“Three serial killers walk into a bar” sounds like an intro to some silly joke, but if they happened to be the titular characters from Barry and Dexter (played by Bill Hader and Michael C. Hall, respectively) and Joe (Penn Badgley) from You, chances are the scenario would result in a murder or two. Spoiler alert: The one or two that bite the dust won’t be either of the three killers; they may become friends, given how much they have in common.
All three characters star in their own television shows in which they kill people without taking full responsibility for their actions. Barry thinks he’s a good person and hides behind how much he wants to be a better person (until the road to being a better person inconveniences him). Dexter blames his killings on his dark passenger and tries to make it right by only killing the bad guys (until his code inconveniences him). And Joe makes up a full-blown persona to hide his killings behind and play mental chess with when he feels guilty.
All three of America’s sweethearts have done pretty terrible things beyond murder, disturbingly enough. This includes killing friends, killing friends’ lovers, killing your own lover, setting people up for said killings; the list goes on for several would-be life sentences. To say more would be to compromise each given series’s surprises and character arcs, so we won’t go into any further details.
But with the return of Barry with its fourth and final season, a Dexter prequel on the horizon, and one last season of You to go, we ask our audience which of TV’s favorite Cis White Psychos is the most irredeemable?
Let us know in the poll below.
Barry, Sundays, 10/9c, HBO
You, Streaming Now, Netflix