Barry S3: Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Series of 2022 + 14 Emmy nominations

Season 3 of Barry, Rotten Tomatoes’ Best Series of 2022 (So Far), is now streaming on Showmax, having just been nominated for 14 Emmys, including Outstanding Comedy, Directing, Cinematography, Editing, Casting and Stunt Coordination.

Picking up six months after the Season 2 finale, in the aftermath of the monastery shootout, Barry S3 starts with Sally filming her own show, NoHo Hank in love, and our favourite hitman, Barry, without an acting class to go to anymore.

Shooting the lights out at the Emmys

At the Emmys, co-creator Bill Hader is again nominated for Outstanding Leading Actor as Barry, having won in 2018 and 2019. He’s also again nominated for Directing and Writing Emmys this year.

Henry Winkler earned his third Emmy nomination for Supporting Actor as Gene Cousineau, after winning in 2018. Winkler faces stiff competition this year from co-star Anthony Carrigan, nominated for the second time as fan favourite NoHo Hank.

Season 3, which also sees Stephen Root and Sarah Goldberg return in their Emmy-nominated roles as Fuches and Sally, has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Daily Beast calling it, “the best show on TV”; Variety hailing it as “a masterpiece … funnier and sharper than ever… TV’s most fascinating protagonist”; and Entertainment Weekly writing, “I’ve never seen violence like the violence on Barry. HBO’s hitman comedy is a legitimate thrillfest, and the new season has three of the best action scenes I’ve ever seen.”

Barry’s season shake-up

In an interview with Collider, Hader revealed that the writing team gave Barry a shake-up this season. “The equation of the show,” he says, was always, “‘This hitman goes to an acting class.’ Most shows, it’s like, well, that’s the equation, so don’t mess with that, but it was like: ‘We’ve done a lot of this; we’re going to start repeating ourselves.’” Hader says the structural changes were “both liberating and kind of terrifying… It became about almost kind of writing a new show.”

Hader told Collider that one of the themes this season is forgiveness. “Season 1 was kind of ‘I want to better myself’ – Barry tries to get in touch with his emotions, and he does, but at a bigger cost. Season 2 was ‘I can change my nature.’ …You know, can you change your nature? And now, Season 3 is this idea of, ‘Well, those things… I don’t know if those things work. Can I be redeemed?’.”

“[Barry]’s really up against the wall this season,” Hader continued. “[It’s] the first time we really see him lashing out [at] people he loves. He’s very vulnerable and cornered at the beginning of the season… Sally is at [a] career peak while Barry is at the lowest point he’s ever been, which is really saying something.”

Sally’s success creates some relationship challenges. “[Barry] and Sally are kind of not on the same wavelength,” says Hader. “Their relationship’s been kind of stale but neither of them wants to call it.”

In Season 3, Barry discovers that there are some things he can’t shoot – or act – his way out of. “In trying to change himself, he has to deal with all the consequences, and that really comes up in Season 3,” says Hader. “The consequences literally come and find him,” – with some help from Fuches …

Of course, what we’re all waiting for is the catch-up with Cousineau, following Season 2’s devastating ending. Barry’s former acting coach is “a complete wreck,” says Hader, “and now, he’s driven to get revenge, which is a big theme this season.”

Perhaps the most tantalising of this season’s storylines belongs to NoHo Hank, who’s trying to piece his operation back together against formidable opposition. “This season is a time where Hank begins to stand up for himself,” says Hader. “He’s now really starting to come into his own and understand that he has to take a stand in certain ways.” But in his personal life, “Hank’s in a terrible spot … He has a secret relationship … That was a big thing for the season: the kind of Romeo and Juliet storyline.”

“He’s kind of shacking up with, uh… the enemy,” Carrigan hints. “You’re finding them in this kind of forbidden love. They’re sneaking around, and it’s a dangerous game.”

Barry was recently renewed for a fourth season, with Hader set to direct all eight episodes.