This intoxicating family drama was and audiences alike in 2022, its first season garnering a rare perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the subsequent two reaching scores of 99% and 89% respectively. Its certainly a hard act to follow for season four.
The first ten minutes of The Bears pilot episode thrillingly defined what was to come in high-octane style and scene-setting detail. The first season delivered a clever mix of authentic dialogue and setting, relatable family dysfunction and dynamic production style.
Showstopping scenes of stressful kitchen heat were served up alongside a delectable in the form of Jeremy Allen White (Carmy), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Richie), Ayo Edebiri (Sydney) and Oliver Platt (Cicero/Uncle Jimmy).
In charge is showrunner Christopher Storer, who came up with the concept after being inspired by his friends father Chris Zucchero, the owner of .
With his professional chef sister also serving as a consultant, Storer succeeded in creating a deliciously authentic and intensely real drama. Buoyed along the way by 21 Emmys and five Golden Globes, Storer also watched his cast ascend, the tortured-soul performance of White garnering particular praise.
Testing the parameters of a long-running show, Storer focused in on the entire cast of characters and their backstories, a successful tactic used by shows such as Orange is the New Black to keep the drama largely confined to a kitchen set fresh.
Pulling in Hollywood die-hards Oliver Platt and Jamie Lee Curtis for familial tough-love roles further enriched the mix, often using a non-chronological timeframe to go back to moments of family turbulence and tension. This made for three-dimensional characters and enabled evolution around difficult themes such as the aftermath of suicide and generational trauma.
Carmys experience and longing for the high-end restaurant of his dreams hurtled forward in season two, as he sent his core crew off in different directions to hone their skills and help form his vision. A restaurant trying to win success but plagued with challenges, there were exhausting familial tensions embedded in every episode of season three.
Several themes play out in The Bear: love, family, loyalty, community and purpose. The relationship between Carmy and cousin Richie (not a real cousin, but a term of endearment) is key to linking past and future. Richie provides some of the highlights of comedy and pathos as he spits truth bombs, most frequently at talented sous-chef Syd.
It is Syd who follows Carmys aspirations for gastronomic perfection but cant abide the lack of order or the intense highs and lows that inevitably go hand in hand with his talent. And this is one central question to consider for the latest series: just how long will the audience remain loyal to Carmy and his endless quest for artistry in a high-failure rate industry?
Its all in the sauce
Storer begins season four with a ghost. Carmy and his dead brother Mikey (Jon Berthal) banter in a seven-minute scene, with Carmy ultimately confiding the dream of a restaurant as Mikey watches him make tomato sauce (too much garlic). The tomatoes resonate: Mikey left behind money hidden in tomato cans that ended up saving Carmys sanity and his dream of a proper restaurant.
Just as oranges represent death to Frances Ford Coppola, Storer uses tomatoes to underscore themes; here they symbolise familial loyalty and history, a solid base to a meal, a core ingredient. Mikey was one of the core ingredients in Carmys life, and now hes gone.
Carmy awakens to a rerun of Groundhog Day on late-night TV and fittingly, we too are back same dish, now more seasoned and enriched with its core ingredients and ready to serve up a big bowlful of family, love, ambition, strife and grief.
The episode furthers the theme of loyalty as the restaurant receives The Tribunes review the cliffhanger of the season three finale. Naturally, Storer doesnt let up the food critic highlights dissonance and Carmy is back in emotional chaos, with Syd urging him to lighten up and lose the misery.
In truth, this series could do with adding some more humour in the mix; the teasing and frivolous banter of season one has got somewhat lost in the seasons that followed.
Storer ramps up the tension, setting several ticking clocks in place: chiefly Uncle Jimmys notice period for the business to turn a profit is literally installed on a digital clock in the kitchen. Then Syds headhunter calls, offering her desired autonomy and an exit strategy from the chaos.
And Carmy raises the stakes with an intention to gain a Michelin star. Thus a heroic journey is set in place for the whole cast, with future battles both internal and external laid out.
Theres too much going on at this feast and the feeling of being stuffed full of story is tangible by the end of the first episode. Still, with a season lining up more emotional turbulence steered by White, more celebrity cameos (Brie Larson and Rob Reiner are lined up) and the excellent cinematography and performances that we have come to expect, Storer stirs his secret sauce.
The Bear still offers an entertaining and enticing proposition, bingeable and mostly satisfying.
, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Screenwriting; Deputy Course Leader & Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Production,
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