Bill Hader's Barry has been a gem since its first episode on HBO, but unfortunately, all good things come to an end. Season 4 will be the last season of the acclaimed and award-winning series, which may disappoint its fans. Hader recently commented on the ending of the series, and his reasoning behind wrapping it up may comfort anyone hoping for more episodes.
Barry Season 4 is premiering on HBO on Sunday, April 16th, and Bill Hader recently spoke to Variety about the upcoming final season. After explaining how he realized a clear ending to the series presented itself to him, Hader talked about how he settled on the decision to conclude Barry despite its acclaim:
It was very much in the writing and the storytelling. I mean, a lot of people after last season were like, ‘Why are you doing another season? It should have just ended.’ But to me, there are still so many questions with the other characters, and with Barry — and there’s so many things unsaid. What happens in Season 4 is structurally radical in some ways, but it made sense for what I think the characters needed to go through, and what I think the whole show is always kind of headed towards.
As someone who was initially iffy on the premise of a hitman wanting to become an actor but was won over, I'm willing to defer to Bill Hader here. As much as I would love to see Barry continue on for many more seasons, he and the creative team have done a solid job with the series so far. I have no reason to doubt them now, and am excited to see how it all wraps up.
For anyone curious on whether the series simply ran out of ideas, Bill Hader admitted they could've just continued to stretch out the series with additional storylines if he wanted to. The actor ultimately decided against it, though, and explained why:
You realize, well, we could pad a lot of stuff, and just make story. But if we’re going forward, it ends in Season 4.
Season 3 of Barry ended with him finally being caught by the authorities for the murder of Janice Moss, and it was thanks in large part to his mentor and former friend, Gene Cousineau. Barry spent the majority of the season trying to maintain the close relationship he formed with Gene and his girlfriend Sally but found himself struggling to maintain a grip on reality.
With Barry in custody, it seems like this season could be a lot different than previous ones. That much is clear based on the trailer released for Season 4, in which we see Barry hallucinating Sally in prison, among other things:
Even though Barry is behind bars, it looks like the final season will follow NoHo Hank and everyone else we've seen in these first few seasons. I'm especially curious as to why Gene is holding a gun in that one scene and who might be targeting him. Would Barry really go after Gene?
It's also interesting to see that Barry's locked up with Fuches after he asked for a lawyer when authorities realized his connection to various crimes. One would imagine Barry would love to exact revenge on his former handler and might do that at some point during the final season. Then again, it's also possible that Fuches is as imaginary as Sally undoubtedly was in the prison scene. There are just so many questions I have, but fortunately, I won't need to wait long for the answers.
Barry Season 4 premieres on HBO and for those with an HBO Max Subscription on Sunday, April 16th. Here's hoping the show can finish as strong as it has gone so far, and we don't have another infamously bad ending of an HBO series on our hands.
