Hit HBO show Barry is heading our way soon

It's horribly violent and hilariously funny - and HBO's raved-about new show Barry will be on New Zealand screens soon.

The black comedy, which stars Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader, follows a low-level hitman who realises his true calling is acting while out on a hit job.

Released in America over the weekend, the show has earned rave reviews from critics.

On Metacritic, it has a 84 per cent approval rating, where reviewers are calling it one of the best shows of the new TV season.

"Let me just declare how far over the moon I am about Barry, a funny, violent, gripping and masterfully melancholy half-hour show created by Hader and Silicon Valley producer Alec Berg," said Washington Post critic Hank Stuever.

"From start to finish, it's just one hell of a show."

TV Guide agreed, saying Barry "scores as a wildly original and sensationally entertaining hybrid of dark comedy and delirious action."

The reviewer concluded: "Barry kills - in every way imaginable."

Indiewire said: "Bill Hader and Alec Berg's series is highly entertaining and acutely heartbreaking, and that's pretty damn special."

The AV Club said: "When the wheels come off, as they do in the second half, the tragicomedy that ensues is one of the most compelling on TV. Viewer patience is definitely rewarded, but some of the characters still get the short shrift."

Newsday was the only publication that didn't seem to like it, calling it "a bore".

Barry isn't the only show from Berg due on air here, with season five of troubled tech boys hit Silicon Valley debuting on the same day as Barry.

Barry begins screening here on Friday, April 6 from 10pm on SoHo. Silicon Valley begins the same day at 9.30pm.