The Bear is Streets Ahead Again
What is it about being a prestigious chef that activates my imagination? Chef culture — the tattoos, the screaming, the drugs, the extremely regular workplace abuse — has always been an engaging ecosystem, begging to be plumbed for drama.
This is why when I saw a trailer for the first season of The Bear two years ago, I was more excited about the idea than any show since maybe… Mindhunter? It even took me a minute to lock into Succession. But those exceptional shows aside, to me (and I’m hardly the only person who thinks this) it’s been a pretty barren few years for truly great television.
The first season surpassed any excitement I had. So much so, that I wondered if a second season might ruin this perfect object. Succession had the good sense to end at four great, but brief seasons, and Mindhunter was unceremoniously discontinued (soft-canceled? respectfully shelved?) by Netflix after two perfect seasons. Maybe then, The Bear was also too good for this world?
I’ve never been happier to be so wrong. Creator Christopher Storer’s wonderful second season is reinvigorating. And I credit Storer first among this excellent group of creatives because this show hits the screen with such clear mission statement. It knows its characters top-to-bottom, and it knows exactly where they need to go, and how they need to get there.
A phrase I come back to time and time again when I think about all kinds of storytelling is that the writing needs to be surprising, yet inevitable. The Bear is that, to a tee.
Season 2 finds the series leads, Carmen (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Natalie (Abby Elliot) stripping down their former restaurant “The Beef” in order to create “The Bear.” For Carmen, this essentially represents the half-realization of a life-long dream: to open a restaurant with his brother Michael (wonderfully played once again by Jon Bernthal) who died by suicide the year prior.
As a result, opening The Bear is simultaneously the culmination of young Carmy’s single-minded obsession with becoming a great cook, and an act of memorializing his brother.
This makes every set-back agony of course, but it also makes every win bitter. Because every time there is progress they come closer to the day they have to open without Mikey beside them.
Whereas the first season was about trying to find growth when everything is falling apart around you, this season is about what happens when your life finally starts to move forward again.
Carmen’s return to Chicago has catalyzed his found family’s efforts at improvement, as cooks and as people. But because Carmy doesn’t know how to handle a good thing, they are starting to pass him by.
Though the restaurant still hangs by a razor’s edge, Carmy has support and belief behind him for the first time. And the process of his healing is seemingly even more bolstered when former high-school crush, Claire (Molly Gordon) steps back into the picture.
In Carmy’s words, “I don’t want to be shitty.” But hurt people, hurt people.
Watch The Bear on Hulu. It’s the best two-season run of television I’ve ever seen. You want a found family drama? Turn off Ted Lasso and watch this show pulverize them.
The performances are truthful and beautiful, and the writing is even stronger than the first season. It even breaks mid-season to drop the best short film I’ve seen in years too. It’s also key to mention that there are many guest-star performances which I was worried would distract. They do not. Even the big names are pitch-perfect, and truly in service of the story — not the marketing team.
I’m just so proud of this show. I admire it and it inspires me. And I may write something with more spoilers later, but for now I just wanted to say, my compliments to the chef. This is positively soul-enriching entertainment.
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