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

which it wasn't, but it *was* Reznor/Ross -- a track from Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts V.

Ohhhh. Damn, those records keep giving for them. Score one for the music supervisors, minus one for the composition team. They must have edited to the music then rather than the reverse.

ohhh Ghosts V! … ok i lost track of the online releases at some point.

anyway it’s a fucking beautiful choice imo

I didn’t recognize it and thought it was original, and remarked “wow they really gave the composer a TASK with this episode”

They must have edited to the music then rather than the reverse.

Thought about this in episode 3 when Carmy is finishing plating the same dish five or six times, and it's absolutely timed with the classical piece underscoring it.

Jordan's WB comparison is coming to mind the more the season goes on (I'm on e5, and I'm sure there are more tonal shifts on the way). I wish the people outside the main characters were less "normies" and just had more interesting ways of having a conversation. (Imagining Carmy dating a female equivalent of Fak or S1 Richie.) It's not that they need to be ~colorful~, it just makes me think how Joe Swanberg (especially in Chicago-centric Easy) can make intimate conversations pop while still being credible, and this could use that.

I’m on episode 8 and i have been crying my face off, it’s so crazy. I have hella mom issues so this one hit me where I live

Jamie Lee Curtis really nails this personality type <3

and Abby Elliott is the busines, what a fucking g

I enjoyed season 2 but it did feel like a step down. Too many cameos (I didn't like the family dinner episode at all) and a turn towards sentimentality.

the bear video game actually looks pretty cool pic.twitter.com/pijrftMFDr

— Michael Kandel (@K_A_N_D_E_L) June 28, 2024

lmao

Ahahaha, holy shit

lol

amazing

Started reading that Slate takedown dismissal of the show by frequent music critic for them Jack Hamilton. He started giving away some plot items , so I stopped reading, but I did see him say the music has become too white and not reflective of many genre’s associated with Chicago; plus he says the music programmer is the type of guy who would play Astral Weeks at a party.

The Bear s03e01 pic.twitter.com/ZNz1OzGyv6

— Rob (@robrousseau) June 29, 2024

i am on record as enjoying the music but at the tail end of Ep10 they fire up James “Laid” and my entire body was like ._.

in context it turned out to be a good house party song for the scene & totally works but omg if i never hear that song again it will be too soon

Agree. The “guy who would play Astral Weeks at a party” is the sort of indictment that vindicates my feelings on the topic.

Even though I didn't need to hear "Strange Currencies" again, I did like how they layered it in with the Reznor ambient music. Haven't seen a TV show do that before when neither music is occurring within the scene itself.

Finished the season this morning. As always, exasperated by parts of it (same was true of Succession and most other shows that end up being the one or two per year that I watch), but also glad to have put the time into it.

When a Ricky Jay voice-over happens in addition to back-to-back songs loudly underscoring scenes, the PTA influence showed itself too boldly.

am i going to try removing the wishbone from a chicken? signs point to yes

Enjoying it quite a bit so far. Episode 3 is an editing masterclass. I agree with the "music's too white" criticism, though. Was thinking the same even though hearing Kate Bush pop up was kinda glorious.

omg watching that guy struggle with the cork in s3 was the first thing that stressed me out
(i forget his character's name, sry! it's about 9 min in)

woops i meant ep 3

yes! that super stressful

Not sure about this season overall. It felt somewhat slight compared to the seasons 1 and 2. Episodes 3 and 6 are excellent, though. They better wrap this up with one more season, though. Too many loose threads.

Did I write “though” enough?

Pretty sure S4 is set to be the final one, and I believe they’ve already finished filming it.

ep 3 was indeed really good
watching Tina at the farmer's market shopping to Spinning Away, less so (to be clear -- I LOVE TINA)

after finishing s3 and knowing s4 is in the works it seems like this season will function as a bridge to s4 … this season felt like more of an exploration of the impact of s2 finale and looking more closely at the emotional web holding everyone at The Bear together

i think it works in terms of what it actually ~is~ vs what we expected it to do

speaking of, the convo about the dead moms club absolutely killed me. keep in mind that i work in a restaurant.

not long ago it was fathers' day and all of us scheduled to work were coincidentally members of the dead dads club, which we joked about endlessly until we were presented with a gigantic cake our coworkers had made for us with pics of our dads on it. mine was a photo i took of my dad when i was 12, he was looking straight at me/the camera. i also made a pie for us bc i felt like i had to do something. two of the deaths were within months, mine was just over a year ago, and the fourth guy lost his dad about 13 years ago. from the kitchen to the hosts, we all ate cake and pie and talked about our dads and i haven't had that kind of camaraderie in my life...ever? this ep reminded me of that.

