Deconstructing 'The Bear' - Season 3 - plus Culinary Philosophy Movie Recommendations

https://letterboxd.com/needsintro/

In this episode of 'Need Some Introduction,' Victor explores the new season of 'The Bear,' offering detailed analysis and predictions. He reflects on his decision to avoid social media reactions until after recording. Before diving into the breakdown, Victor provides three film recommendations for fans of 'The Bear': 'Boiling Point,' 'Pig,' and 'Big Night.' He also addresses usual announcements, including additional content on his Letterboxd page and upcoming episodes. Throughout the episode, Victor shares insights into the show's meta-commentary, character development, and thematic exploration. He critiques the season's execution, the extensive use of stunt casting, and the unresolved cliffhangers, while also highlighting standout episodes and character arcs. Lastly, he speculates on the direction of Season 4 and invites listeners to stay tuned for further discussions and reviews.

00:00 Introduction and Announcements

02:11 Recommendations for Fans of 'The Bear'

02:14 Boiling Point: The Inspiration Behind 'The Bear'

06:07 Exploring 'Pig' with Nicolas Cage

12:25 Big Night: A Culinary Classic

14:57 Diving into 'The Bear' Season 3

17:16 Carmi's Journey and Meta Commentary

23:36 Challenges and Tensions in the Restaurant

29:44 Richie's Role and Character Development

34:58 Falling in Love with the Characters

35:40 The Importance of Reviews

35:58 Episode Five: Children

36:07 Cicero's Visit and Practical Advice

36:58 Chef Terry's Influence and Concerns

37:36 Episode Six: Tina's Backstory

39:29 Tina's Journey and Struggles

41:52 Mikey's Tragic Path

44:55 Episode Seven: Legacy and Decisions

50:08 Episode Eight: Mixed Emotions

52:52 Episode Nine: Apologies and Tensions

55:36 Finale: Reflections and Future

01:01:27 Looking Ahead to Season Four

01:04:00 Final Thoughts and Audience Engagement

Episode Transcript

Victor (00:00):
Welcome everybody to another episode of need some introduction.
I'm your host Victor.
And on this podcast, I try tohopefully introduce you the listener
to something new, something old,something new, something new to you and
provide some analysis along the way.
In today's episode, I'll be breakingdown this new season of the bear.
I'm intentionally avoiding socialmedia reaction to the season until

(00:24):
after I complete this initialepisode of the podcast, but I have
a feeling this is going to be a verydivisive season for fans of the show.
Before I get into that breakdown, I willbe providing a couple of recommendations
that fans of the bear may want to catch upwith both highly recommended by the way.
And before all of that, justthe usual announcements.

(00:44):
If you'd like to get even additionalcontent, additional reviews, daily
reviews, practically check outthe link to my letterbox page.
You do not have to be a letterbox memberto read the reviews or follow me there,
but check the link in the show notes.
If you're curious to read thosereviews and some of these lists, these
recommendation lists associated tothese episodes, you can also email me.

(01:06):
Check the show notes forthe email link as well.
And I probably will be checking outthe social media reaction now that I've
seen the entire season of the show.
And also Sona is catchingup on the show this weekend.
So expect probably early next week,yet another episode regarding this
third season of the series where I'llhave a follow up conversation with
Sona, get her opinion of how this allplayed out and reflect on it a little

(01:29):
further with that additional context ofPopular reaction and critical reaction.
And later in the week, PresumedInnocent's been very solid so far.
This new adaptation of the Scott Turownovel on Apple TV plus, and we are now
past the mid season of that series.
And there'll be an episode catchingyou up on that and a conversation
with Sona here in the same feed.

(01:49):
So subscribe if you'd liketo get that notification when
that episode becomes available.
And some of the biggestsummer movies are coming out
throughout the rest of the year.
Expect to see an episode rounding upthe first half of the summer, I guess
the first third of the summer season.
And a bunch of reviews of those existingfilms and previews of some of the big
titles coming later in the summer.
All that is to come.

(02:11):
Okay, to kick thingsoff, my recommendations.
Recommendation number one, there'sa short film called Boiling Point, a
British 22 minute short film from backin 2019, written and directed by Philip
Barantini and starring Stephen Graham.
And the premise of this short film isthe same as the feature film, and maybe

(02:31):
I'll just get to that immediately.
You can rent this short film, but Ibring it up for the fact that this was a
experiment for a feature film, 22 minuteslong, a single take, one of these films
that is one single continuous take.
And if that sounds familiar, you probablyremember from the first season of
The Bear, there is an episode exactly22 minutes long, one single take.

(02:55):
This is the one where Sidney leavesthe Overnight website open with the
delivery requests and then they turnon the machine and they're completely
overwhelmed and you've probably seen it.
It's a very, very chaotic episode.
So this was, to some extent, thatshort film was the germination point
for the entire series of The Bear.
And as this series was being written,the first season of the series, using

(03:17):
that short film as a framing devicein completely parallel development,
Barantini was developing his shortfilm into a feature length film.
And after all that preamble,that is my recommendation.
It is available on AmazonPrime, very easy to find.
Also available on Tubi, by the way.
So basically anybody, atleast in the U S can see this.

(03:38):
I don't know how to beworks in other regions.
If Amazon prime has the same licensingacross the board, but I would figure
that in many parts of the world, ifyou're hearing this right now, if you
have Amazon prime, and of course, if youhave to be, and don't even need to have
Amazon prime, you can watch this film.
And this is the same thing, an extensionof that short film, one and a half
hours long, a continuous single take.

(04:01):
This thing must have been, this must havehad to have been rehearsed so many times
to be able to shoot this continuously.
An hour and a half.
There are no hidden edits.
It is a true one and ahalf hour continuous take,
basically a live performancechoreographed around the cameras.
I can't imagine what thechoreography must have been for

(04:21):
the blocking for this whole thing.
And if you like this fly on thewall, look behind the stressed
out lives of being in a kitchen.
Any kitchen is stressful, butin this case it is one of the
highest end restaurants in London.
It is leading up to Christmas.
It's the busiest time for theserestaurants in London proper.

(04:42):
And Stephen Graham, the owner of therestaurant who has addiction problems,
who has interpersonal problems, is tryingto successfully pull off this night.
And of course, as you would expectin these type of movies, culminating
around him, his interpersonalrelationships are falling apart.
A lot of his backstory is revealed throughthese continuous interactions between his

(05:02):
staff, between his family members, betweenthe different players in this scenario.
And it is just this onevery stressful shift.
And it's very impressive.
This one and a half hour experiment,which is very satisfying.
And as a matter of fact,has spun off a series.
If you live in the UK on BBC, you can seea whole season of this show boiling point.

(05:23):
Also same name, same actor,Stephen Graham playing the lead,
a lot of the same cast, actually.
So all recommendations.
The short film, but of course,most easy to see the feature length
adaptation and of course the series.
If you can get your hands on it,check out the series as well.
It's a very interesting feedback loop.
The short film inspired the bear,the boiling point, the success of

(05:45):
that film in England to some extentpopularized the bear, the series there.
And then of course the success of thebear leads to a TV series version of.
The movie, it's thisinteresting feedback loop.
And if you're curious aboutall of that, if that sounds
interesting to you, check it out.
Like I said, the movie at leastis available on Amazon prime.
Very easy to track down.

