Television series

Barry

Name: Barry
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: 2018
Cast: Bill Hader, Henry Winkler, Sarah Goldberg, Stephen Root, Anthony Carrigan

Barry is a hitman who stumbles into an LA acting class while tracking a mark, and finds something like belonging among the desperate, self-absorbed hopefuls there. The show keeps swerving between broad comedy and sudden brutal violence without warning, asking whether a person built for killing can ever really perform being good. Funny, then not.

TVMaze rating

7.4

If you liked this

Fargo2014

Same tonal high-wire act—brutal violence and absurd comedy sitting in the same scene, ordinary people dragged into criminal chaos, anthology format keeps every season fresh and self-contained.

But Each season resets characters and setting, so the found-family intimacy Barry builds never carries over.

Breaking Bad2008

The gold standard for watching a good man discover he's terrifyingly good at being bad, with the same slow-drip dread about whether redemption is even on the table.

But Straighter drama, less interested in comedy—if you loved Barry's jokes, this plays it grimly serious.

Killing Eve2018

A magnetic, funny-then-horrifying study of a professional killer who can't stop performing versions of herself for other people, told with the same twitchy tonal control.

But Quality dips after its first stellar season; the central obsession plot can feel repetitive.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Grosse Pointe Blank1997

Same engine—a professional killer attempting a normal life through an old community—built two decades earlier as pure genre comedy rather than tragicomedy.

A hitman returns to his high school reunion trying to go straight, falls back into old feelings and older violence—Barry's exact premise, played as a breezy 90s rom-com decades before HBO got there.

But Much lighter touch, less interested in genuine guilt or consequence—it's after charm, not catharsis.

In Bruges2008

A guilt-wracked hitman hiding out among civilians, cracking jokes to survive his own conscience—basically Barry's spiritual older brother, and just as quotable.

But Two hours instead of a season means less time to sit with anyone; the humor's flippancy about violence won't land for everyone.

The Sopranos1999

The original therapy-office crime drama, watching a violent man try to explain himself to someone who might actually help, while everyone around him keeps dying anyway.

But Slower, denser, more novelistic—six seasons of patience required, with fewer outright laughs.

Ozark2017

A quieter, family-shaped version of the same trap: normal life and criminal obligation getting more tangled the harder everyone tries to separate them.

But Plays it largely straight, missing Barry's absurdist comic relief and theatre-kid warmth.

Search Party2016

Millennial narcissists stumble into an actual crime and can't stop performing concern for the cameras in their own heads—same queasy comedy about people who lie to themselves.

But Broader and more overtly farcical early on; its late swerve into thriller territory hits some viewers as a bait-and-switch.

Get Shorty2017no page yet

A hitman infiltrates the movie business instead of acting class, chasing the same dream of walking away clean while the past keeps handing him more bodies.

But Less character work, more plot machinery; only two seasons and it ended without much closure.

You're the Worst2014

Not a crime show, but the same commitment to letting deeply damaged people be genuinely funny before yanking the rug out with real depression and grief.

But No violence, no stakes beyond relationships—if the crime plot was the draw, this won't scratch that itch.

The Act of Killing2012

Barry turns acting class into a place to metabolize guilt; this documentary shows actual killers doing exactly that, unscripted and unresolved, with none of the comedy's mercy.

Real death squad leaders from 1960s Indonesia reenact their killings as cinema, on camera, for a documentary crew—the most unflinching real-world version of using performance to process violence you will ever see.

But This is genuinely disturbing nonfiction, not entertainment, and offers no jokes to relieve the horror.

Bullets Over Broadway1994no page yet

Same collision of gangland violence and theatrical ambition, played as full farce—shows how the same idea looks with the comedy dial turned all the way up.

A mobster's dim bodyguard turns out to be a better playwright than the playwright he's guarding, and violence keeps erupting into a 1920s Broadway farce with real teeth.

But The broader, more screwball humor plays much bigger than Barry's dry unease, and the film's authorship is a dealbreaker for some viewers.