Every HBO Comedy Ranked From Worst To Best

This show’s premise - hitman moves to Hollywood and dreams of becoming an actor - could come off the back of a sub-Tarantino crime caper DVD. In the hands of creators Alec Berg and Bill Hader, though, this has quietly become one of the must multifaceted shows on TV, part satire, part knockabout comedy, part engrossing crime drama.

Its great strength is Hader, who stars as the titular contract killer. Barry is a lost soul, a former marine brought into the underworld by his handler turned enemy Fuches (the always delightful Stephen Root). Hader has never had a role so textured as this, and he can brilliantly flip Barry’s switch between desperation for a better life and the ability to dispassionately murder dozens of foes.

The rest of the cast is terrific, including Sarah Goldberg as aspiring actress Sally, Henry Winkler as tutor Gene Cousineau, and the show’s finest discovery, Anthony Corrigan as Chechen mafioso Hank. No character is an archetype; they’re all given layers and subtleties.

For every silly moment there’s some incredible action (an entire episode based on a game of cat and mouse with a lethal kung fu master and his similarly aggressive young daughter) and real pathos. The second season ended with a great cliffhanger, and it feels as though there’s plenty of life left in the tale.