I do think that the fantasy aspect that Freddie criticized Andy greenwood for mentioning comes into play. The story is fake. It’s not 100 percent realistic. But it’s also not 100 percent unrealistic. I agree that the episode 6 storyline is a little over the top, but the Richie 180 turnaround is a symbolic turnaround for anyone who has ever been adrift, feeling Alia red and lacking purpose. I personally found Riches transformation via “service” to be quite touching and frankly realistic to anyone who grew up with people who actually had to make 180 turns in order to survive in life.
FINALLY. Freddie, you are not alone. I enjoy The Bear but I’m baffled by the excessive praise. My wife, by all accounts, a casual TV viewer, has commented many times about how corny this show is.
This is off topic, but I know deBoer's a gamer so when I saw "bear" in the subject i briefly wondered if he was going to be talking about the Baldur's Gate 3 thing.
I agree that The Bear can be excessive. A common complaint about the show is that people feel that they have to turn it off to give themselves a breather.
That being said, I think The Bear--and Succession too--are a powerful refutation of Tolstoy’s opening line to Anna Karenina, that all happy families are the same, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. On the contrary, I believe--and these two shows powerfully dramatize--that happy families give children the confidence to fulfill their own unique potential, while unhappy families force the children to replicate the same unhealthy patterns they grew up with. That’s why there is so much cruelty and jockeying for power in Succession, and why there is so much yelling in The Bear. It’s what the traumatized protagonists of each show grew up with and feel compelled to repeat in their own lives.
The hopeful message of The Bear is that we can interrupt the cycle, with the help of art, skill, and discipline. And that is why I love the show, even though it can be difficult to watch.
I love the way you put that. 'We can interrupt the cycle with the help of art, skill, and discipline.' I agree with basically all of Freddie's critique but that is IMO the big redeeming value of the show especially compared to a lot else out there. It allows for hope.
Art as cure, yes. Discipline also. But it can go the way of 'The Smudge'. Agree about the unhappy families. Rinse and repeat. Unless someone figures out how to changes the cycle....
The corny obviousness of a lot of The Bear, made with such incredible technical panache, is part of why I love it. An antidote to the signs and symbols of so much prestige TV (which I also love, but hey). It never reaches for the cool idea when the operatic one is possible, and I love that about it (*three* versions of an only-OK REM song? Yes please)
PS I went back and listened for this piano music - the closest I could hear was what sounds like a looped section of Nine Inch Nail's Hope We Can Again. Was that the one?
PPS Chris/Andy TBF did bump slightly on the star casting and JLC as the mum.
The writers assume the audience is immune to subtlety. They are probably spot on with that assessment. I rolled past the episode depicting a holiday meal of screaming bedlam.
By way of bonafides, I actually worked part time at a beef sandwich joint on Rush (near the fictional location) while in the early starvation years of a television commercial directing career.
I think your point about subtlety is exactly why I loved season one of The Bear so much. That season had a lot to say about gentrification, masculinity, mental health, class, and race, and I think did a good job of saying those things without lecturing, morally handholding the audience, or reducing the moral complexity of the characters. The moment when JLC crashes into the house was the turning point at which the show lost that quality (which is a real shame because, up until that moment I thought the christmas episode was phenomenal).
I also agree about the unnessecary defensiveness people have about this show. It's approaching Succession levels.
Exactly. Subtlety of season 1. The realism of season 1. That was the foundation it laid and then robbed from me! I’m disappointed. But it’s still one of more hopeful, big-hearted and earnest things out there that I am grateful for. Let’s go season 3, make it a good one.
I haven’t seen The Bear yet, but you could apply this critique to the latest animated Spider-Man movie, which has been received with more or less universal hosannas and claims that it’s among the very best animated films ever made, but I found to be Way TOO MUCH in every single moment.
I think there is a lot more room for that in an animated feature. I know people who felt the same way about the first one, but I thought it was brilliant. Haven't seen the second one yet.
For real. I loved the first Spider Verse but the sequel felt like it was pummeling my head with frying pans for most of its runtime.
Out of a desire to compare, I went back and rewatched the first one and I was taken aback by how restrained it seemed. It got really nuts only at the end, when the collider went haywire. The rest of it was stylized but not hyperactive.
Keeping the truly impactful and climactic moments few and far between is a big part of what made Breaking Bad so much better than every other show that has ever been made.
There was an entire show about Walter White chasing a fly - and it was amazing! The Bear could learn a lot from that.
A lot of fans hate that episode because it's "filler." Filler being code for "anything that tells stories the way television did for the sixty years prior to becoming a series of 10-hour streaming movies."
I generally agree, and the word I've used about the show several times is also 'overwrought.' I actually found the first season considerably worse than the 2nd due to how often it would degenerate into people emotionally cussing each other out in a kitchen. I also agree that the show hurts itself by making every moment big and piling another big moment on top of it.
