barry-blockman

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BILL HADER + Barry season 1 & 2 blooper reel

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Barry Berkman + ANGER

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barry is an excellent show but it’s also very easily misinterpreted, particularly if you don’t have the context of the shows it’s very deliberately and overtly satirizing - the sopranos, mad men, breaking bad, any number of military dramas - and especially among younger fans who came to the show after becoming fans of bill hader through IT there is like… a prevailing attitude that barry is a good person at heart and he’s been forced to make bad choices against his will and the show is a war for his soul, and anyone he hurts on his path to redemption is just collateral damage. which was the central premise of any number of Great Man shows of the peak TV era, and precisely the trope that barry is critiquing. like. barry is a war criminal and a murderer whose moral compass is skewed absolutely beyond repair and whenever he is given an opportunity to become a better person he instead chooses to become a worse one, so that even his pursuit of acting, which was supposed to liberate him from his life of crime, is increasingly just an outlet for him to vent his rage. and to watch this show and view barry as an anti-hero with a heart of gold who’s just doing his best to overcome a violent past is an incredibly shallow misreading of what the show is doing. the whole demonstrable point of this show is to interrogate the arcs of iconic Great Men like don draper or walter white (barry’s alliterative name is not an accident!!!), not uncritically repeat those arcs. 

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1.06 | 2.08

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barry and sally’s “relationship”

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Bill Hader as Barry Berkman in Barry (HBO) 1x01

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i feel like in all of the recent discussion i’ve seen on Barry’s downward spiral, people seem to have forgotten that this show is not just centered on critique of the military cult of violence, but also of the culture around method acting. the decline of barry’s stability and (already loose) sense of morality is almost entirely due to the culture of theatre in LA, not the violent ex-military and mob guys he associates. it’s the military cult of violence that created who barry was at the beginning of season 1, but it’s the theatre that created who he is now. he has spent three seasons immersed in an environment which encourages him over and over again to relive his worst actions and traumas in order to create perceived authenticity on the stage. this is highlighted often– for instance, when gene tells him “whatever you did to get to that place, that needs to be your process.” gene and his fellow students trigger him on purpose, they encourage him to tap into his rage and his desperation, and most importantly they do so in a way which normalizes his violent emotions in the context of socializing with innocent people. none of this is to say that gene or sally or even the method are morally responsible for the harm barry causes, but rather that his moral decline exists in the context of the show’s critique of method acting. method acting is not cathartic, it is not authentic, it is not therapeutic– it is damaging, for the actor and those around them.

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barry “violence is a circle with no end” barry “violence is a tool of imperialism that uses you up and spits you out to enact more cycles of violence” barry “violence is not vengeance do not mistake one for the other” barry “violence is not rage and never the two should meet” barry “violence for the sake of love does not make it any easier to bear” barry “violence is all that’s left when every other option is stolen from you” barry “violence is always a choice” barry

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BARRY 3.01 forgiving jeff

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BARRY 3.02 limonada

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Head empty except for thoughts on autistic Barry Berkman.

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watching barry is like “wow he’s completely hit rock bottom i don’t know how this can possibly get worse” and then it does for 3 entire seasons

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a get to know me series that no one asked for            sam’s favorite tv shows ( 4 / ? )

           ↳ barry, 2018-present     ❝ i think you are deeply human. ❞

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his gay little shirts and Bald Guy Swag have bewitched me body and soul

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This is what you do. This is all you do. Do you understand? Barry HBO (2018-)