(06:07):
Okay.
Second recommendation, a film called pig.
This one's a little trickybecause there's a lot of movies
called pig, but it's called pig.
It's from 2021.
Starring Nicolas Cage.
So that should make it prettyeasy to track down available on
Hulu and the Disney plus bundle.
If you have Disney, you get Hulu thereas well and available for free on canopy.
K N O P Y a service that no oneknows about, but I continuously

(06:31):
reference here on the show.
A lot of the recommendations I makehere are available on canopy, which is
free to everybody with a library card.
Most parts of the country.
Anyway, if you have a library card.
Or if you have a friend who has alibrary card that does support Canopy,
create an account, link it to yourlibrary card or theirs, and just watch
a lot of really great free content.

(06:53):
Stuff you can't find anywhereelse, by the way, for free.
Hey, you know, you pay yourtaxes, take advantage of it.
Once again, that's called Pig.
And this is the first feature film bydirector Michael Cernosky, which I bring
up one more time, by the way, becauseopening today, as I'm publishing this,
or recording it anyway, Friday the 27th.
Michael Cernowski is the director ofthe very well reviewed new Quiet Place,

(07:18):
Day One, which is going to be, I wasgoing to say number one this weekend,
no actually, Inside Out is going to benumber one, Inside Out two, continues
this phenomenal run, we'll have totalk about the box office at some point
in the future, but it is certain toopen well, and hopefully perform well,
especially given those positive reviews.
I'll definitely be checking it outvery soon and probably have a review

(07:39):
for it either here or on Letterboxd.
So Michael Cernovsky in his 20s writesthis film, somehow gets, I don't know
all the details of this, but somehow getsthe interest of Nicolas Cage and gets
this relatively small budget movie made.
And of course, like I mentioned, thesuccess of that leads to this big
budget directing job directing this.
Action horror film whose budget is anorder of magnitude higher, I'm sure,

(08:02):
but if you know anything about pig,I've never seen the, I never saw the
trailers for this, by the way, and I,I really went into this in exactly the
correct frame of mind, I think I canonly imagine that people who are on
board, like the Internet meme generation.
That went to see this film because theythought it was going to be another crazy
over the top Nicolas Cage performance.

(08:24):
They must have walked out of thismovie scratching their heads.
And in no small part to the fact thatthe hook of this movie, the synopsis,
even on Internet Movie Database, is thatsome guy, some crazy wild man in the
woods has his favorite pig kidnappedand he goes on a revenge rampage.
That's basically how the showwas, this film was pitched.

(08:45):
And I think intentionally that is thetagline to kind of get people juiced
to think like, Oh my God, this is likeJohn Wick with a pig instead of a dog.
Or this is, um, like LiamNeeson, get me back my pig.
So all that is to say that Idid not go in with that context.
Not that expectation, I should say.
And I imagine people who wentin with that expectation must

(09:05):
have been so disappointed.
And then I eventually saw it more out ofa curiosity to say, wow, This Nicolas Cage
film is getting a lot of positive reviews.
I got to check this out.
And I had seen Mandy, by theway, which is one of those
crazy, over the top Nicolas Cage.
At least half the performance is crazy.
The other half is actually very subdued.
So I was starting to get back on boardwith Nicolas Cage, curious to see, well,

(09:26):
why is everybody buzzing about this film?
And this film, to me, is such a knockout.
Because what actually the, what thefilm is actually about is about, yes,
this man, wild man living out in theoutskirts of Seattle in the woods.
And he does indeed have hispet pig, who is a truffle pig.
It actually helps him find truffles.

(09:47):
And he's supplying trufflesto this young restaurateur.
That's the setup.
The first few minutes of the film.
And yes, some peoplecome and kidnap his pig.
But then what happens isnot some crazy revenge film.
What we see is this man on footliterally going on this odyssey back
through his life, and over each oneof these interactions he has as he re

(10:11):
enters society, we start to discoverthat he was a restaurateur, a famous
restaurateur, who has isolated himselfbecause of some trauma in his life.
past, and we discover some of the detailsof that trauma as the film progresses.
And as he encounters each one ofthese people from his past, the film
flirts with, and I guess this isprobably why Cernovsky ends up getting

(10:34):
a job directing a horror film andgetting Nicolas Cage in this role.
There is always this sense thatthings could take a turn, but
what is so surprising about thefilm is that over the course of
these interactions, it's actually.
Nicholas Cage's characters, philosophyon life, this, these words that come

(10:55):
from this person who's lost everythingliterally in the course of his life and
these different people who remained insociety now running into him and their
philosophical contradictions or conflictsand how oftentimes these conflicts are
resolved by the preparation of food.
There's a scene here, this, a fatherson reunion at one point, not to

(11:17):
spoil things, but there's Where it'sall resolved over the course of a
meal and it is really just beautiful.
I know you were not expecting that.
If you've seen the trailer, youthink this is going to be John
Wick action movie or something.
It is not.
It is this deep rumination on loss,on giving up on things you were once
passionate for, all things that honestlyvery tightly couple to the themes

(11:42):
we see in this season of The Bear.
If you did like that aspect of the seasonof The Bear, then do check out Pig.
I think it's under seen.
Probably because it never correctlyidentified its audience and the people
who should have seen it probably wouldnot have Gravitated to it and the people
who did see it expected a different movieSo they were maybe disappointed but my

(12:04):
experience was I was so surprised byit and I just loved it It was one of my
favorite films of that year and reallyimpressive for this young writer director.
So check that out.
It's on Hulu It's on canopy for free docheck that out If you haven't seen it
already, especially if you're a fan of thebear and you like explorations of these
particular themes You Okay, just poppedinto my head a third recommendation.

(12:25):
I think I've wanted to call this outbefore, may have even called it out
before in one of the other episodes.
One of my favorite films of the latenineties, whenever this film came out.
A film called Big Night, which I'm justlooking up on Just Watch, an app that
tells you where to stream these things.
That's where I get my information from.
Available on Paramount Plus,or for rent, of course.

(12:46):
Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scottdirecting together their first
film they directed, I believe.
A film about two brothers whoown an Italian restaurant, Tony
Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci, and alsofeaturing Minnie Driver and Isabella
Rossellini, and a lot of othervery recognizable character actors.
And the tension between thesetwo brothers, the older brother,

(13:08):
the artisan, the one who wants tomake the food exactly the way it's
supposed to be, and the youngerbrother, the producer, the money man.
And of course, this is the reason that.
Movies, stories about restauranteursand even friendships between artists and
filmmakers specifically and restauranteursis because it's all the same tension.

