Created by Alec Berg & Bill Hader
3.05 “crazytimeshitshow”
Written by Emily Heller
Directed by Alec Berg
Starring Bill Hader, Sarah Goldberg, Stephen Root, Anthony Carrigan and Henry Winkler
New episodes air Sundays on HBO

by Alex Rudolph, Staff Writer

The show is still funny, but Barry was never just funny. For the past few weeks, I’ve expressed confusion of why this show has chosen to get more complicated at a time when every development seemed to be coalescing. My last recap was titled “Barry Gets More Fragmented While Setting Up A More Streamlined Future.” I was wrong, sadly. It’s continued to get more fragmented. Three or four major characters were introduced in this episode. I think we just watched Henry Winkler jump another shark.

This week’s episode opens with a flashback to the moment Barry lost his shit in a combat zone and killed a civilian, only we don't see him kill a civilian, we just see the instigating action: his fellow soldier gets shot in the face. It turns out he survived, works in the FBI, and has been sent to Los Angeles to help find whoever killed Janice Moss. He thinks NoHo Hank's story about The Raven is idiotic and wants to check on Barry, which means a storyline that’s wrapped up twice is back open.

It continues the season's main theme (so far) - things have consequences. You can't just say "I'm done killing people," and absolve yourself of all the people you've already killed. It also continues the season’s decision to litigate every past decision again.

In Sally’s world, Natalie calls Rotten Tomatoes "Rotty T's." Joplin’s still doing well critically, and she and Sally go to a coffee shop for a low key celebration. Essentially, they’re waiting for Sally to get noticed. Nobody notices her. And then Joplin is off the network's front page and the world moves on. Twelve hours post-premiere, the algorithm insists Joplin get canceled. The network had faith in the show and exec Diane Villa (Elizabeth Perkins) cried at the premiere, but the show has to go. Pam, "hitting the right verticals, taste clusters exploding," has destroyed Joplin and nothing that happened really matters to an industry that doesn't care about anybody. Have you seen The Player or 30 Rock? These jokes have been told before.

Meanwhile, Barry shows up to Hank and Cristobal’s house with no warning and vents about Sally dumping him. Hank points out that Barry has rage issues that especially flare up when he feels he's been slighted. In some ways, Hank has literally turned into the gay best friend archetype. He's even giving advice at this point. It’s a disservice to the character and to Anthony Carrigan’s performance. He gets one incredible moment of raw emotion later in the episode, but it isn’t enough of a correction for how weird the show has been toward Hank these past few episodes.

In addition to Barry’s old buddy, we’re introduced to Cristobal’s wife Elena (Krizia Bajos), a Chechen crime boss played by Michael Ironside, and Annie (Laura San Giacomo). We also get a couple check-ins from the mother-son team out to kill Barry.

I don’t know that the Ironside character will have much pull on the plot, but, counting the mother-son team, that’s four new directions the show is pulling itself in. And I don’t know why. It’s interesting that Gene made it his life mission to kill an ex’s career. The dichotomy between how Barry sees Gene and how the rest of the world knows Gene to be is worth mining, especially since it’s already something the show has explored. But doing it in this way, after we’ve met Joe Mantegna, after we’ve met the former PA on Gene’s new show, after so many characters who already fit this role, why bring a new one in?

I think you do that when you don’t know where else to go. Co-creator Alec Berg’s last show, Silicon Valley had the same problem (though that was probably in part due to the death of the great Christopher Evan Welch): An excellent first couple seasons gave way to years of wheel spinning. The story the show started with played out naturally and then the same things happened again and again. Berg comes from sitcoms like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, shows that benefit from expanding casts of characters and story tropes that get you to the jokes quickly. He’s clearly very talented but it doesn’t seem like he can apply those talents to a show where the narrative is the point. I think this show is always going to be funny. I just think we may have passed the point where it’ll be good.