5.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div> HBO\u2019s Barry could have bowed out with season 3. Had its co-creator and star Bill Hader, who also writes and directs on the dark comedy decided to leave it there, the show\u2019s modest but enthusiastic faithful would have understood. The finale was perfect, bringing a much-needed end to the titular hitman\u2019s bloodletting when he was arrested for the murder of detective Janice Moss, and once again forcing viewers to confront Barry\u2019s trail of destruction, this time in the form of Janice\u2019s father Jim, who lives a solitary life following his daughter\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n
The last image we see is of him standing alone, head bowed, his grief palpable. A lone photograph of his daughter, cut down in her prime, is all that now remains.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a hushed, reflective moment that encapsulates the beating heart of this narrative in a matter of seconds. The man responsible for Jim\u2019s pain is gone, but his hand is felt long after.<\/p>
Barry has always served as an antidote to the glamorised violence that has long been a staple of stories about gangland retribution and war, taking care to expose how taking a human life \u2013 in Barry\u2019s case a seemingly never-ending string of human lives \u2013 warps a person, and how everyone and everything around Barry is also sucked into his vortex of ruin and damaged, often beyond repair.<\/p>\n
Heading into season 4, the question of whether Barry is capable of looking inside himself in search of change looms large.<\/p>