Barry's excellent first season deftly blends comedy with very dark material, avoiding the usual clichés or owning up to them in creative and fresh ways. The acting is excellent all-round with no one to single out as being too good or bad. The second season continues much in the same vein, but the material is already suffering. The original premise is being milked too hard and loses some luster and charm, but it is still quite fun and better than many of the shows out there. Then comes the third season, and I think the whole creative team completely messes up. They knew they cannot keep doing the same thing three seasons in a row, but they couldn't quite decide what it is they are doing.
Consequently, we get a season that is not very funny but is often so dark and severe that it seems entirely out of place with the previous ones. The actors are still excellent, and even the material is not bad, often it wouldn't be out of place in a psychological horror, but somehow the Barryness of it all is lost, and we are left with stark, barren characters, monsters of their own making inhabiting a cruel and profoundly unfunny world. This can be good stuff, but it's not Barry.
Consequently, we get a season that is not very funny but is often so dark and severe that it seems entirely out of place with the previous ones. The actors are still excellent, and even the material is not bad, often it wouldn't be out of place in a psychological horror, but somehow the Barryness of it all is lost, and we are left with stark, barren characters, monsters of their own making inhabiting a cruel and profoundly unfunny world. This can be good stuff, but it's not Barry.