While we had to say goodbye to quite a few great series this year, the FX series on Disney +, The Bear, thankfully kept up the standard of last year’s first season, and even surpassed it in many ways. In the new season, the stars also appear in practically cameo roles, from Olivia Colman to Jamie Lee Curtis, the restaurant at the center of the series also wants to be a restaurant applying for a Michelin star, and life is getting harder , and there is none. series show the latter is better than the teddy bear.
The most unexpected success of last year’s series takes place in a defunct sandwich shop, where chef Carmy, returning from the world of fine dining, continues to run the restaurant of his dead brother, despite all the difficulties. In addition, the restaurant not only survived the crisis, but also transformed from a buffet, chaotic buffet into a real restaurant, and its employees learn to work together as a real team. Christopher Storer his series also achieves all these things with a perfect character, masterful plot management and realistic presentation of the restaurant-kitchen environment that The teddy bear (the title is actually a translation of a play on words, since Bear is a nickname for the name Berzatto) immediately became one of the most popular new series.
The outdoor nature of the series was also strengthened by the fact that there were no widely known actors in it: of course, most of them could already be seen in other series or films, but it is true for all the main characters who . The teddy bear raising their popularity to a new level. Of course, the fact that the cast is made up in the face is not used can backfire, but The teddy bear in this case, this could also contribute to the series’ appeal, so that these flesh-and-blood characters could be fully identified with the actors.
And the fact was also reflected in the aesthetics of the series: the creators did not go for the cheesy, appetite-stimulating gastro-pornographic line (although we could still find the urge for some shots), rather they operated with tools independent film. , hand-held cameras, montages of Chicago street scenes and seemingly spontaneous dialogue, a constant sequence of screams, chaos, and clatter, all culminating in a seventeen-minute scene that speaks volumes in one cut that contains . enough tension for several full-length thrillers, even if the main conflict here was caused by a sudden mistake multiplying the number of orders in the restaurant.
Critics of the New York Times named the series because of the latter
a war story that happens to take place in a kitchen,
but already the second season is presented this summer see Not entirely without reason, but the allegory of the sports movie is actually applied in the first season, as it was exactly the same as the biggest cliché of the sports movie: a routine competitor gathers up the pitiful losers and beats everyone to shreds with them. The teddy bear because he was also on this: Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) does not hire famous chefs or other routine restaurant workers, but he tries to make a restaurant worthy of his own standards with the previous staff of the buffet, seasoned chefs and a wannabe chef.
In the new season, nonetheless, the stakes are even higher: Carmy doesn’t just want to survive, he wants to level up, as well as a famous restaurant applying for Michelin stars, where interested people come from far away for a dinner. And for that, it is not enough for your subordinates to learn to say “yes chef!” or they signal in advance when turning in the corridor so as not to collide, but they really have to train. Therefore, while the first season was mainly about Carmy and her windmill battle with her demons, this second puts the focus on the team, and each of the main characters even get their own episode.
Of course, the basic situation ensures that everyone’s stress level is very high from the first minute, since the restaurant must be completely transformed, for this it is necessary to obtain official permits, and the whole thing would require a lot of money, but. Of course there is no, so you must open the restaurant as soon as possible. reborn as a restaurant. nonetheless, the ten-part season does not reach the point where the action really takes place in the kitchen until the last two parts, because until then the events in the gutted business premises are mainly only fire police inspections, demolition of walls and facilities.
In addition, the first half of the season clearly has a calmer, more positive tone than what we are used to, almost reminiscent of the success of the indie films of the 2000s, especially since it introduces a delighted twist, but not at all emotional Chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) not only remains a phenomenally positive phenomenon, but in a particularly lyrical study he visits the wonderful but still struggling restaurants in Chicago for ideas and unsolicited advice, while Marcus (Lionel Boyce) are sent to Copenhagen on a study trip (fortunately, these scenes were also shot on location). nonetheless, the most significant change occurs with the introverted, workaholic Carmy, who is unexpectedly reunited with his unrequited former love, Claire (Molly Gordon), and more encounters follow.
All this is very nice, but we still miss the tension of the first season a little, and in fact, we find ourselves especially reducing the neurotic scream, Not only because the usual half-hour playing time is doubled here, and not necessarily because a host of famous actors appear in it, but because it really flattens the viewer in the armchair with such an ordinary event as a family Christmas dinner the The first half of the episode takes even more of a nostalgic tone, and we can even have the feeling that yes, obviously all Italian-American families are this strong and chaotic, but then it slowly turns out that they are not.
It says it all that a star is stacked with awards and accolades like Jamie Lee Curtis also gives one of the most memorable performances of her career in this series of episodes as Carmy’s mother and adds it. Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Gillian Jacobs and John Mulaney too, or the Jon Bernthal, who already appeared in the first season in a flashback scene. Everyone probably has a story about extended family Christmas depression, but this one can easily compete with any. In addition, it explains many things we did not understand about Carmy.
And from here, the series we met last year returns, although we can still see impressive character development (first of all one of the actors who made a big leap in the series, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (courtesy of Richie played by Richie), the cutest movie omelette ever, or even Neil’s hands (Matty Mathesonwith him last year we do interviews also on the series) sometimes something can succeed, but our basic feeling can be the reason that, like any celebrated series in recent years, the Successionfrom Rather call Saulig:
Christopher Storer’s greatness as a series creator is not so much in the fact that he perfectly presents the daily life of a restaurant struggling to survive (for this, a real Chicago restaurant served as a model), and not only in the fact that it cleverly integrates the check in today’s post-Covid economic climate and in the life of Chicago, which the filmmakers treat a little stage-wise, but also in the fact that they only serve as a means of looking for answers to those old questions, such as what is the meaning of our lives, or why we are fond of pursuing an uncertain goal. And although the series does not provide explanations, we can still feel that it brings us closer to the solution.
In addition, Storer has a great ability to combine burlesque jokes with tragic twists, and almost every episode has at least one scene that can bring tears to the eyes of even the most cynical viewers. It’s very easy for these people to grow into our hearts, whether they are insufferable, aggressive losers like Richie, or beautiful like Sugar, Carmy’s self-sacrificing, pregnant sister.Abby Elliott), but this is also true for the soundtrack based on the pulse, (about) living in the city of Chicago or alternative rock music in the eighties and eighties. He will play an increased role in the season REM Strange money song, which sings about unregistered love, and from this it can already be concluded that The teddy bear it’s not drowning in pink jelly this time either, but it raises so many new questions that we’re already looking forward to the yet-to-be-announced third season.
The Bear, season 2, 10 episodes, 2023, Disney+. 24.hu: 9/10
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