The Bear Season 1-2 Talk

[Irish Mermaid]

I finally got around to finishing S2. I think it took me a week just to watch the Fishes ep, I kept having to take a break. I did not enjoy that one at all, it was extremely stressful. For one thing, I can’t stand it when characters just repeat the same thing over and over, and this episode in particular seemed to take the repetition to the edge of insanity. That plus the kitchen chaos, the mess, the timer(s), JLC being bonkers … it was a lot. (I realize it was intended to be a lot, but that didn’t make it any more enjoyable.)

As others have said, the Forks ep was pretty impressive in that it made me actually kinda like Richie - he annoyed the everliving sh*t out of me up to that point. I was wishing we could just stay there in that nice quiet, calm place.

Also, I must have missed something along the way — I totally thought Sugar was married to Neil (Fak). I couldn’t figure out WHY she had married him, but she would always call him pet names (even when it was in a super annoyed tone LOL) and I just really thought “huh, OK, well maybe he’s not such a doofus ALL of the time” … and then there was Pete the night of the Friends & Family service, totally confusing me!

 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 8/8/2022 at 3:24 PM, possibilities said:

I think they do. Isn't that why Carmy was always having them prep it? Maybe I misremembered, but I was sure I'd heard that a few different times.

What would be the purpose of making more giardiniera right then when they were in the weeds (episode 7) if it takes 2 days in the fridge to pickle properly?

 

[dleighg]

On 6/29/2023 at 1:25 PM, blixie said:

Noma is in Copenhagen, that's why the show is vague about specifics re: who McHale was playing, they insinuate Luca and Marcus are working in a Noma but it's not clear that's the case it's possible Luca has opened his own place in Denmark.

I just watched this episode last night, and I got the impression it was NOT Noma that Marcus is at. They showed him walking by the outside, peering in the window. I don't think he'd do that if that's where he was working.

[meep.meep]

I finished season 2 a while ago but am rewatching it with my daughter.  On the Marcus in Amsterdam episode, did they cut out the cat for some reason?

 

[dleighg]

So did the cat appear originally? I just watched it for the first time and Marcus made some kind of joke about "is there actually a cat?"

[meep.meep]

I think the cat showed up once.  It was brown.  But there was a note about feeding it and they showed Marcus pouring out the crunchies.  I can't figure out why they would cut it out.

[CrystalBlue]

I'm only chiming in because Marcus in Amsterdam was one of, if not the, best episodes of S2.  Just beautiful all around.  It's a pity they would cut out the cat on repeat showing.  Cat Lives Matter -- All 9 of Them!

[SourK]

I'm only at the start of season two, but, from what I can gather, according to The Bear, being loud and energetic = hero, whether or not any of the things you loudly, energetically do make any sense.

I thought the worst moment was episode 1.7, where Carmy saw that they had to fill hundreds of orders in 10 minutes -- like, orders they literally could not fill, because they did not have enough food -- and then he... seriously attempted to do that, and got all pissed off when it didn't work.

But then I came back for the first episode of season two, where Carmy promises to pay his uncle back in 18 months -- a number of months he comes up with, that nobody else suggested -- and then he has a meeting where he apparently learns for the first time what the timeline will be to open his restaurant and make a profit. And then he's like, "Oh, no. That's really intense time pressure, given that I just set an arbitrary timeline of 18 months! Let's just accept that as the situation and start scrambling again."

I cannot.

[FnkyChkn34]

On 12/17/2023 at 3:10 AM, Irish Mermaid said:

I finally got around to finishing S2. I think it took me a week just to watch the Fishes ep, I kept having to take a break. I did not enjoy that one at all, it was extremely stressful. For one thing, I can’t stand it when characters just repeat the same thing over and over, and this episode in particular seemed to take the repetition to the edge of insanity. That plus the kitchen chaos, the mess, the timer(s), JLC being bonkers … it was a lot. (I realize it was intended to be a lot, but that didn’t make it any more enjoyable.)

 

I started watching this show this week and made it to "Fishes" - I came here to see if I was the only one who thought it was unwatchable.  I'm glad that I'm not the only one!  I stopped halfway through and don't think I even want to finish it.  Everyone screaming the same thing at the same time for the entire episode (I assume, even though I stopped halfway) was absolutely unnecessary and ridiculous.  As an introvert, I just couldn't handle it.  The whole show is a lot, but this episode just went to the extreme.  I think I'll read a summary online and move on to the next episode.   

