It’s the end of a (bloody) era. HBO’s Barry, which sees Bill Hader plays aspiring actor and professional contract killer Barry Berkman, is coming to an end at the conclusion of this season.
Interestingly, the show’s fourth season was written before the third, per Variety. This happened because production on the third season was shut down during the pandemic, and the writers had some time on their hands. When we left Barry at the end of season three, he was in prison due to the actions of his teacher, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler).
The show’s been ridiculously successful, netting 44 Emmy nominations and two wins for Hader. Understandably, it’s hard to let go of a hit TV show. “We didn’t want to admit it to ourselves, you know what I mean?” Hader said. He told executive vice president of HBO comedy programming Amy Gravitt, “I feel like the story naturally ends after season four,” and he remembers her sighing in anguish.
Gravitt said despite feeling disappointed in the news, she knew that Hader and company knew exactly what they were doing. “Every decision that he’s made about the story or the jump between seasons has made sense — so I had to go with his gut on that,” she said. “Obviously, now that we’re here, we’re feeling sentimental about it. But it really does feel like it’s the right time to finish the show.”
Hader said the beginning of the season was “a lot of fun” and “incredibly bittersweet” but that the last two episodes “were not fun” and “very sad,” s
o there’s that to look forward to at least. Hader also directed every episode of the latest season, saying he got more comfortable and confident in the idea from watching other directors work on the show.
The extra workload, he said, “was exhausting. It was very exhausting.” He also doesn’t let the idea of a “finale” hold that much weight. He’s more interested in something having a satisfying conclusion.
“I don’t even think I’ve ever referred to it as the ‘series finale’ when we’re working on the last episode. It’s just the end of the story, you know what I mean?” It was also important to feel closure with the cast and crew, even though it was really depressing. [The] very, very last day of principal photography — yeah, it was incredibly sad. It’s been an amazing, life-changing experience for me, personally. So I was happy I was able to tell the crew that, these people who worked for so many years. To be able to thank them was very important to me.”
Barry season four premieres on April 16.