I just need to keep my side of the street clean
Starting my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.
#1 : The Bear
With a plot replete with slicing, dicing, druggings and, er, stabbings, The Bear – set in a sandwich shop in Chicago – was not always an easy watch, but that only made it a more satisfying dish to be served up. We watched as Carmy, a revered fine-dining chef, ditched the “foie gras and tweezers” scene to overhaul his brother’s chaotic business – all while trying to process his death. When its emotional payoff came, with that extraordinary monologue at an AA meeting, it gave us a moment of pure catharsis. The most intense, claustrophobic and spectacular show of the year.
Starting at the top again because I really can't believe I'll make it to the end this year (I've got five seasons of something to watch!), I've heard great things about this but I worry it might be a bit too much for my nerves - "intense" and "claustrophobic" aren't words I like to see used. However, I've already watched #2 on the list and it's pretty damn fine telly so I'm intrigued to see what The Guardian thinks is better than that.
And the first episode is indeed pretty intense and claustrophobic - and you're very much thrown in at the deep end. Carmy's brother (Michael) has obviously died reasonably recently and, as The Guardian suggests, you can tell he's not processed his death yet. Or learned how to work with his colleagues/employees/whatever his relationship with those people is.
And well, things stay pretty stressful for most of the season, although it comes in waves - there are some good times to balance things out and some people do try to learn, improve and grow. And some even manage it. It's well done - not always enjoyable so, but well done nonetheless.
But then we get to episode 7 - woah, it's SOOOO stressful. And features an amusingly high f word count. And it's incredibly short - an intense 18 minutes. Which, I never realised the first time I saw it, is because it's a one shot episode. Kudos to everyone involved. The episode doesn't exactly make a whole lot of sense and does somewhat paint itself into a corner, but it can be forgiven for that because of the impressiveness of the whole thing.
Episode 8 makes an effort to both patch and wrap things up and does so in a manner which I (and pretty much everyone else, I suspect) wasn't expecting but there's definitely going to be a second series, isn't there? It also features an outstanding monologue which is really well done in the context of an Al-Anon meeting.
At the beginning of the season, you're very much thrown in the deep end with all the characters which is definitely a creative choice - not necessarily the one I'd have made because there are slightly too many of them (for someone with limited brain capacity like me, anyway) and it takes some time to work out who is who and how they all link together. When you get into it (and there is a chance I might not have stuck with things after the first episode if it hadn't come so highly recommended) you come to learn some things about some of them, but many of them remain relatively unknown characters - mostly nice enough people, but a bit opaque in terms of personality and motives.
Those we do get to know properly are Carmy who is well portrayed by Jeremy Allen White (who I didn't previously know, but he played Lip in the US version of Shameless) although at times the role requires him to be a bit dead behind the eyes, which is a bit disconcerting - but the 7 minute monologue in the final episode is his and it's really well done. His cousin Richie is also well played by Ebon Moss-BachRach (crazy name!) but boy is the guy a grade-A asshole. Probably my favourite person in the whole thing is Sydney, a wise head on young shoulders, beautifully played by Ayo Edebiri and she really goes through the wringer during the season. And the other main-ish character is Sugar, Carmy's sister who, as played by Abby Elliott, displays just the right balance of love and extreme pissedoffness with her brother. There's also a nice cameo by Oliver Platt as Uncle Jimmy - I always recognise his face but can never remember his name until I look it up.
The class acting is backed up by the writing because it all feels really well written - I can't claim to have experience of anything like what the people go through in this, but it's got a load of lines in it that really ring true. Yes, everyone learns lessons and changes waaaaay quicker than they would in real life, but hey - it's television. The writing handles contrasts well - family and colleagues, chaos and serenity, routine and improvisation, resistance to and acceptance of change - and all within a reasonably restrictive set-up.
It's also all beautifully shot - both in terms of the scenery (Chicago is a fine looking city), the people and the various kitchen procedures. There really is something very therapeutic about watching someone chop onions very quickly and there is some VERY nice looking beef on display. It also has some unusual tense scenes - someone getting a pot of stock off a high shelf, an open pot of pills at a kids birthday party and even just shots of the clock. You know something might happen, but you're not sure whether they're going to go through with it. It also has excellent music - I recognised Counting Crows, REM, Radiohead and John Mellancamp, but it all just fits the mood nicely.
I did have some questions, one of which was answered and the rest of which weren't. Firstly, why does Carmy have 322 tattooed upside down on his arm? The internet answered this one - it's 773 which is a Chicago area code (but those 7s really look like upside down 2s). Now the tricky ones - why did everyone get so excited about Carmy's teeshirt. It's a white teeshirt and that's it. And why is Richie such an asshole (he REALLY is!) and was Michael as much of an asshole as it appears? These will remain mysteries - at least until season 2.
Overall, I really liked this and found it kept just the right side of too tense - I appreciated that it wasn't unrelenting and there were periods where I was able to relax into it a bit more and just enjoy the scenery. And the last two episodes are top quality indeed - it really hits its stride towards the end. It's going to be up the with the best of them at the end of the list, but it's certainly got some competition - not least from #2 on the list which as I said I've already seen before. But it has excellent writing (yes, it makes some choices I wouldn't have done - but there's a slight chance they know what they're doing more than me), excellent acting, excellent shots and a couple of really top notch episodes, so it's a strong recommendation from me.
At time of writing, it's available to watch on Disney+ and I suspect it's going to be there for some time yet.
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