The Bear on FX: aka HEARD! aka YES CHEF! aka Ketamine Gene Wilder cooks for u

and the way they shot the Carmy/Richie exchange as a cross-section, bisected by the door

so fucking great

btw that WAS MY BIG NIGHTMARE when I worked in restaurants. I went inside a freezer once and had difficulty re-opening it and the terror I felt for three seconds was palpable. then I pushed a little harder and got out

The charred cheese crust is the best part of Pequod's Pizza, you fancy idiot chef.

xpost oh totally! i worked at KFC as teen and was super-paranoid about getting stuck in the walk-in

I went into the walk-in a lot at Arby's to steal food mostly. made myself rogue sandwiches and took them back there to eat secretly

Robert Townsend and Ayo Edibiri's scenes get me in the heart

This show still has its flaws (mostly when it's trying to do, like, sentimental or serious two character scenes) but I'm enjoying s2 more so far. The Xmas episode is truly fucked...most of the guest actors were obviously going to bring it, but I was surprised by how much I liked Mulaney here.

Who'd've thunk before watching season 2 that we'd all be siding with Richie over Carm?!

I love how they literally "fridge" Carm.

Shout out to the beautiful visuals - food, Chicago, Copenhagen, the faces. Loved that forks, fridge handles, and gas lines played such key roles. What a show.

I really appreciated the way they balanced off the chaotic episodes with the quiet, more thoughtful ones. liked this take too

One more thing I adored in THE BEAR is the way it quietly reinforces, over and over, that what we think of as “skills” and “talents” are actually things someone else has taken time to teach us.

— Jessica Ellis (@baddestmamajama) July 3, 2023

From Carmy and Syd’s “I’m sorry” gesture to Marcus learning to quenelle, the whole season is a tribute to how we are a product of what we’re taught - good and bad - and how much good teaching can reshape our lives. It’s a screed against the idea of a self-made, lone genius.

— Jessica Ellis (@baddestmamajama) July 3, 2023

my one complaint is that I wished that they had spent a bit more time on developing Claire as a character - didn’t really love the portrayal of her as carmy’s perfect long lost crush, felt a bit manic pixie dream-ish

^agree. Great on screen chemistry between Carmy and Claire but her character did have a whiff of manic pixie dream girl. i wonder if they will do more with her story in S3.

my one complaint is that I wished that they had spent a bit more time on developing Claire as a character - didn’t really love the portrayal of her as carmy’s perfect long lost crush, felt a bit manic pixie dream-ish

Particularly since the opportunity to draw parallels between running a manic kitchen and being an ER doctor was right there.

yeah they had one conversation about it but that was it

kinda feel that she wouldn’t have been so quick to leave him after hearing the fridge rant either, I mean seems like part of the reason she’s attracted to him is because he IS a chaotic mess, who has already tried to push her away before. at least call him out on his obvious bullshit or something

well, the season is ending on kind of a 'cliffhanger' in that regard, her initial reaction might not be a permanent one? people often get hurt, walk away upset, and then see things differently when they've had a little time apart from it.

plus it was a pretty hurtful thing to hear - basically him 'blaming' her for taking his eyes off of the ball, though in more of an implied sense.

yeah plus it did set up that great scene with Richie afterwards, so am not that mad. Like tnmp said, I also hope they flesh her character out more in s3

Me too!

their chemistry is crazy-good
when they’re not talking the way they look at each other is amazing

Can't believe Richie was the bellhop in Royal Tenenbaums

https://i.ibb.co/12349C2/54d1bd7df2c04-esq-02-double-breasted-royal-tenenbaums-0913-mdn-27447800.jpg

I read an interview with Claire's actor and she made it sound like S2 was kind of a one-off? I saw her resume and she keeps pretty busy.

xpost holy shit

That fridge scene, I hope it's not a tragic end to their affair, because it serves the perfect show-don't-tell realization that Carm *can* have it both ways, or can at least try. Jimmy warns him not to take his eyes off the prize, as it were, but here he is, literally locked away, and the world doesn't end without him.

This is a good show but I keep thinking that the positive reception has a lot to do with how bad most other shows are rn.

what if…hear me out… what if a good thing is just good

"better than everything else" seems like a good reason for praise IMO

show is great on its own merits.

