In a weekend dominated by Top Gun: Maverick, it’s Barry that feels the need, the need for speed (on a motorbike).
Barry has been one of the best shows of 2022, and “710N” was the season’s best episode. The HBO Max description — “What kind of guy wouldn’t want to put a hot tub up there?” — intentionally underscores the craziness that ensues: Fuches (Stephen Root) is left for dead after being shot by a member of a Motocross gang led by Traci, the sister of a deceased ex-Marine; Sally (Sarah Goldberg) joins the writers’ room on The New Medusas, a show (that replaced her own on the BanSHE homepage) about three women who run a salon in New York City, and they have snakes for hair; Vanessa Bayer makes this face; NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) is invited to co-run a beignet franchise by Mitch, my new favorite character on TV; Gene (Henry Winkler) offers at least $400,000 to Annie (Laura San Giacomo), one of the many people he’s wronged over the years, to direct his MasterClass series; and oh yeah, Barry is nearly killed by the Motocross gang. And later poisoned or drugged, but let’s focus on the dirt bikes.
After the bikers break into Barry’s house (where Nick and Jermaine are recording the world’s worst comedy special) and discover his whereabouts, Barry is surrounded by Traci and her goons on the way to a dinner thrown by Sharon, the widow of Barry’s ex-military friend Chris who he shot in the head. “I think this is the guy. Is this the guy?” the bikers wonder while a confused Barry looks on inside his car. It finally clicks what’s happening — or about to happen — when Traci suggests that they shoot him. What follows is an incredible six-minute chase sequence through Los Angeles.
Look at Bill Hader’s getaway car face:
Barry screeches away from the bikers in a residential neighborhood — until one of them goes straight through his window. Following a quick exchange of looks with a mailman, Barry trades his car for a bike. He thinks he’s clear to make it to Sharon’s house for a dinner party uninterrupted (he even continues singing a song that Hader improvised), but Barry is spotted by the other members of the gang, who follow him onto a gridlocked expressway. There are no quick cuts or cheats in the editing; the camera patiently follows Barry from overhead, giving us an eagle eye look as Barry weaves through traffic. (I’m sure some of the chase involved computer trickery, but I honestly can’t tell which parts, if so.) I held my breath while Barry was whooshing past the cars, expecting him to go flying. Instead, that happens to a biker after whiffing on a firearm handoff.
The action continues at a car dealership, where the owner, Mr. Kleintop, is interrupted during a TMI pitch (“You know, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but, uh, recently, I’ve been, the wife and I, I’ve been having an affair”) by Traci driving on the roof and opening fire at Barry. “Ah, f*ck. No f*cking way. Not today, not today,” Mr. Kleintop says, sounding like a Tim Robinson character, as he runs inside and grabs his gun. He blasts two shots to kill the biker as Barry slinks away from the chaos, precious beignets in hand.
Like last season’s triumphant “ronny/lily,” “710N” — which was directed by Hader himself and written by Duffy Boudreau — is everything Barry does well: it’s laugh out loud funny, tense, violent, weird but grounded, unpredictable, and utterly unique. Note the lack of music during the Fury Road-inspired expressway chase. If Barry stunt coordinator Wade Allen had been left to his own devices, “there’s a good chance there would be some kind of Metallica soundtrack. It would be motocross porn and stunts, and it would be awesome,” he told Primetimer. “But Bill had this notion of how he wanted it covered and how he wanted it to sound, and it ultimately elevated the entire piece in a very different way.” He continued, “That’s what makes the show work. You never know when you’re going to make the switch. Are we staying serious the whole time, or are we going to get funny right now, out of nowhere?”
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That master of genre-switching is what separates Barry from other action-comedies. They often fail because the jokes are fine but the action isn’t impressive, or the action is the highlight but the jokes fall flat. Or sometimes both stink. Barry excels at action and comedy (and heart-wrenching drama) in every episode, but especially “710N.”
Forget Mr. Cousineau, let Bill Hader teach a MasterClass.