<em>Barry</em> and the Banality of Evil

This article contains spoilers through Season 1 of Barry.

How can the central character in Barry, played by Bill Hader with rubberized expressivity and mournful longing, be evil? He’s a gentle, attentive boyfriend. A reliable friend. He agonizes over questions of morality. He works part-time at Lululemon, the ne plus ultra of basic side hustles. Even his name is virtually the most banal, nondescript moniker you could summon. The joke of the HBO series is encapsulated in its title—someone named Barry should be a bowling-league president or a Comcast installation expert, not a stone-cold assassin.

And yet. “Am’s sophomore season, which debuted on Sunday. “Am I, like, an evil person?”