The degree of excitement that audiences and critics developed for The Bear last summer is difficult to sustain. The expertly crafted tale of Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), who takes over the family beef sandwich shop after the death of his brother, not only got people chanting “Yes, chef,” but it also brought attention to the entire company, including White, Ayo Edebiri as Carmy’s new sous chef, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie, Carmy’s cousin who worked in the shop for years while Carmy was away pursuing a career in fine dining in this The Bear review.
This month saw the release of the second season, and the bottom line is that it largely avoids all of the pitfalls that second seasons can experience. It’s one of the best sequels to a first season that stirred up this much controversy that I can recall in this The Bear review.
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A Broader Focus
The Bear is still primarily Carmy’s story, but Season 2 broadens its focus to the ensemble even more than before rather than narrowing it down to him (especially in light of the perhaps unexpected levels of pure erotic fervor that White produced). Sydney and Richie each have their own stories to tell, but so do Tina, the shop’s longstanding cook (Liza Colón-Zayas), Marcus, the pastry chef (Lionel Boyce), and Natalie, Carmy’s sister (Abby Elliott). It would have been simple for the program’s creator Christopher Storer and the rest of the crew to “yes, chef” their way through this batch of 10 brand-new episodes by emphasizing fan service and exercising the goodwill that the show enjoys in this The Bear review.
It follows a struggling team through a rebuilding season like an old-school sports movie. Here, the rebuilding is literal. It takes a gut remodel on an ulcer-producing timetable to transform the Beef, a neighborhood hot-sandwich shop, into the Bear, a high-end establishment with Michelin star aspirations in this The Bear review. A stressful culinary program has evolved into a stressful building program.
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The Tale of Sydney
The season takes its important players on journeys of skill development and personal growth, just like in a great sports story. In preparation for the big game—the restaurant’s opening—there are hardships, doubts, and training montages in this The Bear review. During this game, they step up to the (in this case meal) plate when the star is out of the game.
White continues to dominate the Season 2 promo graphics like Salt Bae, while Carmy, who is still drinking Pepto-Bismol and attempting to balance his demanding profession with having a girlfriend (Molly Gordon), is still a key character in the narrative in this The Bear review. But the film’s creator, Christopher Storer, gives his characters room to develop and the narrative room to breathe by presenting Carmy’s sleepy-eyed magnetism in a little appetizer dish.
In many respects, Season 2 is now the tale of Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Carmy’s coworker and a quietly brooding worrier who worries about failing before her career ever has a chance to begin in this The Bear review. She also fears her father’s (Robert Townsend) criticism because he struggles to be encouraging because he doesn’t realize that this job doesn’t pay well, it doesn’t amount to much, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense. The creative bond between Carmy and Sydney has a strong platonic intimacy.
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Moving the Plot Forward
The second season grapples with what occurs after the first one, which dealt with processing trauma, accepting loss, and the even slower and more agonizing process of atoning for guilt. Richie, who had been in the cellar while the others were upstairs attempting to align the figures on the pizza box, asks as Carmy dashes to get some supplies, “You ever think about purpose?” Carmy says, “I love you.” I don’t have time for this, though. However, the drama continues to revolve endlessly around the subject of what constitutes a decent existence in this The Bear review.
In another episode, Carmy admits to his therapy group that he Googled the word “fun” before the start of the segment. The episode successfully explores what constitutes fun when a romantic interest sidetracks him from his work on the menu with Sydney, who is preoccupied with researching neighborhood restaurants to see what functions in culinary and practical terms in this The Bear review.
It also queries whether having enjoyment, by whatever standard you choose, is sufficient. Can you achieve your professional goals with the same happiness you do your personal or romantic ones? In the secular modern world, working is no longer considered to be prayer, but Sydney still sees something in it as she bemoans the parade of prospective employees who have no concept of what hard labor entails.
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Flashy Stars
The show’s trademark bittersweet piquancy and its penchant for sequences where everyone is shouting at once remain, but these new episodes are even more satisfying in this The Bear review. The presentation gives the entire ensemble more space and time to grow by leaving the cramped confines of the kitchen. Extended scenes (and even entire episodes) are devoted to the sweet-natured pastry chef Marcus, who completes an apprenticeship in Copenhagen, to retraining veteran staff members Tina and Ebraheim, and to chef de cuisine Sydney, who is looking for ideas for a new menu and approval from Carmy in this The Bear review. These scenes run parallel to the restaurant renovation story arc.
The use of unannounced guest stars is one of the things the show does this season that I suspect will be received differently in different quarters in this The Bear review. This practice dates back to Season 1 and the fact that it wasn’t made known beforehand that Jon Bernthal would be portraying Carmy’s late brother Mikey in flashbacks. The Bear has developed into a very cool show, for lack of a better phrase, and it manages to secure some fairly spectacular guest stars, the majority of whom you should encounter on your own (don’t read any of the lists that are circulating; consider them true spoilers).
