr. Cousineau. I suppose we'll get more of a connection between these elements as we move forward. I like all the pieces we have so far, but I wish they were woven more closely together.

Pros:

To start with that subplot, I love that Cristobal and Hank's love story has many of the conventional beats of any couple trying to learn how they're going to be with each other, but this one just comes with crime bosses and lots of murder. Cristobal's father-in-law shows up to take down the Chechen operation, but Cristobal warns Hank, saving him and his people. He then breaks up with Hank, though, telling him to run to get away from the Bolivians. I'm curious to see where this will go: for now I'm delighted by the absurdist mix of comedy and drama, given that the stakes of this relationship include drugs and murder on the regular.

Sally is still working on her show, and still being her super obnoxious self, but things get tense when Barry shows up and screams at her in front of her co-star. Sally also finds out that another show with a similar premise to her own will be airing soon, causing them to push the airdate up on her show. Despite what I said in last week's review, I really liked the stuff happening with Sally in this episode. Her reaction to Barry's yelling, the way she immediately went into reconciliation mode, was so fascinating and depressing to me. We know her history with abuse, and the interesting ways that she's weaponized that in her career, either to exorcise her demons, or to lie to herself that that's what she's doing, it's not super clear. And the fact that Barry treats her so poorly, and her reaction is to make him dinner and apologize to him is... well, frankly it's chilling. I can't wait to see where this goes.

Barry has gotten more and more unhinged over time. I feel like that's such an obvious thing to say, but it really hits you in this episode with Barry repeating, "I love you, Mr. Cousineau," a couple different times, all while holding Gene hostage, and threatening his son and grandson too. His behavior in this episode was... um... alarming, to say the least, but I like how much we're inside the interiority of Barry's experience as we're watching this. He holds a man hostage in order to get him an acting job. The only other path here is murder, but Barry genuinely means it when he says he loves Mr. Cousineau. He genuinely does want forgiveness and to move forward with his life, to be a better person.

And Cousineau... the whole episode, I was just imagining being in this situation. Totally at the mercy of the person who killed your girlfriend. And he seems genuinely like he doesn't want to hurt you, but you are fully aware that he will if he feels that he has to. So you have to be convincing. You have to tell him you love him, and you have to make him think you mean it, even as he's sitting next to your grandson and telling you he'll kill him if you don't behave. So chilling, and yet so much about this episode made me laugh, all at the same time. I guess that's the brilliance of the show!

Honestly, one of the things I'll say about watching Barry is that I don't feel... smart enough to really grapple with it? There's clearly so much going on here, and I'm only scratching the surface by saying "wow, it's interesting how crazy Barry's acting." It feels insufficient. It's difficult to describe what's happening in this show, because to describe the events is not to touch at all on why it's good to begin with. Does that make any sense? No? Oh well! Can't wait for next week!

9/10