What’s your favorite moment from Barry so far?

With the third season of the HBO show about to hit, A.V. Club staffers single out their go-to scenes

By Tim Lowery, Alex McLevy, Saloni Gajjar, Jack Smart, Alison Foreman, Matt Schimkowitz | April 23, 2022 | 5:00am

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What’s your favorite moment from Barry so far?

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Clockwise from top left: Jordin Althaus/HBO, Aaron Epstein/HBO, Aaron Epstein/HBO, Peter Iovino/HBO Graphic: Rebecca Fassola

Over the past few days at The A.V. Club, we’ve been celebrating Barry Week to toast the fast-approaching third season of one of the best shows on TV. Be sure to check out our interviews with co-creator-star Bill Hader and Henry Winkler, as well as a breakdown of where the story stands after season two. We’ll have plenty more to come, including our recap of the premiere on April 24. But in the meantime, there’s a very pressing question at hand for the AVC staff: What’s your favorite moment from Barry so far?

Season 2, episode 7: Sally’s monologue

Over the past few days at The A.V. Club, we’ve been celebrating Week to toast the fast-approaching third season of one of the best shows on TV. Be sure to check out our interviews with co-creator-star and , as well as a after season two. We’ll have plenty more to come, including our recap of the premiere on April 24. But in the meantime, there’s a very pressing question at hand for the AVC staff: What’s your favorite moment from Barry so far?

Season 2, episode 7: Sally’s monologue

If anyone was going to upstage Barry on his own show, it was going to be Sarah Goldberg’s Sally. The relentlessly ambitious actor finally erupts after learning Barry is not only rehearsing for a role in a feature film, but that, in her eyes, he’s not up to par—and the resulting nearly three-minute monologue reveals each vainglorious, frustrated, empathetic, jealous layer to her brittle, egocentric personality. It’s a masterful speech that highlights every worst tendency in a fame-seeking actor, but Goldberg’s performance puts it squarely in the realm of searingly relatable humanity. And isn’t that Barry at its best—making you feel for people even at their worst? [Alex McLevy]

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Season 2, episode 3: “I vomited”

Sometimes picking a favorite moment from a film or TV show is easy: Just remember which scene you’ve played over and over without ever getting tired of it. I wore out the rewind button watching Anthony Carrigan’s mind-bogglingly hilarious NoHo Hank vomit after a terrifying standoff early in Barry season two. Hader’s Barry has his gun, and the full force of his killer instincts, trained directly on him, but Hank stands firm, daring him to shoot. Until Barry lowers the weapon, the tension lifts, and Hank bursts into frantic laughter—“Oh my God, that was so scary!”—and abruptly vomits. The cherry on top? He states, by way of explanation, “I vomited.” What Carrigan attempts, and gets away with, as Hank is so outrageous it should be illegal. [Jack Smart]

Season 1, episode 7: “My Lord, the Queen is dead”

Barry is forever tortured over his murderous expertise and background, but it’s most evident when he kills Chris (Chris Marquette) and makes it look like a suicide. Immediately after, he goes up on stage and delivers the line “My Lord, the Queen is dead” to Sally while full-on weeping. The moment is an extraordinary and surprising outpouring of his guilt. It’s here that Barry transcends its darkly absurd humor and turns into a compelling story that’s ready to flesh out its antihero. Hader gives the performance of his life; to no one’s surprise, this episode earned him Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy in 2018. [Saloni Gajjar]

Season 1, episode 1: The Magnolia read

This might sound random—it is random, come to think of it—but the first time I fell for this show was in the pilot, when Barry, while on a hit job and walking around a parking lot, overhears a woman going off: “Don’t you fucking call me lady, you fucking asshole! You motherfucker. Fuck you too, don’t you fucking call me lady; fuck you too—” He looks genuinely concerned as he inches closer, eventually upsetting her ’cause he broke her concentration. It’s our introduction to Sally and, if you know the movie Magnolia well, you know that she’s reading lines from the scene in which Julianne Moore melts down at a pharmacy. (I immediately got the reference, as, sadly, I spent far too much time in college watching that big swing from Paul Thomas Anderson—and, of course, that making-of doc on its DVD supplement.) It told me that the people who make this show love films, and that there would be plenty of more nods to the good stuff to come. [Tim Lowery]

Season 1, episode 5: Janice and Gene’s first kiss

Despite having only a handful of scenes together, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) and Detective Janice Moss (Paula Newsome) are Barry’s greatest love story–and no moment underscores their chemistry better than when Janice first shows up to Gene’s house in “Do Your Job.” Remember that, at this point, we weren’t sure if Gene’s lay-it-on-thick courting approach was working with the hardened police officer. So when Janice knocks on Gene’s door and plants a smooch on the acting coach by surprise, it’s a big reveal. Learning that Janice wasn’t annoyed but playing hard to get, and that in fact Gene had her at “I run this place” is sincerely sweet. These types of softer Barry moments are what make the harder ones really hit. Seriously. Picture that kiss and say it with me: “Barry Berkman did this.” Chills, right? [Alison Foreman]

Season 2, episode 5: Lily’s tree climb

Like its title character, Barry regularly reinvents itself to reveal new layers of the L.A. acting/underground assassin scene. But when the little Taekwondo master that could, Lily (Jessie Giacomazzi), slipped up a tree and onto an idyllic suburban A-frame to outrun Barry and Fuches (Bill Hader and Stephen Root), Barry outdid itself. In one quick moment, “ronny/lily” micro-doses the viewer with psychedelic delight, challenging our expectations for what this hitman comedy can and should be. Lily’s climb lifted Barry to a whole new level. [Matt Schimkowitz]