That’s lovely, LL.

xpost This makes sense now that I’ve learned S4 is in the can.

wow yeah that is beautiful LL! thank u for sharing

After my dad passed, one of my good friends wrote me a very sweet message that ended by welcoming me to the "dead dad's club". Probably the first time I laughed after he passed. I didn't know it wasn't my friend's original joke until this episode, but I suppose it's the kind of joke you only hear when it happens

Indeed - a requirement for initiation

Not sure who the market is for a $395 Matter of Fak work jacket.

(secretly me)

(no shade -- that's OK!)

LA Times has a good piece that hews more to my general feelings about the show and why I like it so much

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2024-06-28/alcoholism-addiction-the-bear-season-3

The show seems to exemplify a saying that a friend of mine use to quote to explain why he dropped out of the super-competitive high level junior chess world at 14 years old: “In the search for perfection lies the root of neurosis” …

(However, when I search online for the saying there’s has no record of it….)

I heard on the Ringer Watch podcast that i guess The Bear was originally only going to be 3 seasons and at some point after s3 was written that FX or whoever discussed extending to a 4th season for like 18 total episodes

thus now stretching s3 to bridge into whatever happens storywise in s4

which explains why it felt very uh bridgey lol

i kinda said as much upthread but that gives a bit more real-world explanation

four episodes in and yeah this show is really good and dynamic. every actor is bringing it—i’m especially loving how lionel boyce has come into his own as marcus. “doors” is exactly what i want from this show, and the cousin-centric episode 4 made me well up a couple times

if its main flaw is over-ambition, is that really so bad?

i think the disappointment lies in how dynamic the first 2 seasons were in moving characters forward & story arcs etc and this season isn’t doing as much of that and it is def a vibe shift

but yeah i agree!

oh and btw i dont think i shouted this out but

Ep6 “Napkins” is perfect and great and wrenching and TINA!!! is the fucking best. Liza Colon-Zayas kills it. just beautiful acting.

goddamn i loved it so much

directed by Ayo too!

Just watched that one. God this show is so fucking sentimental. I did appreciate the two Genevieve Artady drops though. :)

almost done with the season. I do feel some disappointment at the vibe shift vg describes but there's still things to enjoy, chiefly the acting. I also haven't found what little comedy there is very funny this season - John Cena's cameo was... bad. feels like they're trying too hard to keep comedic elements in there

damn there is no restaurant scene that stressed me out as much as ep8 Donna at the hospital with Natalie. the constant talking, the volatility, the hee hee hee -- jfc, could not take it.

Didn't realize until reading reviews after finishing the season that Josh Hartnett plays Richie's ex's fiancee.

reminded me of when my sister had her first baby, she was 19 and her mother in law was there with her and this woman is very DeeDee energy, SO intense & so keyed up and she had my sister stripped naked (no idea why, just YOU NEED TO DO THIS energy) and all this crazy shit and my poor sister was just beside herself & stressed out of her mind

luckily my Mum finally showed up & kicked the MIL out and got my sister covered up and calmed down

anyway

i did weirdly love how DeeDee was able to be of use and BE a mom to Sugar in some of those later moments, like she def has firehose energy but when you’re thirsty you can sort of chaotically get what you need if you point her in the right direction lol

Speaking of Ep6, I saw a story about it and how fans felt it revealed a plothole from S1 re:Tina initially being mean to Sydney by overstating her relationship to the restaurant and I think these people are saying that because they've never encountered someone being territorial before.

wow i totally did not recognize hartnett

wow S3E1 was incredible, I am totally on board for whatever they do next

Just watched episode 2, I can almost see the critic above’s point about the music. That Vedder needle drop felt like it lasted fuckin forever, but it’s pretty easy for me to ignore in the grander scheme.

Every time I stack my leftovers in the freezer and put their little tape labels on them, I think how angry Carmy would get with my tearing over cutting.