[Night Cheese]

5 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I started watching this show this week and made it to "Fishes" - I came here to see if I was the only one who thought it was unwatchable.  I'm glad that I'm not the only one!  I stopped halfway through and don't think I even want to finish it.  Everyone screaming the same thing at the same time for the entire episode (I assume, even though I stopped halfway) was absolutely unnecessary and ridiculous.  As an introvert, I just couldn't handle it.  The whole show is a lot, but this episode just went to the extreme.  I think I'll read a summary online and move on to the next episode.   

It look me three days to watch Fishes. I felt like I was getting anxiety just watching it and had to turn it off twice and return the next day. Kudos to all actors and writers involved, but man, that was a difficult episode to sit through. 

[AheadofStraight]

On 4/25/2024 at 9:08 AM, FnkyChkn34 said:

I started watching this show this week and made it to "Fishes" - I came here to see if I was the only one who thought it was unwatchable. 

This is the episode that comes to mind whenever I hear the show won the Emmy for Best "Comedy". Eesh.

[akiss]

2 hours ago, AheadofStraight said:

This is the episode that comes to mind whenever I hear the show won the Emmy for Best "Comedy". Eesh.

Exactly! This show is many things, but comedy is not one of them.

[Kath94]

I'm WAY behind the curve in watching The Bear, and just last night watched 2.6 "Fishes."  I'd been warned about it here, and knew about it going in, but it was STILL a lot to take.  This was the first time I was grateful for Hulu commercial breaks!  I kept watching the clock during the first segment wondering when it would stop for a break and when it finally DID I took a breath.  Sheesh!  This introvert would go nucking FUTS in that household!

[Crashcourse]

I just got through the 4th episode of Season 1 because it's now on FX.  I'd heard that it got rave reviews and Emmys and Golden Globes, but I think you'd have to be in the restaurant business to really appreciate it--which I'm not.  I think it's just too hectic and helter skelter for me, although I will acknowledge that I have no idea what it's like in a restaurant kitchen (and I don't want to know).  

And it is irritating to see them in the kitchen with loose hair and sweat flying all over the place.  They got new aprons, but no one thought to get chef's hats since they like to call themselves "chefs"? 

Edited June 4 by Crashcourse

[Irlandesa]

15 minutes ago, Crashcourse said:

I just got through the 4th episode of Season 1 because it's now on FX.  I'd heard that it got rave reviews and Emmys and Golden Globes, but I think you'd have to be in the restaurant business to really appreciate it--which I'm not.  I think it's just too hectic and helter skelter for me, although I will acknowledge that I have no idea what it's like in a restaurant kitchen (and I don't want to know).  

You don't need to be in the restaurant business to appreciate it.  But I will say that it's a good thing the first season was a binge model for me.  I thought it was too loud and hectic but at some point, the tension released a bit for me and it all clicked.  I do think it was later than the fourth episode. 

[Crashcourse]

Well, I finished watching Season 1 and no way is this a "comedy!" 

Also, I'm no prude but I got tired of Carm and Ritchie constantly throwing out f-bombs every other word.  Some other shows are guilty of it, too, and I think it's just poor writing to get the actors' points across, and the writers can't come up with more creative, effective dialogue. 

I don't know when/if season 2 comes up on FX, but I'm not sure I'll be watching.

[Rickster]

I’m just finishing up Season 2 on Hulu, and I keep waffling between thinking the show is really good, and thinking it is incredibly over-written and pretentious. And no, I never made it through “Fishes”.

[Jordan61]

I just finished rewatching in anticipation of the new season, and Fishes is exhausting. But other than that I love season 2 so much. Honeydew and Forks are such great episodes. And the way everything comes together at the end is just so...satisfying. I don't know any other way to describe it.

[andidante]

I binged this show last week and really liked it! Fishes was so intense and Jamie Lee Curtis was amazing. I feel so bad for Sugar's husband in the last episode of season two. He is in such a difficult spot!

[Black Knight]

On 4/30/2024 at 11:56 AM, akiss said:

Exactly! This show is many things, but comedy is not one of them.

