What if Dexter Morgan's story was told in a more comedic manner? That's kind of the setup for HBO's Barry, which follows a killer who audiences are meant to root for. Along with the titular Barry, fans get the chance to fall in love with or hate some of the network's most interesting characters.
Barry's life as a killer for hire certainly brings him into with some terrible people, while his acting class often goes a different route. There are more and less likable people on either side but they all help make Barry one of the best shows currently on TV.
Updated on June 2nd, 2022 by Kevin Pantoja: The latest season of HBO's Barry is nearing its conclusion and it has retained the high quality of the previous two seasons. While the action is exciting, the comedy is funny, and the intensity level has ramped up, the biggest reason for the show's success is the cast of characters. They are flawed, relatable people and most of them do pretty terrible things yet they retain an air of likability about them. At least in most cases anyway.
Monroe Fuches
When the series began, it seemed like fans were meant to like Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root). He's the man behind Barry's hits and has somewhat helped raise him. In many ways, he's Barry's only friend and maybe even a father figure.
That changed as things progressed, with Fuches manipulating Barry into keeping up his career as a killer. He is more than willing to make Barry do unforgivable things like killing a child. Fuches has completely turned on Barry, telling the families of his victims that he was behind their killings. While it is true that Barry did those things, Fuches is ignoring the part he played in these hits and not taking responsiblity.
John Loach
One of the show's most unexpected twists involved John Loach (John Pirruccello). He spent most of season 1 as nothing more than Janice's partner but after her death, Loach became a more prominent character who worked with Fuches to track down Barry.
The whole time, viewers thought it was for revenge, which was understandable. However, Loach only did this to get Barry to murder his ex-wife's new boyfriend. Loach didn't care that this guy was innocent, he was just jealous. He also attempted to kill the man himself when Barry didn't, though it backfired in the process, making him incredibly unlikable.
Goran Pazar
A lot of the main storylines surrounding Barry's criminal life in the first season involved the Chechen mafia. The leader of that gang was Goran Pazar (Glenn Fleshler). He employed Barry to kill the man who was sleeping with his wife, similar to what Loach wanted.
Unlike Loach, Goran wasn't putting up a front about who he was. As a career criminal, he never shied away from how terrible his actions were. Goran also had the advantage of being at least a bit more entertaining than Loach, having some funny scenes in this dark series alongside NoHo Hank and Cristobal.
Mae Dunn
Taking on the job of investigating anything in Barry seems like a bad idea given how many people have died in the process. Mae Dunn (Sarah Burns) is the latest person to attempt this and for the most part, she hasn't given fans a reason to really like or dislike her.
She is a mixed bag, sometimes seeming like she's good at her job and at other times, feeling totally incompetent like believing the "raven" story. Not enough has been shown of her personality to really make her stand out though.
The Acting Class
This entire group gets bunched into one entry since it's hard to separate many of them. Other than Barry and Sally, the students at Gene's acting class are basically side characters who don't get individual storylines. That being said, they have little traits that make them a blast to watch.
Natalie (D'Arcy Carden) stands up to Sally on occasion and Sasha (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) got Barry a job with her, with both having some really funny scenes. Jermaine (Darrell Britt-Gibson) and Nick (Rightor Doyle) even became Barry's roommates in season 2. They're all mostly nice people. Natalie is the only one to really stand out a bit now that she's working more with Sally.
Cristobal Sifuentes
Fuches, known for his ability to manipulate others, got in Goran's head while being held captive. He suggested that Goran go after the Bolivian mafia, causing him to start a war. However, the leader of the mafia, Cristobal Sifuentes (Michael Irby) turned out to be kind of a nice guy.
He spoke to Goran on the phone and wanted to be allies but that was no longer possible. After Goran's death, Cristobal formed a friend and partnership with NoHo Hank that eventually became romantic. As lovable as the two are together, the reveal that Cristobal is married and hiding everything from his wife does take away some of his likability points.
Barry Berkman
As the central character, it makes sense that Barry Berkman (Bill Hader) is somewhat likable. While it's true that his job before becoming an actor was to literally kill people, the show paints him as a good person. The killing is certainly not a likable aspect of his life but everything else is. Barry seems to want to only kill bad people and refused to do a job on more than one occasion.
His desire to be a better person and leave his life of crime is irable. At least that's the way it seemed. Barry might want to do good but he keeps putting his own self-preservation ahead of that. He killed Chris and Janice, threatened Gene at every turn, and has become increasingly unhinged with Sally. He went as far as to yell at her and suggest creepily harassing someone who wronged her. The audience still roots for him but he's making it harder with each ing episode.
Janice Moss
Janice Moss (Paula Newsome) was in one of the more unique positions on the show. As a detective trying to do what's right and the person who takes down Vacha, she is someone worth rooting for. However, she was also hunting down Barry, making her an antagonist.
Her relationship with Gene was an endearing one as he helped her loosen up from her stressful and serious job. They seemed genuinely happy by the season 1 finale. Alas, Janice figured out the truth about Barry and, being the good cop that she was, couldn't let him walk free. It was her downfall as Barry killed her.
Gene Cousineau
As a person, Janice Moss should rank higher than most but she wasn't as entertaining as some others. In that bunch is Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), the acting teacher who acted as a mentor for Barry at several points and also proved to be good for Janice.
Unlike Barry, Gene is someone who is actually trying to make amends. He has done everything to fix the relationships with his son and grandkid, he attempted to do the right thing about Barry even when his life was on the line, and he has started to try mending fences with the many people he wronged throughout his career.
Katie
One of the newest additions to the cast is Elsie Fisher as Katie. At first, she just seemed like she'd be a minor side character who works with Sally on her TV show Joplin but she proved to be more than that and in an important way.
Katie is the only person who rightly seems put off by how Barry screamed at Sally and demanded things from her. She battled with whether or not to say anything and finally told Sally how she felt. It was a brave move since she was warned that it could harm her career. Katie did the right thing and Sally ultimately took it well, seemingly realizing that Barry is indeed tocix.