But here's where I will disagree with your review some. I thought the Richie episode and the portions where Marcus went to Denmark were by far the strongest parts in the entire show. They showed an ability of the characters to grow towards a purpose, and improve themselves as people in a way that I feel is pretty rare for TV. It's also not so crazy for people to reinvent themselves in hopes of positive change, but can they maintain it? A big question for season 3 to explore if they have the balls.
Overall I'd say the 2nd season giving the characters an actual goal made it a lot better by at least channeling all the heavy emotion towards some kind of plot direction, and gave all of the characters believable things to do. It would just also be nice if they could use some restraint. And by some I mean a lot.
I was late to The Bear. I only watched the show after I heard David Chang say it was the most realistic depiction of life in a kitchen he's seen. I binge watched the show in a weekend and have gone back to watch the Christmas episode and the 180 degree turn Richie episode, as I'm working on an essay about them. These excessive choices didn't feel excessive to me in my first viewing, certainly not compared to another show I was late to, Beef, which seemed completely artificial in its excessiveness. The Bear is excessive in the way that we are as humans--trying too hard to make peace with the knowledge that we and everyone we care about will soon die.
I will go back and watch with your criticisms in mind, Freddie. But I do think that a possible explanation for what read to you as excessive choices can be found in that Richie intern episode, specifically how it fixates on and ends with the mantra "Every Second Counts." To me this show is a commentary on the finitude of life, on mortality, on living a complicated life as a human. This strikes me as profoundly human and made me love the show. But I agree that it shouldn't be insulated from criticism.
I think Boiling Point (the movie) does intense Kitchen scenes far more impressively. The Bear has that one 20 minute single take episode; Boiling Point is a movie of that, and more realistic and understated.
I haven't watched the show, but was considering starting the first season, given all the talk. Now I think it's not for me. Makes me nostalgic for those days of yore when I could count on simpler, more straightforward televisual pleasures, like seeing Mannix get pistol-whipped (again) or seeing Shirley Jones wear a slightly shorter skirt than usual.
Agree 100%. Fine show, but it does seem precision engineered for phone-addicted times. Loud emotional beats that you can’t miss, then interminable needle drop montages that give you a minute to post about how much the show’s making you cry.
I thought Chris and Andy’s comparison to Friday Night Lights helped me understand a bit more what The Bear is going for.
I do think that the fantasy aspect that Freddie criticized Andy greenwood for mentioning comes into play. The story is fake. It’s not 100 percent realistic. But it’s also not 100 percent unrealistic. I agree that the episode 6 storyline is a little over the top, but the Richie 180 turnaround is a symbolic turnaround for anyone who has ever been adrift, feeling Alia red and lacking purpose. I personally found Riches transformation via “service” to be quite touching and frankly realistic to anyone who grew up with people who actually had to make 180 turns in order to survive in life.
This reminds me of your Stranger Things post from about a year ago - and that is not a complaint.
FINALLY. Freddie, you are not alone. I enjoy The Bear but I’m baffled by the excessive praise. My wife, by all accounts, a casual TV viewer, has commented many times about how corny this show is.
Emotional over-saturation. Everything these days is either 125% earnest or under at least 3 layers of irony.
This is off topic, but I know deBoer's a gamer so when I saw "bear" in the subject i briefly wondered if he was going to be talking about the Baldur's Gate 3 thing.
Freddie, do a Baldur’s Gate post
For some reason, this took me back 20 (30?) years to when NBC advertised literally every week about “a very special Blossom.”
Blossom ran from 1990 to 1995. Dang, I'm getting OLD.
And sweeps time, when all the dramatic breakups happened, babies were born, childhood friends died, and characters hinted at S-E-X.
"Dad, those aren't condoms! They're... they're balloons for a party!"
I agree that The Bear can be excessive. A common complaint about the show is that people feel that they have to turn it off to give themselves a breather.
That being said, I think The Bear--and Succession too--are a powerful refutation of Tolstoy’s opening line to Anna Karenina, that all happy families are the same, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. On the contrary, I believe--and these two shows powerfully dramatize--that happy families give children the confidence to fulfill their own unique potential, while unhappy families force the children to replicate the same unhealthy patterns they grew up with. That’s why there is so much cruelty and jockeying for power in Succession, and why there is so much yelling in The Bear. It’s what the traumatized protagonists of each show grew up with and feel compelled to repeat in their own lives.
The hopeful message of The Bear is that we can interrupt the cycle, with the help of art, skill, and discipline. And that is why I love the show, even though it can be difficult to watch.
I love the way you put that. 'We can interrupt the cycle with the help of art, skill, and discipline.' I agree with basically all of Freddie's critique but that is IMO the big redeeming value of the show especially compared to a lot else out there. It allows for hope.
Art as cure, yes. Discipline also. But it can go the way of 'The Smudge'. Agree about the unhappy families. Rinse and repeat. Unless someone figures out how to changes the cycle....
The corny obviousness of a lot of The Bear, made with such incredible technical panache, is part of why I love it. An antidote to the signs and symbols of so much prestige TV (which I also love, but hey). It never reaches for the cool idea when the operatic one is possible, and I love that about it (*three* versions of an only-OK REM song? Yes please)
PS I went back and listened for this piano music - the closest I could hear was what sounds like a looped section of Nine Inch Nail's Hope We Can Again. Was that the one?