Jordan I have totally thought about this as a breath of cold Chicago air after too much weightless Netflix dreck

If only more shows could be even half as good as this one in any era of TV history. It's amazing.

It's ok! Pretty, pretty good, even!

I’ve seen the last episode twice and on second viewing I didn’t think that what Carmy said was actually so bad that it would be a relationship killer, at least not with anyone who had a good bead in his neuroses which I feel like Claire did. We’ll see.

I can't believe he's still in the freezer

And like they only came back to the freezer to yell at him

Unnecessary

lol did they ever figure out the name of the fridge guy? Was it Tony Toni Tone?

Tina had another name beginning with a T entirely. Not a shortform of Anthony at all.

Think it was Tony, Tim, Terry and something else?

was there a Tom in there. Think there was a somewhat soundalike so with the o vowel.

no an Oakland soul in site

wasn’t it Carmy thought Tony was the fridge guy but then Tina said nah dude the fridge guy is Terry

something like that

^yes that is correct

I think fridge thing goes on for a while maybe even last couple of episodes so everybody has a different take on what his name is.

like its been talked about for a while that it needs to be done and Carmy needs to ring him and sort it out so the events in this episode are just a culmination of his not getting that done. & if it isn't quite everybody that has a different take it seems pretty close to

this show is definitely better than average but i would not say it is (imo) "great"
* i find the music direction mawkish tbh. why spend all that money on popular songs for your teevee show? idgi and it takes me out of the story
* unnecessary romance -- the best part of S1 was 0 romance whatsoever
* I love the workplace stuff and really enjoyed the Richie ep where he understood what makes people dedicated to service. i feel that 100%
* the Christmas ep reminded me of my friend's mom who also used to drink (a lot) while she cooked and once did exactly what the mom in the show did w her car

I LOVE Tina. Also Syd and Marcus but Tina is easily my fave. Loved the scenes where Syd goes around eating everything in the city. I think I only have a couple of eps left in S2. Also love the short runtime. I watch it when I get home from work. At a restaurant.

When Tina smiles after being offered a chance at a new job? <3 <3 <3

when she sings karaoke? <3 <3 <3

Syd's food crawl was super melancholic for me!
All of the stuff with Tina and the knife hit a sentimental sweet spot too.

The number one thing it has going for it that makes it great, imo, is that every character can sustain an episode on their own. Again, the season's payoff was literally locking the ostensible star in a room and letting everyone else run things. But beyond that, the acting, writing and direction is impeccable, so if that's not enough to make a show great (which is not to say perfect), then what is?

The music to me actually brings me into the show, because by and large they're *not* particularly popular songs, but they are by artists that people listen to (or tie in thematically). And when they do drop in the pricey huge pop hit, its context is a personal and emotional character payoff.

* i find the music direction mawkish tbh. why spend all that money on popular songs for your teevee show? idgi and it takes me out of the story

Agree with this 100%. There were like 2 music cues the entire season that I actually liked (when Richie wakes up to the Tangerine Dream music from Thief and the Ethiopian jazz when Marcus was in Copenhagen), but 90% of them were either sad middle aged man indie ballads or some record-collector bullshit where I could practically feel some asshole's elbow in my ribs — "Hey, you like that? [cue 45 minutes of Discogs trivia delivered through a cloud of death breath and BO]". Also, not every scene needs to have a goddamn song playing through it.

I love everything about this show except the music.

Next season I want Uncle Jimmy to get his own whole episode just so we can figure out exactly what kind of gangster he is.

glad to see other people bothered by the music cues. they are simply too loud IMO.

when she sings karaoke? <3 <3 <3

― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, July 6, 2023 11:40 AM bookmarkflaglink

I loved that. admittedly got anxious when she showed up because a lot of 'high stakes' TV has gotten to where they cram in unnecessary conflict at every juncture, so I worried that Lisa's co-workers were going to clown her singing or something, so was very happy to see the heartwarming reaction she got to her song.

y'all are nuts, I love the music cues

https://uproxx.com/indie/the-bear-season-two-soundtrack-christopher-storer-josh-senior-interview/