The Bear

Jimbolini said:

I am about halfway through this season, the storylines are semi interesting so far.

But holy #$%%, as a restaurant owner I can tell you they got the pre-opening issues down! I am re living all the emotions with paperwork, build out, cost analysis, etc. and it's not even a real place.

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My restaurant experience ends at dishwasher and fry cook at a pizz and wing joint. Most of my culinary was cranking mess in the navy. So I can’t say I’m an I distrust leader.

But this show in season 1 really went too hard on the chef/restaurant culture. Any friends that had adult experience in culinary all raved how legit it was but I can’t tell if that’s real or just exaggeration.

What’s your take on the interpersonal stuff and how it’s just a bunch of wild folk making it work. It’s good to see a bit of the back of house money items but also seems like this show is trying to do the same thing Bourdain did, changing the line cook from a Waffle House addict with a smoke to a tragic hero

Arden said:

Funny, just got done watching that episode and thought it was the best one of either season so far.

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Well I guess you have a much higher tolerance for non stop yelling. You get the idea they are trying to convey in the first 20 minutes. The family is nuts and highly dysfunctional and they mostly want to drag each other down, close, than let each other succeed from afar. The last 35ish minutes is unecessary, over the top, shouting. Its just very poorly written, poorly shot, and gave me a headache.

Breakdown said:

My restaurant experience ends at dishwasher and fry cook at a pizz and wing joint. Most of my culinary was cranking mess in the navy. So I can’t say I’m an I distrust leader.

But this show in season 1 really went too hard on the chef/restaurant culture. Any friends that had adult experience in culinary all raved how legit it was but I can’t tell if that’s real or just exaggeration.

What’s your take on the interpersonal stuff and how it’s just a bunch of wild folk making it work. It’s good to see a bit of the back of house money items but also seems like this show is trying to do the same thing Bourdain did, changing the line cook from a Waffle House addict with a smoke to a tragic hero

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Yes, I can see that for sure. My restaurant is a small pizza spot with seating for about 60. My staff is mostly 16-17 year old kids, so my experience is a little different from a standard one. I have had that same issue with Bourdain in most of his books. (Never really watched his traveling show)
They do take liberties as far as the back end (Although of course I have never worked a Michelin rated restaurant) but they did get right the hectic opening troubles and arguments between help regarding what to clean and what to leave.
(The argument about moving the lockers due to mold was relatable)

I have not finished yet, but I did enjoy episode 6 (Xmas) as it flushed out many of the character stories a bit more. The next episode regarding front of the house was really the one i have enjoyed the most as that is my wheelhouse.

Khane said:

Well I guess you have a much higher tolerance for non stop yelling. You get the idea they are trying to convey in the first 20 minutes. The family is nuts and highly dysfunctional and they mostly want to drag each other down, close, than let each other succeed from afar. The last 35ish minutes is unecessary, over the top, shouting. Its just very poorly written, poorly shot, and gave me a headache.

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I think thats the point. The whole episode reminded me of Uncut gems, fast, over the top, chaotic. I absolutely loved it. I think it was brilliantly shot and edited, just not everyones cup of Tea. it takes a lot of guts to do a an episode like that.

Yea I just couldn't take it. Way too frantic from start to finish. I wanted to skip it but this show doesn't usually have a lot of fluff so I sat through the whole thing hoping for plot advancement.

Finally got around to watching up through the Christmas episode. Still can't decide if I want to binge the rest. I kind of do.

Anyway, my first thought is, I feel like Sydney is a fucking terrible chef. I'm not an amazing cook or anything, but I've never made something and it been so bad that I had to spit it out. She did it repeatedly (think there were like 3 or 4 dishes they showed?). Salting something so hard that you can't even put it in your mouth? Fucking c'mon man.

The Marcus episode in Copenhagen was good. I really liked the Vacation homage, complete with Holiday Road and the jump cuts. Also fucking had to laugh at the baker.



As for the Christmas episode, I thought it was fantastic. First, the chaos of having people talk over each other was really well done. It's one of my complaints about "theater" in general that it's so unnatural because no one just waits for another person to finish their thought. It's very rare we get genuine conversation flow. I will also say that it was mostly centered around their mom, and most of that in the first 5-10 minutes. After that it settled down pretty well. It wasn't any more chaotic than the season 1 single shot episode. Stressful, for sure, but that's this show in general.

I've got the disagree with it not serving a major story purpose, too. It was a clinic on character development. Richie is a much more caring, kind person. He'd do anything for his now ex-wife. He also talks about how he feels like he's wasting his life at The Beef and is looking for any way out. We see that the substance abuse and depression are hereditary (not that this is a surprise, as I think it is most of the time). Mikey loves his brother and it crushes him to have to push him away from what he knows is a shit situation so Carm can flourish. Natalie is shown as someone who wants a parental figure and is constantly shoved aside for the other children. Considering she's pregnant, it makes it so her worries about it are magnified. Her husband is still a fuck up. It demonstrates why Carm decided to leave Chicago. His family is insane. It also shows us that he's been in love with Claire since high school (hinted at previously in their conversations, but really hammers it). There was also the connection to Copenhagen and it explains why Marcus is staying where he is on the boat. It also shows how close Jimmy is with the family, and even though he seems like a cutthroat, still has a soft spot (giving Richie a job even when he should've told him to fuck off).

The performances were also superb. Literally everyone was great in it. From Jamie Lee Curtis and Bob Odenkirk, to Gillian Jacobs and Sarah Paulson, and even John Mulaney and Matty Matheson's brother. There wasn't a bad performance to be seen. Not even a middling one.