The Show’s Heart-Wrenching Theme
The theme of The Bear is the blessing and the curse of having a calling. In the first episode of this season, Sydney is taken on a research tour of the city, where she orders food, examines a beef carcass, and hears survival stories from low-margin entrepreneurs in this The Bear review. The episode, which was directed by executive producer Joanna Calo, uses opulent imagery and cutting-edge editing to illustrate how eating can be a means of thinking and of taking the world inside of you.
Although The Bear could have taken the simple route of making fun of fancy tweezer food, its tastes are more inclusive. An attentive waiter overhears an out-of-towner regretting not having Chicago’s deep-dish pizza in an episode of Richie’s apprenticeship in this The Bear review. Richie is dispatched by the kitchen to go get a Pequod’s takeaway pie, which is subsequently split into rounds, improved with basil gel, and embellished with micro basil.
The meal is a success. It also serves as a good parallel for the “Bear” high-low style, which equates independent filmmaking with slapstick comedic clichés in this The Bear review. (Carmy actually spends the season’s finale chained inside a walk-in refrigerator, just as in an old “Happy Days” episode.)
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The Industry
In some ways, “The Bear,” with its focus on collaboration and caring, is accomplishing what “Ted Lasso” accomplished, only with less sweetness and more acid. To use another sports metaphor. It implies that there is a more effective strategy for playing this game in this The Bear review. You can succeed without being unpleasant, just as you may be brilliant without being rude.
This is not simple, as the show makes obvious. Carmy appears to have bought into the illusion that he needs to be unhappy in order to succeed by ruining his relationship as the season comes to a close in this The Bear review. Despite everything she has witnessed, Sydney is still determined to earn the Bear a Michelin star, and Carmy cautions her of the price.
Feeding people is an industry that consumes people. While The Bear is not delusional about this, it is also unafraid to recognize its value. It makes the case that a great restaurant is about care. Characters discuss customer service as if it were a religious vocation—caring for the customer, making the visitor feel cared for in this The Bear review. Sydney illustrates this in action in a wonderful scenario in which she prepares an omelet for Sugar, Carmy’s pregnant and uneasy sister, while sifting the eggs through a sieve, sprinkling fine-cut chives, and scattering crushed sour cream and onion potato chips over the plate.
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The Bear Review: Final Thoughts
But there are also exercising caution, developing self-control, and going about things the hard way because that’s the best way to accomplish them in this The Bear review. Marcus attempts to scoop a flawless quenelle during his trip to Denmark, but his mentor repeatedly informs him that it isn’t good enough. We saw in Season 1 flashbacks of Carmy being tortured by a former boss (Joel McHale) that this kind of scrutiny can be cruel in this The Bear review. However, it is just solid and sincere here. Repeatedly attempt something. Uncompromising, yet with the conviction that you are better and can perform much better.
This season also strikes the ideal mix between continuing with what works and moving the plot along straight away in this The Bear review. We learned that Carmy and Sydney intended to close The Beef and launch The Bear at the conclusion of the previous season. I was about to suggest that this season is the Build-A-Bear Workshop, but I wouldn’t do that to you in this The Bear review. But because it’s about creating something new, the program keeps elements of The Beef’s high pressure and hard work while shifting those rhythms to a very different process—the process of developing a restaurant rather than managing one.
By doing this, The Bear dispels any illusion that just because Carmy’s crew is skilled and capable, they might suddenly transition from a sandwich store to a fine dining establishment without making any changes in this The Bear review. It acknowledges that they would need to learn new talents, including some that Carmy brought with him from the previous season before he used them to grasp the sandwich shop environment.
Carmy has already entered Richie’s world, and now we can witness what would happen if Richie were to enter Carmy’s reality in this The Bear review. The same complex personalities and intricate relationships are used, but the details are changed just enough so that no scenario from this run of episodes can be confused with one from the previous. It was once a show about labor and it still is today. It emphasizes training rather than just inherent talent. Failure is OK because learning is not magical; it is the result of repetition, focus, and perseverance.
“The Bear” is just sincere enough to think that this could have a profound effect. This is the case with Richie, who in a week transforms from a divorced sap to a man who respects himself and dresses sharply; from an incompetent loudmouth to a front-of-the-house magician who can decipher a barrage of orders like the Matrix’s code in this The Bear review.
Does everything happen improbably quickly? Absolutely. But it makes sense in the context of The Bear, which holds that no one is beyond repair and that everyone is a potential remodeling project. Before the next season releases, check out our Season 3 preview here.
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