How ‘Barry’ And ‘Mr. Inbetween’ Wrote Sympathetic Hitmen
by Frank Martin
A hitman is a difficult character to create a protagonist around. Their profession is based in sin. And it’s not just a job that they do. It takes a certain type of person to go around and kill strangers for money. They can be prone to violence in their personal lives and also have a certain degree of apathy for their victims. Still, it’s a subject matter filled with storytelling possibilities. Writers just have to get creative in order to portray these characters in a sympathetic and relatable light. And in recent years, two shows have emerged that are both very similar in terms of how they handle a hitman main character, but portray them completely differently.
The HBO show Barry received a lot of acclaim as its troubled hitman main character tries to find meaning in acting. Barry (Bill Hader) was a soldier who came back from war deeply broken. He fell into the profession of contract killing, but he was never completely happy with the job. He really did feel pain for his victims and tried to justify his actions anyway he could. The show tried to create sympathy for Barry by having him experience that guilt and continuously trying to do good deeds.
Mr. Inbetween is a show on Hulu that’s very similar to Barry, but hasn’t garnered nearly as much attention. Its main character, Ray (Scott Ryan), is also a veteran who came back from war and entered the contract killing business. Like Barry, Ray doesn’t particularly like his job, but he doesn’t have nearly as much guilt over it as Barry does. In fact, Ray feels no remorse for his victims as he’s perfectly comfortable with his position in life. He’s a violent person by nature, but he’s very in control of that violence. Unlike Barry, Ray never lashes out at anyone close to him. He treats his girlfriend and daughter with respect and kindness, reserving his violence only towards those he deems deserves it. In this way, both shows have created two sympathetic killers in completely different ways.
Barry is now streaming on Max and Mr. Inbetween is now streaming on Hulu.