I just binged both seasons, and I laughed once - when Richie was yelling something at Sugar about it not being mold and poking up at the ceiling, which promptly collapsed on him, and then two balls hit him on the head. I hated Richie at that point in time, so I was pretty thrilled to see that happen, laughed hard, and replayed it a few times.

Until Forks, I found Richie the one intolerable part of the show. And in Forks, I was holding my breath that he was going to totally sabotage everything at the end after he was essentially told he had no chance of being hired at the restaurant and then screamed at Carmy because he felt humiliated. But then he ran into Terry, a cameo by Olivia Colman I just loved so much, and she got his head on straight. Phew. I hope he can stay this new Richie.

The one weak point in S2, I thought, was Claire. There was just so much telling instead of showing when it came to her. The characters hyped her constantly but all we were actually shown was a reasonably attractive and nice woman, written two-dimensionally. The lack of any substance to the hype was annoying. If she is back in S3, they need to write her as an actual person. Her lack of any layers or nuance really stood out on a show where a great deal of complex characterization goes into the major characters and their relationships with each other, and the actress wasn't good enough to infuse anything that wasn't already on the page, despite being given a lot of extremely close-up close-ups. The writers weren't interested in Claire as a person, just as a vessel to illustrate the concepts that Carmy has trouble with work-life balance and with being in a functional relationship. This explains writing choices like making her an ER doctor without thinking through what that would mean for her - in short, that she would have an excellent understanding of busy, chaotic work schedules, how that can be very draining for a person, and would be frequently unavailable herself. Instead this ER doctor was written to seem a little oblivious to what her boyfriend launching a restaurant in a few weeks would mean, because again, she's not actually a person, she just exists to show us Carmy having trouble with work-life balance. They only made her an ER doctor because it sounds impressive and awesome, and she's supposed to be the most impressive and awesome person around - so the show told us endlessly.

I felt kind of sad for Carmy that he missed so much of the friends-and-family night, but I think it might be good for him ultimately. As others have pointed out, he doesn't seem to get any joy out of being a chef. Seeing that the staff was able to get through a night without him (while also being short a second person, even!) and still make a restaurant full of people happy could go a long way towards relieving some of the pressure he puts on himself. He's not the sort of ego-driven person who would find it upsetting that things didn't fall apart completely without him there. This could ultimately lead to him developing better work-life balance. He can take nights off from the kitchen. He can even take most nights off from the kitchen. The best fit for him in this industry is likely that of someone who develops talent who can run his restaurants ably, and focuses more on the overall branding than day-to-day operations, like a number of celebrity chefs who are rarely actually at the restaurants they're known for. I think Carmy likes the talent development side of things, and this season showed how he has a good feel for that.

I think a telling little detail about how much he does not enjoy the kitchen operations side of things is his letting Tina have his knife permanently. He could have gotten her a knife just like his, so that she would have the same high-quality knife while he would have his knife back. But he's actually not sentimental about his knife at all.

Edited June 16 by Black Knight

[heatherchandler]

Liked Forks but what they did to that deep dish Pequods pizza was a crime!

You can’t take the pizza apart.  It needs to be eaten in a huge hulking slice or it gets chilled.  Deep dish cheese once cold is inedible.  I know cold pizza is a thing but deep dish cannot be eaten cold.  I’ll die on this hill.

And another thing, you don’t add fancy garnish and reductions to the flavor of deep dish!  It’s very specific.

Chicagoan here. 

Edited July 3 by heatherchandler

[Daisychain]

I was rewatching Season 2 (except for Fishes, you'd have to pay for a therapist, what an epic poem of dysfunction). I enjoyed Episode 8, Bolognese, the episode after Forks, one of the most rewarding tv episodes ever written and acted.  Bolognese was the fire suppression test ep.  The funny thing that I missed before was that the bottle of Pepto was kind of a Spirit Stick. Talk about your feelings? Here's the Pepto.  Need to talk about your feelings? Hold this Pepto.  Notably Marcus and T don't need the bottle of Pepto.