(13:30):
It is one person's vision, but onlypossible via the collaboration of
a team and of course the constantbattle between art and commerce.
The artistic drive is what makes.
The food making the film making possiblethat the passion is what fuels all of

(13:51):
this labor, but then you need to appealto the critics and simultaneously
you need to find an audience.
If people don't show up at yourrestaurant, it doesn't matter
how great your reviews are.
If a handful of critics love your film,unless you've made it on a shoestring,
you won't be able to make anotherone because it won't be profitable.
So there is this constant tensionbetween how much you cater to the

(14:15):
audience versus how much you letyour own passion be your guide.
And that is the tension betweenthese two brothers manifest in
this big night film and the food.
Do not go to see this movie or watchit at home, I guess in this case, on
an empty stomach because you will bestarving after you see it, so make a
reservation at a good Italian restaurantfor the evening after you watch this

(14:37):
excellent movie Which has one of the mostbeautiful Final moments which features
just the making of an omelet Which Iwould not be surprised at all if that is
part of the inspiration for the omeletepisode in season 2 of the bear Okay,
those are the three recommendations allavailable to stream all available to rent
on digital platforms All excellent films.

(14:57):
Okay.
The bear season three.
There is definitely a mediccommentary happening in this
season of the television show.
The first season of theseries was a surprise.
It came out in this windowof time post pandemic.
It caught audiences and criticsoff guard, and like a magic trick,
surprise has to be part of therecipe of a successful magic trick.

(15:22):
Something that is referenced directlyin this series of television.
So some of that magic, some of thatsurprise, can only be in that first
blush with the These new creators, verynew showrunners, many of these cast
members, practically unknown, some ofthem non professionals at the point
when they were cast in this series.
Jeremy Alan White, of course,very recognizable from his very

(15:45):
successful run on Shameless.
But the rest of the cast, characteractors that never had a chance to
shine or young actors that haven'thad much TV experience at all.
And of course, Eben Moss Vakrack,who's been around for quite some
time, very recognizable actor nowgetting this glow up and Abby Elliott.

(16:06):
And of course, Ayo Edibiri, who'sjust so huge right now in so many
different projects as a writer,as a director, as an actress.
And Lisa Cologne Zayas playing Tina,an actress who was a theater actress,
primarily a very long career, nowfinally having this moment of fame.

(16:26):
In some ways, a metaphor for Tina'sjourney herself in the series, all
really impressive Um, performanceshere, but specifically in season
three, I do want to especially callout Lionel Boyce playing Marcus, an
actor with very little experience.
I know he's done somewriting in the past as well.
Looking at his resume, he's beenin some Tyler, the creator videos,

(16:48):
but that's about it early on andother than maybe a guest appearance
here and there in a bit part.
And every season it seems likethey give him a little more to do.
It's once again, interestingmetaphor for the show itself.
I think that there's so much metacommentary in your relationship
with this restaurant, with thesecharacters, and with the show itself.
Really has impressed me,especially in this season.

(17:09):
He has to do a lot more.
He has to show a lot more shadingsto this character and everything they
throw at him, he does with aplomb.
The season itself kicks off with thisabsolutely Extraordinary first episode
the episode is called tomorrow andthe synopsis of the episode is the
next day and the days that led to itand that's basically what it is it is

(17:32):
this prismatic mind palace of karmiesexperience he has this deep burn on his
hands which I don't think we've evernoticed here on the show before and he's
in his apartment and he is reflectingthe next morning immediately after the
events of the conclusion of season two.
So And in his mind, we see his journeyof him leaving his family, the rejection

(17:55):
of his brother, his interactions with hiscousins in New York, with his sister as
he leaves Chicago, the different famous,in this case, are this star studded cast.
They all appear in cameos inthis first episode, by the way.
Everybody we've encountered herepreviously and all the ways he's
interacted with these different charactersin these different restaurant situations

(18:19):
and his entire journey from someonewho's passionate about this through the
current moment and there are moments ofbeauty , of the Zen of the flow state as
he becomes more and more adept at this.
But then the flashes of this toxic familydynamic that he's escaping to a large
extent, and just to put a pin in thatright now, this whole season of television

(18:43):
is about different people thinkingabout why they do the things they do.
If season one was about.
Pardon me, coming back home andtrying to transform this restaurant
from one thing into another.
And if season two was about the birthof that thing, and I think that's why
season two is really so satisfying,not only in the way it's structured,

(19:05):
and I'll do a comparison in thestructuring of these seasons, which is
a bit of a critique I'll have later on.
But on the positive side, you see howstrong that is and how compelling that
is as a viewer of these people allsuddenly identifying this shared vision
and then how all their trajectoriesare intersecting are all pointing

(19:26):
in that one direction, even as thecharacters in season two, this is are
out in different parallel storylines.
Their shared vision, their sharedpassion is driving them together to
this intersection point, which isthe birth of this new restaurant.
So, of course, that's very satisfyingthat the building of something
collaboratively , allows a lot ofparallel action, but still this driving

(19:51):
force of this culmination that's coming.
And what we see here in Microcosm isthat journey for Karmy as he's being
driven by all these different things.
But also laying out the themes hereearly on in this very first episode, that
also he is running away from something.
And that's what is alsopushing him forward.
So the question that is being askedhere more broadly is, what drives us?

(20:14):
Are there positive motivators?
Are there negative motivators?
Do we need those negative motivatorsto get us to a certain point, but
then do we need to let them go?
Because if Karmie continues to runaway from things, even if it keeps
driving him forward, he's addicted.
Like so many members of his familyare addicted to different things.
He's addicted to that blade athis back, that constant need to

(20:36):
push himself forward, that fear ofturning around, but that can't be
the only thing that motivates you.
At some point called out laterin the season itself, the idea
of like, where is the passion?
Where is the fun?
There has to be someupside to all of this work.
And this is an incredibly well made,, Christopher Storr, directing here,
the creator of the series, and one ofthe creators of the series, doing an

(20:58):
incredible job writing and directing.
There's hardly any dialoguehere, if any, I mean, just
incidental dialogue, I believe.
Incredible cinematography, just absolutelybeautiful photographs of these locales.
of the food itself, of the preparationof the food, of these intense closeups
of these people, as they are singlemindedly focused on the task at hand,

(21:18):
which of course is part of Karmie'smotivator, if nothing else, and not
only expertly made, but so generousto the audience, to be honest, because
oftentimes, you know, you take a yearaway, most people are not seeing this
season series, I should say season twoor season one in many months, a year,
maybe some people only watched it once.
So you almost need a way to getcaught up on where you left off.

(21:41):
And for me, this was so exceptionalbecause it not only reminds me of all
these elements of the plot, of allthese different characters, of all
their interactions, of where we leftoff on season two, it puts me right back
in the headspace again of this show.
So I could not speak more highly aboutthis first episode of the show, but I
can imagine people being turned off.
There is literally a later episode where.

(22:03):
They're talking about thesandwich shop being open and how
that is still generating money.
Whereas the much more expensive,much more esoteric version of
the menu is not generating money.
It may have a lot of people showingup, but those costs are high, so
there's less money to be made.
Once again, a metaphor for beinga little, maybe too esoteric in
what you're trying to present.

(22:23):
I personally, personally, as someonewho's been called a film snob to my
face , I don't mind the esoteric.
I often appreciate it.
You can get a little too up your ownbutt in, and I don't appreciate that
when it becomes just esoteric, Idefinitely lean into someone who's taking
a big swing, trying to be ambitious.

