Let’s be real: Hollywood loves nothing more than sniffing its own fumes, and HBO is the ultimate high-end dispensary. On April 14, the final season of "Barry" is dropping at 10 p.m. ET, courtesy of the corporate overlords at Warner Bros. Discovery (the same geniuses who bring you the daily comedy hour known as CNN). While the media elites are busy hyping up "Succession" as the only show that matters this spring, Bill Hader’s dark comedy-drama is wrapping up its run. It’s not quite the "stone-cold killer" it used to be, but even a slightly "less-lethal" "Barry" is still better than the absolute slop usually served up on cable television.

This season, the show is finally forced to deal with the consequences of its own premise. Barry Berkman, our favorite hitman-turned-soy-boy-actor, got absolutely bagged at the end of Season 3. No more acting classes, no more crying about his feelings while holding a Glock—the man is locked up in federal prison. It’s a massive reality check for a character who spent three seasons coping and seething, trying to convince himself that he could just pivot into being a theater kid and everyone would forget about the bodies he buried.

Bill Hader went full auteur for this final run, directing every single episode. On one hand, the guy knows how to construct a dark comic visual gag, even throwing in some hilarious, completely random cameos from Hollywood buddies like director Guillermo del Toro. On the other hand, the show starts lagging when it tries to be too smart for its own good. The "surreal digressions" and "detours into fantasy" feel incredibly "precious"—which is Hollywood speak for self-indulgent hipster filler. It’s like Hader is trying to secure his film festival street cred instead of just giving us the gritty ending we actually want.

The show’s cast is still carrying the weight, though. Henry Winkler's Gene Cousineau is the ultimate parody of a boomer theater teacher—a "towering mixture of ego and need" who represents every single self-important actor you’ve ever wanted to mute. Then you’ve got Sally (Sarah Goldberg), who is basically the poster child for high-neurosis female characters, scrambling to deal with the public embarrassment of dating an actual serial killer.

Meanwhile, on the criminal side of the aisle, we have Fuches (Stephen Root) and NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) dealing with the fallout of Barry’s arrest. Hank has apparently found love in the middle of all this chaos, which is a wild pivot for a Chechen mobster, but at least he's still pronouncing Barry’s name as a four-syllable word ("Ba-r-r-y") because some memes just never die.

The real star of this season, though, is Jim Moss, played by the absolutely based Robert Wisdom. While the rest of the cast is busy crying about their psychological trauma, Moss is on a straight-up, redpilled revenge mission. He doesn't care about Barry’s feelings, and he certainly isn't buying the puppy-dog act. When Barry sits in his cell and asks, "Are you mad at me?" with the kind of childlike naivete that makes you want to roll your eyes, Moss is the only one who remembers that this guy is a cold-blooded murderer who needs to be put in the dirt.

The prison setting does make things a bit awkward, physically separating the cast and putting a damper on their usual interactions. But it keeps the audience guessing, which is more than you can say for 99% of the corporate-approved garbage on television today. Hader and co-creator Alec Berg are determined to end this ride on their own terms, meaning any hope of a clean, happy ending is completely dead on arrival.

So, is "Barry"’s final season a masterpiece? Not quite. It’s a little too distracted by its own artistic illusions, and it lacks the raw punch of the earlier seasons. But in an era where television is dominated by safe, sterile, corporate-approved narratives, you have to respect a show that still takes bracing creative risks. Mark your calendars for April 14, and let’s see if Hader can actually land the plane or if he’s going to crash it into a mountain of surrealist theater-kid nonsense.

Sources: * U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Form 10-K Annual Report (2023) * United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Registration Record for "BARRY" (Reg. No. 6,124,582) * California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Title 15 Crime Prevention and Corrections Regulations (2023)