Dexter Meets Mr. Robot In HBO's 4-Part Psychological Thriller Masterpiece

Published Sep 4, 2026, 4:30 PM EDT Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. When HBO announced a half-hour comedy series about a hitman who wants to become an actor, it sounded dubious. This was Bill Hader’s first major project after leaving Saturday Night Live, and that high-concept premise seemed like it would barely sustain an SNL sketch, let alone an entire series. But, much like with What We Do in the Shadows and more recently with Spider-Noir, that gimmicky premise was just a jumping-off point into a visionary TV masterpiece, and one of the greatest shows of the past decade. Within the first few minutes of Barry’s pilot episode, it became clear that there was plenty of juice in this tank. Hader was just using that hitman-turned-actor conceit as a springboard into a gonzo, mind-bending psychological thriller, mixing the dry, pitch-black wit of the Coen brothers with the nightmarish, atmospheric terror of David Lynch. On a satirical level, the premise contrasted the cutthroat world of contract killing with the cutthroat entertainment industry. But at its core, it’s a Breaking Bad-level psychological character study, deconstructing the fractured psyche of a monster. At a time when hitmen were all over the film and television landscape, Hader and his crew found a fresh way in. Through the twisted saga of Barry Berkman, Hader and co. really sunk their teeth into the mind of a killer and the business of killing and the mental toll of taking another human being’s life. Not bad for a show that sounded like an overwrought SNL sketch when it was first announced. Barry is one of the very few TV shows (Hacks, Succession, and The Wire also come to mind) that hit the ground running with a great first season, kept the momentum going throughout every season after that, called it quits at the right time, and went out with the perfect ending. But unlike those other examples, Barry was a very different show when it ended than when it began. Barry Gradually Got Darker And Darker Across 4 Seasons When Barry premiered, it was a quirky dark comedy about a John Wick-style killer-for-hire with the dry, deadpan demeanor of Bill Hader. It was always a much grimmer, bleaker show than your average TV comedy, but it planted itself firmly in the comedy category in season 1. NoHo Hank was purely comic relief back then, and every episode was chock full of laughs. From its opening scene, Barry set itself apart from other hitman comedies like Grosse Pointe Blank with a much starker, more hauntingly realistic portrayal of violence that seemed at odds with the comedy. In the first few seconds of Barry’s pilot episode, we see Barry calmly leave the scene of a murder he just committed. When it came to a fight scene or a shootout, Hader took the Don Siegel approach, which is to say, he didn’t shoot action; he shot violence. Even in its earlier, more comedic episodes, Barry never shied away from the horrors of violence, and gave its violent scenes the weight and impact they deserved. Barry was never a lighthearted show, but it started off in more familiar sitcom territory and gradually got darker and darker as the series went on. Season 1 introduces us to Barry’s unique world, season 2 draws us deeper into that world but also deeper into Barry’s corrupted soul, season 3 dives headfirst into nihilism, and season 4 is basically a horror movie. It was fascinating to watch that descent into darkness week by week when the series was on the air, but it’s even more fascinating to watch it in quick succession like a flipbook when you binge-watch the series. If you watch Barry’s four seasons back-to-back, you can really appreciate what Hader and the writers did with the tone, and with the degradation of Barry’s soul. Barry has the serial-killing double life of Dexter, but with the psychological depth of Mr. Robot. Barry 9/10 Release Date 2018 - 2023-00-00 Network HBO Max Cast Sarah Goldberg Sally Reed