[Vanderboom]

On 6/16/2024 at 2:12 PM, Black Knight said:

The one weak point in S2, I thought, was Claire. There was just so much telling instead of showing when it came to her. The characters hyped her constantly but all we were actually shown was a reasonably attractive and nice woman, written two-dimensionally. The lack of any substance to the hype was annoying. If she is back in S3, they need to write her as an actual person. Her lack of any layers or nuance really stood out on a show where a great deal of complex characterization goes into the major characters and their relationships with each other, and the actress wasn't good enough to infuse anything that wasn't already on the page, despite being given a lot of extremely close-up close-ups. The writers weren't interested in Claire as a person, just as a vessel to illustrate the concepts that Carmy has trouble with work-life balance and with being in a functional relationship.

Absolutely. The Bear is at its best when it shows character complexity,  so it's even more of a letdown when characters are weakly written. Richie was terrible at first because it seemed as if Yelling was his primary personality trait; he becomes much better as when we get to see his layers. I wanted to like Claire, but she was set up to be the Perfect Girlfriend with nothing humanizing about her. It didn't help that all the other characters kept singing her praises. Granted, she doesn't have to be as dysfunctional as everyone else or as dorky as Pete, but it might have been nice to see something more realistic.

[lucindabelle]

I guess I’m odd one out because I do like Claire… she has a certain style that meshes with Carmy, her banter and sense of humor are low key and not needy in a way that is reassuring to him. 
 

I don’t like the “character overhears part of what is said” trope though. 

[Yeah No]

I'm very late to this party and there's just too much to say. I'm a foodie who's gone to some of the finest restaurants in the U.S. if not the world (Le Bernardin, Eleven Madison Park, etc.) and am well acquainted with restaurant culture through many TV shows focusing on them and of course having watched just about everything Anthony Bourdain ever put on TV and reading at least part of his first book. I grew up watching Julia Child in real time and am a home cook with a passion for food and cooking just like the rest of my Sicilian American family. And that's just the nutshell version.

So anyway for someone like me there is no head scratching on most of what I saw here concerning the world of fine dining and restaurants. If you know this culture you get it. If not, well, there are some things that might be puzzling. And BTW, it's not just the world of fine dining that can be stressful, but any restaurant. And it does require one's heart, soul and in some cases entire life. You really have to be possessed. It's not always healthy or pretty but it's the way it can be. Rick Bayless and Eric Ripert may be wizards that can run a very "zen" kitchen but not everyone can. Speaking of that I think it's obvious that Syd has an ulcer from the stress. Puking outside like that is a result of that stress. She really needs to see a doctor.

I'm also an Italian American and not from any kind of culture usually depicted on TV shows so I love how this show presents us as like anyone else and not that tired old insulting mafia culture. I do have one criticism, though, and that's that none of the actors chosen to play Italian Americans are Italian American, but that wouldn't bother me so much if they were believable as such, and they're not. The writing didn't ring true to that and the actors, while great, did not convince me of their ethnicity. And it's arguable that the Fishes episode made anyone look good so there's that too. I found that a very hard episode to watch and again another example of the show going OTT.

Don't get me wrong I love this show because there is so much here that I know is realistic and that perhaps many people may not truly "get". I wish I had been around to help settle some of the confusion over the real vs. the fictional in the restaurants depicted (thankfully someone else did). Yes, some is real, some is fictional and some is over the top and does make things look worse than they probably are at many places. Rick Bayless may not run a kitchen that way but some do. I do get how he feels about this. Although I do feel sad that Tony Bourdain isn't around to see this show or comment on Rick Bayless's reaction to it....

I found it funny that I'm recognizing real restaurants and chefs and real culinary terms and situations here while others here are recognizing actors that I wouldn't know if you paid me to identify them, LOL. (Of course everyone knows Jamie Lee Curtis.) There are many levels to this show and things to get from it, which is the mark of a great show.

I also kept reading here about the confusion over everyone calling each other "cousin" when they're really not related by blood. I am amazed that no one here remembered this from childhood - maybe I'm just old or something but back in the '60s we used to call our parents' best friends "aunt" and "uncle" so of course the kids like me who sat at the kiddie table were "cousins". And that's not even in Italian American culture - There is also a specific thing in Italian American culture for unrelated families to be close like this and call each other "cuz" or cousin", which started in Italian as "cugino" or "cugini" (for cousin/s). Back in the 1980s when my husband was young he managed a transmission shop owned by a Sicilian family and the cast of characters coming in and out of the shop were  close and colorful like we're seeing here in the restaurant. Lots of cursing, yelling, joking around, calling each other funny names, etc.. And of course calling each other "cuz" all the time.