Finally, the ending splash of "The Berzatto's" was just perfect to close it out.

Wrapped it up. I think the second season surpassed the first pretty successfully. I noticed in this season the soundtrack was really damn good, too. The standout there being, at least for me, The Day the World Went Away orchestral version (or whatever you'd call it).

As far as episodes go, I really liked the Marcus and Richie ones. They both just seemed super solid. Followed by Christmas for the reasons above.

Hate that it ended bittersweet for pretty much everyone but Sydney and Tina. Feel like in the real world all of that shit could've been patched over by "the stress of the night got to me, and I was full of shit" (outside of Marcus obviously). But because it's TV, it'll be used to setup the conflict of the next season and I kind of hate that shit. But oh well. And maybe I'll be surprised, because at the beginning of this season I thought this would all be about money and that wasn't it at all...kinda.

Anyway, this was a masterclass in character building. By far my favorite show of the last several years.

Gravel said:

Wrapped it up. I think the second season surpassed the first pretty successfully. I noticed in this season the soundtrack was really damn good, too. The standout there being, at least for me, The Day the World Went Away orchestral version (or whatever you'd call it).

As far as episodes go, I really liked the Marcus and Richie ones. They both just seemed super solid. Followed by Christmas for the reasons above.

Hate that it ended bittersweet for pretty much everyone but Sydney and Tina. Feel like in the real world all of that shit could've been patched over by "the stress of the night got to me, and I was full of shit" (outside of Marcus obviously). But because it's TV, it'll be used to setup the conflict of the next season and I kind of hate that shit. But oh well. And maybe I'll be surprised, because at the beginning of this season I thought this would all be about money and that wasn't it at all...kinda.

Anyway, this was a masterclass in character building. By far my favorite show of the last several years.

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Pretty close to my take on everything. Great show.

My wife was super upset with the way they ended S2, just because of how much of a down note cliffhanger they ended on. But then I told her that S2 was the Empire Strikes Back season, and it made her feel a lot better.

So, then season three of a show called "the bear" is the equivalent to a movie full of humanoid bears...

Gravel said:

The standout there being, at least for me, The Day the World Went Away orchestral version (or whatever you'd call it).

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I love me some NIN and that song, but the fuckers on the show thru a bit of a curveball with that one. Took me way too long to figure it out because they start in the middle of the song. It's the version from the album And All That Could Have Been (2002) CD2 (still):

Gravel said:

Anyway, my first thought is, I feel like Sydney is a fucking terrible chef. I'm not an amazing cook or anything, but I've never made something and it been so bad that I had to spit it out. She did it repeatedly (think there were like 3 or 4 dishes they showed?). Salting something so hard that you can't even put it in your mouth? Fucking c'mon man.

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This is my gripe as well, I am a chef by trade and literally never done this in my entire career. I've oversalted but not to the level on the show.

Oh, something I meant to post a while ago but forgot, that I just can't figure out, is why a restaurant that's attempting to do fine dining for a Michelin star would have a drive up window where they're still serving Italian beef sandwiches?

Is this some weird city thing I just don't understand? Like, I get that Carm would want it as some kind of tribute to his brother or something, but it seems like it'd kill your business. Not only because you're inviting a conflicting customer base, but it seems like it'd stretch your kitchen way too thin.

Gravel said:

Oh, something I meant to post a while ago but forgot, that I just can't figure out, is why a restaurant that's attempting to do fine dining for a Michelin star would have a drive up window where they're still serving Italian beef sandwiches?

Is this some weird city thing I just don't understand? Like, I get that Carm would want it as some kind of tribute to his brother or something, but it seems like it'd kill your business. Not only because you're inviting a conflicting customer base, but it seems like it'd stretch your kitchen way too thin.

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Basically 2 different businesses that share an owner. It's not uncommon. Maybe a little closer to each other than normal but there are "street food" shops around the world that have Michelin stars as well.

There's a lot of upscale places that have a downscale part, usually an attached bar, where they sell more reasonable shit.

Also cuz Chicago.

Thinking of weird Michelin Star rated restaurants, the "best Sushi in the world" comes from a 10 seat hole in the wall in a Tokyo subway station (3 star Sukiyabashi Jiro). After getting it's stars it became so well known, that they stopped taking public reservations though, causing Michelin to take it off it's books (loosing all if it's stars):

There is even a pretty good documentary about it and I don't even eat sushi (was on Netflix, linked full Youtube at bottom):

My question wasn't necessarily the Michelin star part, but the upscale dining part. I get that there are places that aren't black tie that have stars.

But yeah, I guess Khane 's reasoning makes sense. Maybe The Bear is a bigger restaurant than it looks and devoting a bunch of kitchen space to sandwiches isn't a big deal?

Gravel said:

My question wasn't necessarily the Michelin star part, but the upscale dining part. I get that there are places that aren't black tie that have stars.

But yeah, I guess Khane 's reasoning makes sense. Maybe The Bear is a bigger restaurant than it looks and devoting a bunch of kitchen space to sandwiches isn't a big deal?

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In the case of the show in particular, I'd say the idea is to hang on to the memory of his brother, his childhood, and the community he has come back to.

I'd say it works, in terms of the show, much better with them keeping that alive serving the sandwiches it was built on.

Nobody wanted Carm to change anything, this is the compromise. The show is very visceral, it doesn't pull any punches, and that's just part of it.