yikes

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.

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.

Trauma breeds trauma, and when we find ourselves without comforts in a harsh, indifferent world, there is nothing we crave more than human connection; For someone to show us we can be okay, and the cycle can be broken. When life is a negative feedback loop of crap, we need someone to help us remember the piss.

Barry's drive for self punishment is rooted in the same flawed core beliefs which morally excuses his paid mercenary work; life is meaningless, and stress leads to growth. When the friendly officer tries comforting Barry during his psychotic episode (punching the wall and personally punishing himself), he is wholly rejected and threatened. He is personally enraged into lashing out physically; manipulated by Barry into beating him bloody. Barry achieves a twisted interpersonal harmony, and is again rewarded for his self-punishment - this time by Fuches - with an outstretched, sympathetic hand.

I enjoyed the season opening and am excited for where the show is headed, it feels a bit like a slow burn but into episode 2 the story really starts speeding up.

I just can't ignore that it feels much more serious and almost bleak in tone compared with previous seasons, hopefully we will get some more tonally balanced episodes later down the line, but I can see the show taking this tone for the remainder too - which might not be a bad thing as it feels more artistic, and surreal, but looses its comedic timing for me in this opening.

The performances, writing, cinematography, music and especially some of the incredible transitions really stand out to me as high points, however the bleak tone and dramatically toned down visual comedy- heck, it feels like they've cranked down all the comedy leave me wondering just how much I'll enjoy the rest of the season.

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.