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JF Hart, I'm pretty lefty myself and I loved Barry. I was actually a little surprised it passed Hollywood's pretentious filters given how very damning it was of Hollywood. The Daniel Day Lewis, Mark Wahlberg bit was hilarious. I thought the ending was perfect and took a lot of nerve to pull it off.

I watched Succession and this last season was agony. It was like "eat your veggies" homework where the Kids' snarky, empty biz speak that was pretty funny at first but was used like a cudgel. We get it! Finance bros are empty, craven dicks. And water is wet. I thought it was a nice maneuver to off Logan when they did, but turns out they had nothing really left to say after that.

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I watched the first ten minutes of Succession a few months ago and thought "this show may be great, but I am going to really hate it by the end but I wont be able to stop watching." So I abandoned ship on Succession.

Barry though was brilliant through and through. The humor, acting, direction, writing, and action sequences were individually brilliant. And I thought Barry had something really insightful to say. When child-Barry says "the bad guy fights everybody except himself", I was like that's a hell of a thesis statement, and relevant to all of us, even if we aren't narcissistic actors or serial murderers.

Also the bit about Mark Wahlberg being afraid of forests and Gene just being like "ah yes of course" had me in stitches.

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Sonny, I’m so glad you love BARRY and saw the show for what it was. The end of BARRY was incredibly satisfying, a real achievement that perfectly captured the darkness and humor seen throughout the show. Part of the appeal in the ending is how Barry and Gene and even Sally all thought they were in redemption arcs but couldn’t overcome their narcissism -- even if they got happy endings. They’re still stuck in their old ways, and they’ll never change.

The real beauty of the show was in its deep satirization of Hollywood. It’s a wonder that more conservatives haven’t taken to BARRY with its skewering of skin-deep progressive ideology seen throughout lefty social media spaces.

And still, it took aim I loved the final scene, the hilarious interrogation of troop-sniffing Hollywood tropes. As a “troop”, I laughed hardest at the “I’m a soldier and a Marine.” I imagined the wailing of every man bearing a Semper Fi decal on their tricked-up truck.

It was a helluva ride, and I hope Bill Hader had a long future as a writer/director ahead of him.

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I’d love to hear an ATMA discussion on Barry/Lasso

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Ted Lasso lost me with the second season. The rom-com plotline of the employer learning her online paramour was actually her employee was tone-deaf: isn't that how the employer got to where she was - by hooking up with her boss who later dumped her for another, and, thus, was the reason for the series itself? And once she found out, she did nothing to discourage the relationship - a no-no in the real world. And then there was the Christmas episode. Bah. No more.

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I've seen all four and the only one I haven't finished yet is Lasso (4 more to go.) By far, Succession is the best show of all and may be, in my opinion, the greatest show of all time, even better than Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Barry was good, funny, crazy, and violent but I found it a little empty and was not thrilled about the last episode. Maisel was just good fun, not great but very entertaining. Lasso was fun and positive but really got sloppier and more disappointing in the last season. My point is that Succession needs to be watched, especially in this time of Fox News/Murdoch nightmares and horror.

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Any show that displayed actual locker room talk would not be broadcast. Too many people would get into trouble.

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I've also read a lot of the criticism of Ted Lasso and it's a bit surprising, to be honest. Yes, the show did evolve away from that first season and yes, the run times were a bit much. That said, the show retained one of the core principles from the first season: optimism. Dammit, this show made my wife and I FEEL good about people.

There's not a lot of that out there in the entertainment sphere. Methinks a lot of the criticisms towards Ted Lasso are a reflection of how jaded and cynical people have become. Too many folks have gotten addicted to the hating and can't imagine a scenario where all the players in show have happy endings.

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