(22:45):
So I really love not only the ambition,but the execution of this first episode.
I also very much do not like whensomething's over explained to me, and
of course nothing's over explained.
You have to fill in your ownblanks, and I really do like that
so much about this first episode.
But it's like watching The Sopranos.
I remember that experienceof watching The Sopranos.

(23:07):
It's very similar in some ways to TheBear, that sometimes the things I like
the least about The Bear seem to be thethings that a popular audience seems
to embrace the most fully in the show.
And then here we have, Iwant my beef sandwich, and I
want the esoteric restaurant.
And there's a critique thatmaybe we're going too far
towards the esoteric restaurant.

(23:28):
And where's my beef sandwich?
And maybe that's the argument that'sbeing played out among the viewers
of this show in this third season.
To that point, we move on to episode two.
And I feel like this isvery much straining to give
us the beef sandwich here.
They're trying to give us theinterpersonal character dynamic,

(23:48):
which drove so much of season one.
But I do feel it's a little strained here.
And Every time they lean a littletoo much in this direction, I
bristled against it a little bit.
There's a lot of yelling.
There's a lot of heightening theinterpersonal dynamics that I felt was
a little grating, a little hysterical,as opposed to, by the way, I feel

(24:11):
episode two is nearly redundantbecause we end up with a really
excellent, another really excellentepisode of the show in episode three.
And where we see there is similar, uh,somewhat to this lead up to Carmi today.
As context setting, we now have therestaurants today after one month.

(24:32):
And Carmi has written down inthis manic OCD tempest, all these
non negotiables, which of coursehe single mindedly has defined.
And one of them, part of them, maybethe most annoying one and the most self
sabotaging is the idea that he , wantsto model the restaurant, day one,

(24:52):
to be one of the best in the world.
And he has taken the lessons he'sgotten, not only the positive ones,
but the negative ones as well.
And he's internalized them andhe's trying to do all of that.
He's trying to take, not choose,not subtract the good from the
bad or the bad from the good.
I should say.
But he wants it all.
So this recipe, his version ofthis restaurant is too much.

(25:16):
Just like his recipes in the past whenhe was starting out were too ambitious.
He wanted to have all the flavorshe liked in a single dish.
So subtract, subtract, subtract.
And he has not learned thatlesson in trying to be lead
with passion, collaborate.
Take a big swing and also be incrediblyrigid at your day to day when you show

(25:40):
up Break down the cardboard as soon asit arrives actually pretty good idea
considering how overwhelmed they getby cardboard I used to work at a liquor
store not the same as a restaurant Butif you let those boxes pile up they got
way out of control before you knew it SoKarmy still has not learned the lesson
to subtract and he just keeps addingand adding and adding and he expects
everyone to do everything and be on point.

(26:02):
And of course that includes changingthe menu every day, not every week, not
every season, every day, a new menu.
which of course confuses the staff.
They have to learn a newmenu every single day.
It also makes production costs muchhigher because you buy equipment for
one dish and you never use it again.

(26:23):
It's a waste of money, a waste of time,but he still has his chip on his shoulder.
He wants to prove to everybodythat he can do everything.
He can be everything.
And this has driven him to beconsidered one of the absolute
best young chefs in America.
But that's when that bumps up against.
The realities of the producer,his uncle, who's funding all this.
And he's asking, where is the money?

(26:44):
My tables are full, but where's the money?
This is like a blockbuster film thatgets a lot of critical raves potentially,
or maybe a mixed critical reaction.
We still don't even know that for sure.
And might sell a lot of movie tickets,but the production costs and the
advertising costs and the backendparticipation is so massive that
this thing can never make money.

(27:04):
The more money it makes,the more money it bleeds.
And of course, that'sanother thing that's being.
Explored here.
Both of these themes, the stresses of astartup, basically Everybody's going to
have a different level of commitment Andthat's going to lead to internal tensions
within the team members themselves.
And then finally, is it better tospecialize in something and become

(27:25):
, really good at one thing, or do youneed to be all things to all people?
Because in the end, if you tryto be all things to all people,
you're going to disappoint them.
And once again, a metaphor for this show,I think this is a show that appeals to
different audiences for different reasons.
And by trying to appease allof them, maybe this show is
not the best version of itself.
And maybe it's kind of aware of thoselimitations in episode four, Marcus

(27:49):
continues to deal with the falloutfrom the death of his mother, as
I mentioned before, really greatperformance here by this actor.
But this episode begins to feelnot necessarily overstuffed, but
you can feel the mechanics of theseason trying to fill itself out.
And at this point episode one reallystrong episode three really strong

(28:14):
maybe not coincidentally the episodeswhere there's the least of these
fill in the blanks interactionsbetween the characters especially
these really stressful interactionsfollowed by potentially comedic hit
and miss for me how well the comedyworks in a lot of these interactions.
And then episode four is another oneof these bumps, the rougher episodes.

(28:39):
There's a lot of plots set up here.
Sydney gets approached byanother chef in the street.
He's thinking of opening a new restaurant.
This is a new opportunity for her.
She has been offered, by theway, a partnership in the bear.
There's an agreement that she hasnot reviewed, will not e sign and
that lingers over this entire series.
Of course, she's wondering,do I want to commit to this?

(29:00):
This is extremely stressful.
Does Karmie really respect her?
And even if he does, on paper, respecther, can he get out of his own way and
let other people take more ownership, of this thing that he has built?
And of course, it goesback to my commentary.
If you haven't seen that, check outthe conversation I had with Sona
last week for the preview to this.
But in season two, of course, thefinale there, things have gone

(29:24):
exceptionally well on that opening night.
But Carmy can't see that.
He can only see his limitations.
And Sidney, of course, is wondering,can he ever get out of his own way?
Can I ever be a true partner here?
Of course, that's a huge partof the plot of this season.
What is she going to doon the more awkward side?
They're putting a lot on Richie,the character to bring some of the

(29:49):
heart and the discovery that theabsolutely extraordinary episode
from last season, Forks, that theRichie character brought there.
And once again, it's hit and miss to takesomething that's a bit of a side dish,
a predominant one, but nonetheless, abig side component, and maybe focusing

(30:11):
the show a little too much around him.
Another awkward thing about this, , orless successful, in my opinion,
is once again, stunt casting.
Everybody has to be stunt casted.
And his ex wife's Fianceends up being Josh Hartnett.
And here's a show that in season oneis giving us character actors that have

(30:34):
not acted before, have rarely actedbefore, are seasoned actors that have
had very little TV exposure at all.
So new to us as viewers, aside fromJeremy, Ellen White, of course.
And now as the show has progressed,every single secondary tertiary character
has to be a, a, that guy, not onlythat guy, almost all people who were

(30:59):
mildly to hugely famous currently, orhistorically, and Hey, I'm all in favor.
Josh Hartnett was terrific in Oppenheimer.
He's in the new M.
Night Shyamalan moviecoming out next month.
I'm 100 percent in favor of thisrenaissance in his career, a big fan of
his, especially now that as he's aged.