PPS Chris/Andy TBF did bump slightly on the star casting and JLC as the mum.
The writers assume the audience is immune to subtlety. They are probably spot on with that assessment. I rolled past the episode depicting a holiday meal of screaming bedlam.
By way of bonafides, I actually worked part time at a beef sandwich joint on Rush (near the fictional location) while in the early starvation years of a television commercial directing career.
I think your point about subtlety is exactly why I loved season one of The Bear so much. That season had a lot to say about gentrification, masculinity, mental health, class, and race, and I think did a good job of saying those things without lecturing, morally handholding the audience, or reducing the moral complexity of the characters. The moment when JLC crashes into the house was the turning point at which the show lost that quality (which is a real shame because, up until that moment I thought the christmas episode was phenomenal).
I also agree about the unnessecary defensiveness people have about this show. It's approaching Succession levels.
Exactly. Subtlety of season 1. The realism of season 1. That was the foundation it laid and then robbed from me! I’m disappointed. But it’s still one of more hopeful, big-hearted and earnest things out there that I am grateful for. Let’s go season 3, make it a good one.
I haven’t seen The Bear yet, but you could apply this critique to the latest animated Spider-Man movie, which has been received with more or less universal hosannas and claims that it’s among the very best animated films ever made, but I found to be Way TOO MUCH in every single moment.
I think there is a lot more room for that in an animated feature. I know people who felt the same way about the first one, but I thought it was brilliant. Haven't seen the second one yet.
It's for the perspective of two teenagers, so I took that into consideration.
For real. I loved the first Spider Verse but the sequel felt like it was pummeling my head with frying pans for most of its runtime.
Out of a desire to compare, I went back and rewatched the first one and I was taken aback by how restrained it seemed. It got really nuts only at the end, when the collider went haywire. The rest of it was stylized but not hyperactive.
Keeping the truly impactful and climactic moments few and far between is a big part of what made Breaking Bad so much better than every other show that has ever been made.
There was an entire show about Walter White chasing a fly - and it was amazing! The Bear could learn a lot from that.
A lot of fans hate that episode because it's "filler." Filler being code for "anything that tells stories the way television did for the sixty years prior to becoming a series of 10-hour streaming movies."
I think it is an excellent example of psychological drama.
I generally agree, and the word I've used about the show several times is also 'overwrought.' I actually found the first season considerably worse than the 2nd due to how often it would degenerate into people emotionally cussing each other out in a kitchen. I also agree that the show hurts itself by making every moment big and piling another big moment on top of it.
But here's where I will disagree with your review some. I thought the Richie episode and the portions where Marcus went to Denmark were by far the strongest parts in the entire show. They showed an ability of the characters to grow towards a purpose, and improve themselves as people in a way that I feel is pretty rare for TV. It's also not so crazy for people to reinvent themselves in hopes of positive change, but can they maintain it? A big question for season 3 to explore if they have the balls.
Overall I'd say the 2nd season giving the characters an actual goal made it a lot better by at least channeling all the heavy emotion towards some kind of plot direction, and gave all of the characters believable things to do. It would just also be nice if they could use some restraint. And by some I mean a lot.
I was late to The Bear. I only watched the show after I heard David Chang say it was the most realistic depiction of life in a kitchen he's seen. I binge watched the show in a weekend and have gone back to watch the Christmas episode and the 180 degree turn Richie episode, as I'm working on an essay about them. These excessive choices didn't feel excessive to me in my first viewing, certainly not compared to another show I was late to, Beef, which seemed completely artificial in its excessiveness. The Bear is excessive in the way that we are as humans--trying too hard to make peace with the knowledge that we and everyone we care about will soon die.
I will go back and watch with your criticisms in mind, Freddie. But I do think that a possible explanation for what read to you as excessive choices can be found in that Richie intern episode, specifically how it fixates on and ends with the mantra "Every Second Counts." To me this show is a commentary on the finitude of life, on mortality, on living a complicated life as a human. This strikes me as profoundly human and made me love the show. But I agree that it shouldn't be insulated from criticism.
I think Boiling Point (the movie) does intense Kitchen scenes far more impressively. The Bear has that one 20 minute single take episode; Boiling Point is a movie of that, and more realistic and understated.
To be fair, in pitching TV shows the constant and steady feedback is: But is it LOUD enough? How will it cut through the noise?
I haven't watched the show, but was considering starting the first season, given all the talk. Now I think it's not for me. Makes me nostalgic for those days of yore when I could count on simpler, more straightforward televisual pleasures, like seeing Mannix get pistol-whipped (again) or seeing Shirley Jones wear a slightly shorter skirt than usual.
Agree 100%. Fine show, but it does seem precision engineered for phone-addicted times. Loud emotional beats that you can’t miss, then interminable needle drop montages that give you a minute to post about how much the show’s making you cry.
I thought Chris and Andy’s comparison to Friday Night Lights helped me understand a bit more what The Bear is going for.