Anyway, that's about all I can manage right now. On to Season 3!

 

[peeayebee]

7 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Speaking of that I think it's obvious that Syd has an ulcer from the stress. Puking outside like that is a result of that stress. She really needs to see a doctor.

Am I misremembering, or did we see inside Syd's medicine cabinet a lot of meds, including pepto-bismol?

Quote

I also kept reading here about the confusion over everyone calling each other "cousin" when they're really not related by blood. I am amazed that no one here remembered this from childhood - maybe I'm just old or something but back in the '60s we used to call our parents' best friends "aunt" and "uncle" so of course the kids like me who sat at the kiddie table were "cousins".

We had two sets of family friends that we called Uncle and Aunt, but we never even thought of their kids as cousins or considered calling them that. That's just my experience. My parents and those people were all from Europe (Poland and England), so I wonder if their cultures have this tradition (not the right word) of children calling close family friends Uncle and Aunt.

At first I was confused by the whole 'cousin' thing, but early on I read the explanation for it, so it didn't bother me.

 

[Yeah No]

6 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

Am I misremembering, or did we see inside Syd's medicine cabinet a lot of meds, including pepto-bismol?

I don't remember Pepto Bismol in the cabinet but I do remember Omeprazole, which is the generic version of Prilosec, which is prescribed for excess stomach acid, acid reflux and ulcers. I don't think all of those meds. belonged to her, though. Like others said in this thread, some of them could have been her father's.

9 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

We had two sets of family friends that we called Uncle and Aunt, but we never even thought of their kids as cousins or considered calling them that. That's just my experience. My parents and those people were all from Europe (Poland and England), so I wonder if their cultures have this tradition.

No doubt this probably manifests itself differently in different cultures, and in different cultures in the U.S. too. I'm wondering if it's specific to Chicago Italian Americans to call each other "cousin" as opposed to "cuz" like in the Northeast. That would explain its use on the show.

[peeayebee]

I have such a bad memory. I had to google about the Pepto Bismol. It's Carmy who's seen drinking it. I also read that a bottle is passed from character to character.

[Elizzikra]

17 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

I have such a bad memory. I had to google about the Pepto Bismol. It's Carmy who's seen drinking it. I also read that a bottle is passed from character to character.

Carmy drinks it like it’s water. He also shares with Fak.

[Madding crowd]

I am very late to the party and just finished season two. I have lived in Chicago for over 30 years and come from an Italian American family so I should have jumped on it from the start but the first two episodes with everyone screaming turned me off for awhile.

I love the legit scenes and Chicago references. Most of the time I watch something set in Chicago it is one scene of the skyline and one of the El and that’s it. My husband and I go to Pequods all the time and we only buy our cakes from Weber’s. It’s fun seeing real places. I’m still not a fan of the screaming and most of the Italians didn’t seem like real Italians I know but I like Carmy, Marcus, And the rest. Syd sometimes bothers me as she constantly gets upset if Carmy can’t drop what he’s doing if she wants something. On to season three.

[Yeah No]

On 8/15/2024 at 8:32 AM, Madding crowd said:

I am very late to the party and just finished season two. I have lived in Chicago for over 30 years and come from an Italian American family so I should have jumped on it from the start but the first two episodes with everyone screaming turned me off for awhile.

I love the legit scenes and Chicago references. Most of the time I watch something set in Chicago it is one scene of the skyline and one of the El and that’s it. My husband and I go to Pequods all the time and we only buy our cakes from Weber’s. It’s fun seeing real places. I’m still not a fan of the screaming and most of the Italians didn’t seem like real Italians I know but I like Carmy, Marcus, And the rest. Syd sometimes bothers me as she constantly gets upset if Carmy can’t drop what he’s doing if she wants something. On to season three.

I didn't feel like most of the Italian Americans seemed very Italian either but being Italian American from NYC I wondered how a Chicagoan would feel about this. I also didn't love the screaming scenes, which didn't feel very Italian American either, not that we don't scream or argue but they just didn't feel authentic to the culture. So thanks for confirming my perceptions.