Barry, Season 2 (2019) * * *

Created by:  Bill Hader and Alec Berg

Starring:  Bill Hader, Henry Winkler, Stephen Root, Anthony Carrigan, Sarah Goldberg

Season 2 of Barry is even darker than its first season, and that season put the dark in dark comedy. 
How can a comedy about an assassin yearning to leave his past behind be anything but darkness lurking on the edges?    Season 2 focuses on how no matter how much Barry thinks he's out, the life keeps pulling him back in.    The shades of gray Season 1 introduced are now fading to black for Barry.    He thinks he's free, especially after getting away with killing his acting coach's detective girlfriend at the conclusion of the first season, but the past isn't through with him by a long shot.

Barry Berkman (who took the surname Block as his stage name) wants to be an actor and his girlfriend and fellow actor Sally (Goldberg) is finally starting to get some work.    She appears on TV shows and her agents envision bigger things for her.    As far as Barry's skills as an actor?   Well, he's a much better assassin.    None of the scenes in which Barry acts show that he has any genuine talent for it.    The arc of these scenes is repetitive:   Barry starts out awkwardly silent and then improvises his way into Sally's and Gene's (Winkler) hearts.    They see a special, raw talent.    We don't, and frankly neither does Barry.    It is amusing to see Barry fast tracked to an audition with a movie director in his first try, while Sally gnashes her teeth in envy.   She worked and honed her craft for years only to see Barry make it look so easy.

Barry's criminal associates don't make it easy on him to leave his old life behind.    Monroe Fuches (Root) still hangs around, hoping to continue his lucrative association with Barry.    We learn when and how Barry gained a killer instinct, and how Monroe was there for him when no one else was.    Then, there's NoHo Hank (Carrigan), the Chechen mobster who is likely the most incompetent mob boss you will ever meet.    He is in awe of Barry, and spares his life even though it would hurt him in the eyes of his superiors, or maybe get him killed.    Hank would be better off as an actor more so than Barry, because he has spent years trying to act the part of a badass criminal.

Gene, the self-important acting teacher, grieves the loss of his woman while attempting to rekindle a relationship with his estranged son.    His scenes with Barry take on duplicitous undertones, since it was Barry after all who killed Gene's girlfriend and hid the body.    Fuches knows this, and is not afraid to use that information in order to keep Barry close to him.    It would be easy to describe Fuches as a heartless opportunist, but he is a father figure to Barry, even if Barry won't care to admit it.    There is genuine heartbreak when Barry tells Fuches he is through.

Season 2 almost eschews any of the satirical material about acting and show business studied in the first season.   It is less comic and more angry.   Sally is still unaware of her boyfriend's true nature, but Barry's actions have consequences on everyone else he comes into contact with, whether they know it or not.    Soon Sally will be affected too.    This season has more of a pall hanging over it than last season.    Maybe because acting provides Barry some distraction and relief from his conscience, but now not even his new passion can extinguish the old one.