How Do I Write About "Ronny/Lily"?

So, a few weeks ago I wrote up a post on the first four episodes of the first season of HBO comedy "Barry," concluding that the show was not for me, even though it clearly did some things very well. I fully intended to drop the show from my watch list. However, I kept seeing references to a second season episode, "Ronny/Lily," which helped win the show a couple of Emmys, and has generally been pointed to as the high point of the series to date. My curiosity got the better of me and I watched it. And it's fantastic. And I still have no interest in watching "Barry."

"Ronny/Lily" is a format breaking one-shot episode, completely different from anything else that "Barry" has done so far. It focuses on two characters, Bill Hader's reluctant assassin Barry, and Stephen Root's Monroe Fuches, Barry's uncle and handler. The whole episode chronicles a hit gone wrong, using a more surreal style, a different type of action than the norm, and Barry is noticeably off his game the whole time, bordering on incompetent. It is only peripherally connected to any of the ongoing storylines from the second season of "Barry." It's also probably the best thirty minutes of action comedy I've seen in any medium since the first "Community" paintball episode.

But what do I do with "Ronny/Lily"? How do I parse it? It's absolutely a part of "Barry," but a big reason why I like it is because it's such a major break from form and doesn't feature any of the elements I had trouble with in the first season. The acting class antics are nowhere in sight. All the clips I've watched from the season, including NoHo Hank's "50/50 with Cristobal" bit that's gone viral, don't look anything like "Ronny/Lily." I feel like I've stumbled into the "Fiona and Cake" problem again, where I was only interested in the rare "Adventure Time" episodes featuring the gender-swapped versions of the leads. Is it okay for me to just treat the episode like a one-shot and ignore the context of everything around it? But how do I analyze it in any meaningful way without the other episodes from the season? It's a great episode, but is it a great episode of "Barry"?

I think part of the problem here is that I've gone for so long now without having to put up with the vagaries of broadcast television, and I've gotten too used to having everything on demand. I don't stumble across random episodes of random shows the way I used to in the past. I don't watch things just because they happen to be airing at the right time, on a non-fuzzy channel. It's hard for me to put aside my completist tendencies and just take an episode as a singular piece of entertainment. On this blog, I almost always talk about shows in terms of full seasons. Sure, there are standout episodes of everything, but aside from anthology series, I feel like the best way to watch them is in the context of a full season of television.

On the other hand, this mindset is a big reason why I've been reluctant to try many series. The commitment required to watch certain shows can be considerable, when you don't approach anything as casual viewing anymore. Frankly, it can be downright detrimental. Though there is more serialization in shows than there used to be, many of them - especially the comedies - are still designed so that their episodes can be watched individually, out of order. I never had a problem dropping in for the occasional episode of "The Big Bang Theory" or "The Office" when I was still watching those shows intermittently. Why shouldn't I just watch "Two Cathedrals" instead of starting "The West Wing" from the beginning? Or that Thanksgiving episode of "Master of None"? Or that one good episode of "Castle Rock"?

And if they're worth writing about, I should be writing posts about individual episodes. And "Ronny/Lily" is one of those rare examples that completely deserves the attention. It's so beautifully bizarre and absurd and far more entertaining than I thought possible. Daniel Bernhardt and Jessie Giacomazzi guest starring as the title characters deserve all the kudos they can carry. I'm not even all that perturbed anymore that Bill Hader won an Emmy for directing the episode. It really is that good.

And I've got more one-offs to go looking for.
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