(31:19):
But we don't need to have every celebritythat has is having any kind of cultural
moment to be a cameo here on the showand that goes to the faq brothers.
The faq family.
I guess it's extended wherewe have john cena again.
I love john cena.
Who doesn't love john cena?
A big guy who can havefun with his persona.

(31:42):
Nonetheless, I love him on Peacekeeper.
We are actually getting a secondseason of Peacekeeper, by the
way, just throw another pin inthat, put it on your watch list.
But do we need another distractionhaving another hugely famous
person walk into this series?
And I'm going to spendanother moment on this.
I wasn't planning on it.
But.
You think back on season one, that Mikeywas this larger than life character and

(32:08):
you have these little known characteractors, even Jeremy Allen white, very
recognizable from shameless, but notthe lead in shameless necessarily
may, I guess, for some of the seasons.
Yes, but in general, not the typeof person who you're thinking
you're going to hang a whole.
Series on and of course theyhave very successfully done.

(32:28):
So here so when you're surprised to seethe hugely charismatic John Barenthal
who's very recognizable not he's hasn'tbeen in any blockbuster franchises or
anything, but a very memorable that guy.
We all know who he is.
When you realize in flashback that that'swho Mikey was, of course, it should be
a celebrity because it's loom so largein his memory now by having every Joe

(32:53):
Schmoe who walks into the show be a famousperson, it really diminishes the whole
punch that Mickey is as this movie star.
Basically, the big persona should bemovie stars because, of course, that is
the whole point of casting in a series.
But having everybody, you know, bettercall, you know, Saul is your stepfather,

(33:16):
and Laurie Strode is your mom, AndGillian Jacobs is the ex, and John
Mulaney is one of the cousins, andSarah Paulson is another cousin, Olivia
Coleman, incredible by the way, sucha great performance, and Will Poulter
in such a small role, I mean, do weneed, , Molly Ringwald shows up as an

(33:37):
Al Anon person, it's It's too much.
I understand why they want to be there.
I understand why the showrunnerswant to work with these people.
I just don't think it improves the show.
Okay, I'm being overlynegative, by the way, on this.
It's not as distracting as all that.
I just feel like it'sa self inflicted wound.
We don't need to lean soheavily on the stunt casting.

(33:58):
Back to the plot here in thefourth episode, after that huge
digression on tiff's fiance,Frank, played by Josh Hartnett.
Despite all that, this actually is apretty touching interaction, specifically
when you see Richie talking aboutwhether maybe he should step away.
Maybe it is weird with this new family,and maybe he is isolating himself.

(34:21):
Although there are maybe Someindications here that he may
have a new romantic interest.
I do hope whether that is true or notthat Richie lands okay, because Richie
really is in a moment even in seasonone of Sheer terror of losing this
thing that is so important to him.
And of course after losing his familyThat's something that this season of the

(34:42):
show does really well is really givingus the psychology of these different
characters And in very subtle ways, thisis where the show is at its strongest
You is understanding Richie more.
Richie is a very annoying characterto me in season one, by the way.
And then I fell in love with him.
I know everybody in Americafell in love with in season one.
I fell in love with him in season twowhen he started this redemption arc.

(35:05):
And now I'm a little concerned forhim because we've discovered that,
of course, it's not only losingMikey, it's not only losing this
only job he has basically ever known.
And of course, having lost his wife anddaughter or the relationship, at least,
although his wife is basically dead.
very much concerned for him, ratherlovingly, and bringing him into the

(35:25):
fold of great interactions betweenthis father and the actress playing
his daughter, this young actress.
You really feel like there is atenderness there in their relationship,
probably between the two actors as well.
And the hook at the end of episode four,of course, is that they find out that not
only is there going to be a write up fromthe Chicago Tribune, a very important

(35:49):
review, that it's already happened.
The reason that they are bringing aphotographer there to photograph the food
is because they're going to run a reviewbecause they have already been there.
Episode five is called Children,and when I was watching it It made
sense to me that it was calledChildren, and now I'm not sure why.
In retrospect, the big thing thathappens here is that Cicero shows up

(36:11):
with his friend the computer, thisis the bean counter, the producer
showing up with the Hollywood beancounter to say, why do we need this?
Why are we spending so much on this?
Uh, shouldn't we?
Simplify the menu.
Shouldn't we buy this in bulk?
Why are we buying one off equipment?
So very rational decisions he's making.
He also asks them to add an additionalhalf turn to make the thing profitable.

(36:36):
And they also need to make the sandwichesmore efficient because the sandwich
delivery is actually what's basicallyfunding the rest of the restaurant.
So all good advice, but of course,very practical and not what
Carmi necessarily wants to hear.
As any purely creative type doesn'twant to ever hear about logistical
realities, even though in the back ofhis mind, he's always thinking about

(36:56):
how long can I keep this thing afloat?
I'm certain and of course, addingpressure and stress to all the
circumstance is that they find out thatChef Terry played by Olivia Coleman
is shutting down her restaurant ever.
And, of course, if Carmy has this gooddad or good mom, bad dad dichotomy that
he's trying to resolve in his mind, ifthe role model for the kinder, gentler

(37:20):
version of the restaurant is Chef Terry,and she can't make this thing work,
potentially, that may not be her truemotivations, but if he's worried, why
is she shutting down the restaurant?
Then what is the possibility ofthe bearer succeeding long term?
Okay, episode six, anotherhighlight of the season.
Episode one highlight, episode three,a highlight, episode four and five,

(37:42):
a little rough, although five workeda little bit better for me than four.
Episode six, another highlight.
Focusing, as they did last season, on asingle character, but instead of showing,
for example, Tina's excellent episodelast season where she goes to culinary
school, hear her do a beautiful karaokeperformance, in this case, we see what

(38:03):
led up to her being hired at the If sheloses her job she had an office job very
interesting to explore a few differentthemes here when you think about the
Tina we know now to create this backstorythat we were not familiar with we may
have assumed or I did anyway that Tinahad been working in restaurants for
20 years Decades, potentially, and hadworked her way up to this position.

(38:26):
And that's why she kind of had thiscockiness about someone else coming in.
What we actually see here is thatshe worked an office job and now she's
working this restaurant job, but shelikes it because she likes the people.
And she also has this chip on hershoulder with Sydney shows up because
she, as she mentions in this episode,sees all these young people taking all
these jobs that she should be gettingthese entry level jobs in other offices.

(38:49):
and simultaneously wanting to slapthem across the face, but envying
them for they can do anything becausethey don't know their limitations.
And this is a great metaphor.
I've had this conversation with my nephewthat that's kind of the great thing
about being young is that you have thisincredible confidence and all your dreams

(39:10):
are probably not going to play out the wayyou expect or almost certainly will not.
But there's this unlimited reserve ofcockiness and confidence because you
just don't know what you don't know.
And that's why we admire theyoung, even though they can be
incredibly selfish, annoying people.
Not my nephews, though.
They're great.
I'm just saying in general, but anotherinteresting and powerful moment here

(39:35):
is she, of course, ends up after goingon this one last failed job interview.
She meets up with Mikey.
Oh, before I get to that,I want to mention here.
We are in New YorkCity , we see succession.
We see these people who live inNew York and have these high power,
high profile jobs, but there arefor every one of those billionaires.
There are thousands, uh, Tens ofthousands of people who are having

(39:59):
very common jobs who potentially havevery successful decades long careers
living in the city who suddenly havethis tenuous potential loss of status
because the job disappears something assimple as that and also the idea that.
Tina, for example, just wants a job.

