yikes

Great, short, and sweet first episode. And a funny one too. If the season keeps this pace up, it will be a certified classic in HBO's catalog. The cinematography is impressive and so is the acting. Bill Hader continues to impress. This show has perfected the art of dark humor.

The writing is superb. It's funny, tragic, and great. What a great way to reintroduce the viewers to another season of Barry. HBO are consistently putting out great work and Barry is no exception. Barry might continue to be one of the most underrated television shows ever. It's a perfect blend of drama and comedy. Few shows will make you go from laughing out loud to crying.

What can I say the ending of Season 3 of Barry was phenomenal, top of the line tv, rejuvenated me. This first episode felt like a cooldown, it was slow, very bleak but it set everything up for what could be a satisfying finale.

Things did feel different from the jump, I was slightly disappointed with what I was seeing. I wouldn't say I was entertained by this episode, it was just a set up. It had me thinking the show would have ended perfectly at the end of Season 3.

I wanted more from this but as usual I expect Barry to pick up later in the season like previous years. Gene, Barry, Fuches and Sally have all evolved so much and are so much different than the people they were in Season 1.

This is still the most overlooked show on tv, it makes me feel like Im watching old days of quality television.

It already feels like 2023 is going to be a tough year for TV. Not in the sense that there's a lot of bad TV, but because a lot of my favorites are ending. Having already lost "Atlanta" and "Better Call Saul" last year, I'm gearing up for the finale of "Succession," which is sure to be a real doozy; however, I'm also slowly getting ready for the finale of "Barry," which has just premiered it's fourth and final season, and I'm definitely not ready. If the premiere is showing anything about this season, it's that there's no stopping this from being an explosive finale.

A lot has changed since the finale of the third season. Seeing Barry in prison definitely feels weird, but considering everything that he has done throughout the show to this point, there's a nice sense of justice to it, despite the sense that it's not going to be there for long. He's certainly a great character, but not even the best of us can escape our demons. However, Barry doesn't necessarily show signs of slowing down his criminal ways, although it seems like he's slowly trying to mend his own wounds by allowing himself to be punished in the most gruesome of ways. At the same time, Gene is living the good life at the moment, but may also be walking a tightrope over a very interesting moral question that he'll have to ask himself in the coming weeks. The episode doesn't lack it's setups and there's a lot of different arcs to keep track of now that none of them are essentially linked to Barry, with the exception of Fuches. It'll be interesting to see where they all go, especially NoHo Hank's storyline which seems to set up a return to the criminal world in a very unique way. The only storyline that's raising a few questions is Sally's. Not a lot of time was dedicated to her in this episode and the direction of that storyline seems to be very much focused on her grieving. She's a great character, so here's hoping that it'll lead to great things for her to do eventually.

"yikes" is a great start to this new season of "Barry," which feels like it's starting off again with a slate that's been wiped clean. A lot of arcs to follow, but the characters still feel as rich as they did when the show started and I'm so excited to see where this all leads.

Barry returns for Season 4.

Barry's in jail. Fuches is in jail. Gene is the prosecution's star witness. Cristobal and NoHo are living blissfully in Santa Fe.

So far, so good.

Problem is Sally is still a character. I was kinda hoping that her flight out of L. A. at the end of Season 3 meant the end of her in the show. Alas, Season 4 has her returning home to her parents. And right on queue she's throwing a fit in her mom's car as mom is trying to order fries and a Coke at a drive-through.

Does Sarah Goldberg's contract include a bonus for winning an Emmy? All she does is scream and cry.

Indeed, Sally's dad - in dialogue that is more on-the-nose than viewers probably realize - tries to comfort Sally by saying to her, "How's our little Meryl Streep doing?"

Bingo.

The whole episode was so dark I was tempted to stop it halfway through and go back Season 1, Episode 1 when the show took itself less seriously.

A great start to the last season of Barry that gives every important character of the show their own screen time and it's not just 20 minutes of Barry being in the prison, and showing us the same prison arc cliché in every movie and show where some prisoners gang up on him to kick his ass or something. None of that. Just Barry being alone to himself reminiscing the past within the walls of this prison thinking about how he got there.

What I like about this episode and I think this show excelled in this aspect in the past too, is that you don't really need flashbacks for every character like Barry to know why they are who they are. From the moment you are introduced to Sally's mom, you immediately understand why Sally is Sally. It's a great way of naturally progressing your story without halting it with some flashbacks and exposition to give characterization and backstory, you give your character characterization by moving her story forward and just having her interact with her mom and dad she hasn't seen for a long time.

This episode also does a really great job of introducing us to the new environment, and the new and different tone of the show. The comedy is still there and it is funny, but it is more serious than ever. The show has had always a serious tone alongside the dark comedy aspect of it, but it is way more serious now since all of the relationships are ruined and everyone hates each other. And ironically, everything had to go haywire for a certain character to be reunited with someone and to love them again which I'm trying so hard not to spoil but I think it's obvious enough. I just find this contrast really interesting.

They do a lot of this type of integrating flashbacks to the present scenes in this episode which I didn't find annoying at all since it was executed so well and it wasn't done to death to make it lame.

And I gotta say the direction of this episode was amazing. The way they decided to shoot and do a lot of scenes is just great and it shows that Bill Hader still got it. The cinematography of some particular scenes is just as great as previous seasons' and once again reminds you that this isn't just another regular drama show you're watching.

NoHo Hank is once again great and I'm glad that they hinted at how he's going to connect to Barry's plotline in this episode because so far, his and his boyfriend's plotline doesn't seem that interesting but I'm sure it's gonna result in some crazy shenanigans.

We're still not sure what Gene's motive here is yet, but something tells me he's not gonna be 100% hating Barry here.

Overall, I thought this episode was a great openner to the season and giving all the characters sufficient time in such a short runtime and introducing and developing new plot lines without being them rushed. The direction is fantastic and I'm sure it's gonna get better with Bill having directed of them himself. I'm looking forward to the crazy episodes we're gonna get in the second half of the season like every previous season.