(40:20):
She just wants to contribute.
She just wants to have somethingto do every single day.
She just wants to feellike a part of society.
And she envies her husband who canget not only one job, but two jobs.
And even he is looking for apromotion, a promotion as a doorman
to basically manage the other doorman.
That's all it is.
A lifetime of Imagine doing aconcierge service at a building,

(40:44):
basically, and security as well,but a relatively low profile person,
the type of people who don't get TVseries made about them, basically.
My dad was a construction worker, my momwas a seamstress, so they worked in these
type of fields, these invisible jobs.
And the people that they hungout with that were in our social
circle also had these type of jobs.
And oftentimes they were immigrants.

(41:06):
They were just happy to have jobs justto be able to put food on a table.
And that was a satisfyingenough expectation.
And all of that is to say that hereis someone who lost her status of
working in a job for many decades,who then ended up in a way demoting
herself to work at a restaurant,almost, you know, an entry level job

(41:26):
that pays her probably significantlyless than she was making before.
But now, of course, you think howthis drives her because now she
is in a job that she accidentallyfell into, but now she can be great.
She can be great at somethingelse, even late in her life.
And we see this dynamic here.
It's really . Excellently conveyedin this particular episode, which is
one of the strongest in the season.

(41:47):
Okay.
And then finally, of course,she ends up with the beef.
She gets offered a job by Mikey.
We get to see Mikey here.
And once again, what the show isable to do so well, filling in the
blanks in ways you don't expect.
After season one, season two,I'm thinking Mikey is a loser.
He ran the business into the ground.

(42:09):
He's an addict.
He was jealous of Karmie'sskill and success.
And in rewatching season one withmy wife, when she finally saw it
just recently in rewatching seasonone, I had even more questions
about why Mikey had rejected Carmi.
Was it just jealousy?
I just didn't understand moreso than the first time I saw the

(42:31):
show and just kind of accepted it.
Anyway, in just this one interaction,this is beautifully filled out.
We now see.
Unbeknownst to us, of course,Sugar and Carmi and Mike's
dad is not in the picture.
We find out that he ran off, basically.
He had either opened orinherited this restaurant.
He had run the business intothe ground and had disappeared.

(42:53):
Couldn't deal with it.
Walked away.
Left the family to deal with this.
Mikey didn't have a career, didn'thave a trajectory, didn't have a job.
a passion of his own.
He inherited this reluctantly, butin the end, he kind of fell in love
with it because he loved the people.
And all of this makes this pathologyor psychology of Mike even more

(43:16):
tragic or significantly more tragicthan it was upon first blush.
Because think about it,he has inherited this.
The family has this expectation of him.
He has his own personal demons,probably exacerbated by this
additional pressure on himself.
He wants this thing to to work.
It's not something he's passionate about.
Carmi does have this passion,and he envies him that.

(43:39):
He wants him to go away, because Carmi,that is, because he wants him to get
away from this trap he has found himselfin, But even though he is trapped, he
still kind of likes or has grown to likethis job, but feels also the pressure
that everybody's eyes are on him.
He needs to be successful tosubsidize his mom, to subsidize

(44:01):
his siblings, potentially.
And in that case, you imaginethat it's the pressure of all this
that may have led to his suicide,which is really sad, right?
Because now in this case, it's notsomeone who's self destructive.
It's someone who had these expectationsfoisted upon them and could not
escape these circumstances and cameto an extremely dramatic resolution,

(44:21):
unfortunately, and then leaves therestaurant to his brother, maybe seeing in
Karmie, despite his passion and his drive.
Some of the same stressors that werepiling up on him, and he had always
wanted this restaurant and maybesaying, well, here you go, Karmy.
And of course, trying to set him upwith success by basically stealing
the money from Cicero, although thatdidn't end up being enough money.

(44:44):
But hey, if it had stayed at Sandra'sshop, it probably would have done fine.
And then that becomes the question too.
It's like, how much is Karmy's ambitionitself the limitation of his success?
So all my all these thoughts as we'rejust seeing the plot play out and these
interactions playing off all thesethoughts are in my mind and I thought this
is the show near the peak of its qualitywhere it's able to raise all these issues

(45:09):
and develop these characters and surpriseus with their histories all at the
same time really well done episode 7 isanother um awkward I think episode in the
show although it has some strong pointsthis one's called legacy and Sidney,
of course, has now offered straightup partnership in this theoretical new

(45:30):
restaurant by the Adam character whowants everything to be in the open.
He doesn't want to be like, I don'twant this to be a straight up poaching.
I want to talk to car me.
But of course, she doesn't wantthat conversation to happen either,
because she is still in this.
In between this limbo of does she wantto double down with car me or does
she want to try this new experimentwith someone who at least whether

(45:54):
she respects his cooking as much doeswant to see her as a full partnership.
So will her ideas have more of a voicethere obviously a question we ask
ourselves all the time and we decidewhat our next career choices would be.
This is pretty uneven.
And once again, trying to move the plotalong a different parallel streams.
I think the strongest element hereis as Marcus has been reviewing

(46:18):
Farmi's beautiful diaries, illustrateddiaries, as he's been to all these
different restaurants, he talksabout how these chefs in their
restaurants, how the way they run theirrestaurants is part of their legacy.
So over and over again, I keep thinkingthat this This series is about car
me trying to find a parental figure.

(46:41):
He obviously has his dadwalked away from the family.
His brother rejected him when hewanted to go into business with him.
His mother is untrustworthy.
The family itself, the dynamic isalways so abusive and so self centered.
that it drives everybody to be protective,to also be petty and self centered.

(47:03):
And the only way , for him to haveevolved, was for him to step away.
And of course, now he's stepping back in.
We saw a flashback earlier inthe season to him attending his
brother's funeral, missing thecall when his brother was found.
Unable to actually go into thechurch or the funeral and of course,

(47:25):
like everybody in the family,he probably was so insulated.
So in his own mind, so resentfulof what he wasn't getting from
them that he somehow missedthis and they all missed it.
Right?
But what is the correct parenting style?
What is the correct wayto run your restaurant?
These are what Carmi is conveyingto Marcus and maybe even
lacking in some self awarenesshere during this conversation.

(47:47):
Also a very nice touch here is, asI mentioned earlier, that they have
streamlined the delivery of thesandwich, the sandwiches, Ibra had been
making the sandwiches, putting themtogether, serving them to the customers,
running the cash register, and hisjob had just become a total grind.
But then by bringing in some of the.
Old workers that used to doexactly this every single day.

(48:10):
He can just focus on making thesandwiches and he is loving his job again.
And , this is maybe the seed ofwhere the next season is going to be
a season that they've already shot,I believe, and could speak to some
of the limitations of this season.
And I'll get to it by thetime I get to the end here.
But Ibra's new found or rediscoveredjoy in making the sandwiches is

(48:32):
maybe the model that the restof the staff needs to look at.
to think about focus on the thingyou're excellent at, subtract the
other things that are extraneous,and then maybe rekindle your passion
for what you started off with.
And of course, can't mention the factthat Natalie needs to just go outside.
It's such a nice day.
She's going to go pick up the napkins.

(48:53):
They're always out of napkins.
She's going to pick up the napkins atrestaurant depot and picking up that
one big box pushes her into labor.
I would probably take a break from theshow before I jump into episode eight.
Some things about thisshow are good in a binge.
For example, with season one, I may havedropped off of the show if it wasn't

(49:16):
available as a binge, because Certainaspects of it annoyed me so much.
And then I kind of realized that thattrolling that I described that comes
earlier in a season pays off at the end.
And I probably wouldn't have justcome back week to week season two.
So those episodes were so strongthat I really felt like they could
have gone week to week and peoplewould have talked about them.

(49:37):
It's, Oh, have you seen that yet?
Oh my God.
Did you see fishes?
Oh my God.
Did you see spoons?
Oh my God.
Did you see omelet?
Right.
So all these episodes would have.
If anything made the show even moreviral, I think, potentially, although
it's been so successful, maybe, maybenot, but if you have the option, I would
take a break after episode seven and thencome back to the show because binging it

(49:58):
through the show definitely started tograte on me a little bit towards the end.
And it begins with this episodeeight, even though I really think that
episode eight ends pretty beautifully.
Okay.
Episode eight.
Is like a microcosm of everything I don'tlike about the show and everything I
do like about the show all in once andthis episode of the show is trolling
me I have a feeling I feel like Ishould say that a lot of these episodes

(50:21):
directed by Christopher store end upbeing trolls for me because sometimes he
gives me exactly what I want sometimeshe intentionally subverts it's like I
it's like the experience I'm having awatching this is is very personal to me
in some ways One of the non negotiablesearlier on was that everybody has to
put their cell phones away during theirservice shift, which makes perfect sense.

(50:43):
Phones can be very distracting,especially in this type of high
intensity work environment.
Which means, of course, thatwhen sugar goes into labor,
everybody's phones are turned off.
So she has to turn to the person thatshe least wanted to turn to, her mother.
And this is when, uh, Jamie Lee Curtis'scharacter reenters Donna and right at
the start of the episode when Donna showsup, it's just like nails on a chalkboard

(51:08):
to me, which of course is the intentionand the show's almost too good at this
because I want to fast forward throughsome of these scenes, honestly, because
it's not just like a funny heightenedversion of this type of person like an
everybody loves Raymond or something.
It is a truly annoying.
Energy that she bringsto the show on purpose.

(51:29):
And of course, as I said,this is a very trolling thing.
It continues as they're finally inthe hospital, as she's telling her
to breathe, make the sound, he, he,all of this is just grading to me.
And then of course, as expected,this longer episode as this pivot
point, when the mom and the daughterfinally all the pretenses down,

(51:51):
all their inhibitions down, theyjust have an honest conversation.
When she was born what the motherwent through without all of the
performative aspects of her neurosesand Natalie just Stopping this pressure.
She has on herself to always try toaccommodate her mother and Rejecting
her outright as soon as she is born

(52:16):
And finally, Pete arrives,and it's very sweet.
This whole ending is very strong.
The facts show up.
Everything works here atthe end of this episode.
You know, the facts sometimeswere a little annoying to me.
I like them here in these momentswith Donna, someone they've
known their whole entire lives.
I like Pete and Natalie'sdynamics, very sweet.

(52:36):
I like Pete's interactionwith Donna as well.
I like Donna making amends withher daughter after conveying over
the course of the episode all thedifferent birthing experience she
had with the different siblings.
And then we get to the last twoepisodes of the show, which I
think are the most problematic.
Episode nine is called Apologies.
And it's really about Carmitrying to basically have the

(52:58):
courage to apologize to Claire.
He wants her back.
He's thinking about her all the time.
There's this concept the factshave of being haunted by somebody,
which just means that bad thingsjust continuously seem to happen.
Someone might be doing it to you.
They start to speculate thatmaybe Claire is haunting Carmi.
They decide to go and make the apologizeon his behalf, to apologize on his behalf.

(53:22):
Carmi invites Sidney to come to thisfuneral for the Ever restaurant.
She's reluctant to because sheknows she's got this tension.
Is probably going to runinto Adam while she's there.
So all of this makes her feel awkward.
You can tell she's just nervousaround car me in general.
And Cicero tells car me as kind of an out.
If the restaurant reviews not a hit, he'sgonna have to shut down the restaurant.

(53:45):
But then in his conversation with thecomputer, back in the car, we discover
that it's actually more dire than that.
Cicero's lost money on the market.
I don't know if it's the housingmarket or the stock market.
And it really doesn't matter ifmarginally, Carmy's making 5 percent
more, 10 percent more, even if theyare able to tighten their belts.
He simply cannot float the business.

(54:07):
This is going to set up one ofthe cliffhangers for the season.
One of many cliffhangers, by the way.
A lot of things here are repetitive.
One is that we see Richie and Tiffanyagain talking about whether he's
going to go to the wedding or not.
I don't know we neededthis scene, honestly.
He's said most of thesethings previously already.
I do like the fact that Tiffany says,I don't have any family anymore.
You're kind of my family, whichis an interesting dynamic for your

(54:29):
ex to be, have that put on them.
And she even says it, she goes, Idon't care if you are uncomfortable.
I need you to be there.
Sydney has confirmation by the way,by talking to Pete, who's a lawyer
and has reviewed the contract.
And it turns out that she wouldactually be making less money,
be getting less benefits.
So on paper, the bear seems to bethe worst of the two options for her,

(54:50):
making this split decision for her evenmore difficult, or perhaps on paper,
making it not a split decision at all.
Another thing that's repetitive here.
, at the top of the episode, we do seeCarmi trying to say, to apologize, and
we hear this tense soundtrack musicinterlapping with overlapping with this.
R.

(55:10):
E.
M.
Song that was the love theme,uh, with him and Claire.
And this was really grating for me.
Also, a lot of the technique in thisparticular episode is leaning a little
too much into this bag of trip tricksthat the series has come up with.
This one was maybe the one I was, least impressed with, I would say.

(55:33):
And that leads us to the finale.
forever.
F We made it to the finale.
I honestly did not think this wasgonna go all 10 episodes in this
recap, but , I just kept talkingsomehow . And here we are in the
episode, the really strong episode,technically and in most ways except
for the finale I'll, I'll get to that.

(55:54):
We see Carmi at French Laundry.
Thomas Keller, the actual Thomas Kellergives him some tips on preparing the
chicken once again, this idea of parentsand choosing your role model as a parent,
a big theme here, obviously, in the showand Richie and his daughter, obviously,
being just another element of thisSydney and her father, yet again, sugars.

(56:19):
Anxiety about being a good mother,Donna's reconciliation with her kids.
This is all part of our legacy, right?
As people that we are concerned with,what we leave behind, and that is our
children primarily, but not exclusively.
Obviously, what we make, what webuild is also what we leave behind.
And Carmi once again gets to seeall his parents in one place.

(56:39):
We have Thomas Keller here in flashback.
Giving him some really beautiful advicelike honestly good life lessons if he
this is how he actually talks I hopethis is a legitimate representation
of him as a chef and as a teacherTo always embrace the experience and
the people as part of that experienceAnd of course, counterpointed to chef

(57:00):
Terry, who got everything she wanted.
She built the restaurant.
She made this place.
She had a reputation.
And now she wants to live her life.
She wants to hang out with her friends.
She wants to go on vacations.
She wants to travel around the world.
I think we all feel thatas well, too, right?
Like when is time when you'veachieved enough and you just want
to experience the rest of the world.

(57:21):
And also at this restaurant is DavidFields, who Ran the restaurant called
David I believe in New York that has beenhinted at multiple times here across
the seasons of the show played by JoeJoe McHale and Carmi's just Staring him
down the entire time and then eventuallyconfronts him and once again this idea
of a good parent bad parent He confrontsboth David and says to him how he made

(57:46):
his life miserable and David goes,
.I made you who you are today and Carmi can't even deny it to some extent.
We have seen repeatedly thatCarmi needs this undue pressure.
He puts on himself toreally light his fire.
He wants to be like Chef Terry, buthe really is like David Fields and

(58:08):
I don't think Carmi can deny that.
That that might have beenhis biggest motivator.
He was always runningaway from his family.
It was a negative reinforcementto say, Oh yeah, I'll show you.
And that is what Davidreinforced within him.
And that very well may have beenthe thing that drove him forward.
And now he is doing that.

(58:29):
That is the legacy he is building inhis restaurant by ignoring Sydney's
recipe recommendations, by changingthe menu, her menu over and over again.
And of course, it's the fact thatwhen he corrects her recipe, he
goes, actually, we'll do it this way.
She will accept the factthat you're probably right.
That's the better way to go.
And yet, and yet she says, even if I'mwrong, can you let me make the experiment,

(58:53):
which of course is what happened.
with David as well with that one scallop.
I believe the scallop recipe that he'strying to perfect that whole entire
time with the blood orange, by the way,bringing this all the way full circle of
course, we find out in the very firstepisode that when Sydney went to New York
and ate at David, that the modificationto the rest, to the recipe, David had

(59:15):
basically stolen Carmi's recipe, madehis corrections, just like Carmi does,
but then said, okay, now that's mine.
Carmi goes back to his original version.
And then this serendipitousway, the seasons coming full
circle him recognizing thatthat's what was done to him.
That's what Sidney's asking for.
But of course, Sidney was theperson who had the modified

(59:37):
recipe, his original intention.
And that is the thing that catalyzedfor her, her need to be a chef.
The episode culminates with aparty back at Sidney's place.
She only has frozen waffles, butChef Terry turns it into something.
And this is a reallyfun, boisterous party.
culmination of a lot of thethemes in this season of show.

(01:00:00):
Sidney is still trying to weighout whether she wants the new
offer or to stay with Farmy.
She remembers the original fivestar rating for the beef in the
Chicago Tribune, starts to panicif the review is not as good.
What does that mean about thechanges that have taken place?
And then the final momentsare very confusing to me.
It looks like army is missinga bunch of notifications.

(01:00:25):
Cicero's calling him.
His accountant is calling himthe computer as they call him.
And there's a notification, aGoogle alert, the review is out.
And from the flashes we see on thescreen, it looks like it's mixed.
It's messy, ambitious,talented all over the place.
A mixed review.
Of course, what does that mean?
And Hey, meta everybody, a metanarrative here around this show.

(01:00:47):
What does a mixed review of this seasonof television have to say about the bear?
It doesn't say much because they'vealready greenlit a fourth season.
They've already shot a fourthseason and we'll probably get
it sooner rather than later.
Okay, my critiques here at the end,despite a lot of strength here in this
final episode, is all the cliffhangers.
We now have to wait to seewhat is Sidney going to do.

(01:01:09):
Do they have to shut down the restaurant?
If they do, if Cicero tells himthat, then he should really just
tell Sidney and Sidney can walk away.
Does he get back together with Claire?
Can he find work life balance?
Can any of us find work life balance?
And that's where we endthings with season three.
All right, what's gonna be in season four?
I'm just guessing here.

(01:01:30):
Do they shut down the restaurant?
I, as I'm doing this recap, I'mthinking, is there a version of this
where they do have to shut down therestaurant, but then beef could just
become a smaller version of itself?
A food truck can car me reconnect withwhat made everybody fall in love with
the restaurant in the first place,taking what Mikey built and his father

(01:01:53):
before him and just elevating it.
Maybe that's the direction this goes in.
Maybe Sydney should leave,although who's to say that Adam's
really going to be a better
.Boss than bar me or a more collaborative one.
I do think there'll be some morereconciliation This grandchild is going
to bring the family some kind of closure.
There'll be a wedding.
Of course next season fewerfunerals More weddings next season.

(01:02:18):
So that's my guess I am more positivein binging this show and I do think
that everybody should take that breakLike I mentioned near the midway point
or maybe a little bit past midwaypoint take a breather I'm Don't have
such high expectations for this thing.
There is a, I believe in episodenine, perhaps at the very beginning,
there's this YouTube video you canactually see from Ricky J that talks

(01:02:40):
about the history of magic and howmagic requires some kind of surprise.
And that's a really almostimpossible achievement is when
people know they're going to seea magic trick and yet are fooled.
And if season one of the bear was thisunexpected surprise, season two of the
bear did exactly that in setting thebar so high and somehow clearing it

(01:03:04):
to everyone's possible expectations.
Season three doesn't do that.
Expectations even more heightened,people really feeling like this
thing's going to save television.
Expectations are just way too high.
And it doesn't , meet that, but even justa day removed and having this reassessment
of the show, I like it a lot more.
And I do hope that the criticsand the fans do come around to it.

(01:03:27):
And maybe I'll rewatch it, uh, relativelysoon and see how I feel about it.
And I'll be having that conversationwith Sona and reflecting upon
all these things and really.
I'm interested to see what her reactionis going to be to this and maybe the
general audience's reaction as well.
So in a sauna and I oftentimeshave very different perspectives

(01:03:48):
on the things we're watching.
That's why I like to bring herin as a different point of view.
She doesn't overthink, overthinkthings usually the way I do.
So interesting to see howdifferent audiences react to this.
Okay, so stay tuned additionalconversations about the bear at least
one more and upcoming content discussingpresumed innocent This midseason check in

(01:04:09):
and then of course end of season as well,and there's some new series coming this
month as well We'll introduce them in thenext week or two Follow me on Letterboxd.
Email me.
I'd love to hear your feedback.
Need some introduction at gmail.
com.
If you'd like to support the show,best thing you can do is recommend
this to your friends and family.
Post this on your socials.

(01:04:29):
The more people who listen to us, themore people follow us, and the more
motivated I am to put out this content.
Thanks for listening, everybody.
I hope you love the show, evenif it stumbled a little bit this
season, and I'll talk to you soon.