The Bear
Jeremy Allen White in The Bear (2022)
The Bear is about a chef who moves from a Michellin star restaurant back home to Chicago to take over his brother’s sandwich shop. The premise may sound more like a Hallmark movie, it is anything but. The show gives an accurate look at the dynamics of working in a restaurant kitchen while wrapped in a story about family, regret, and anger.
Pros: Despite the many films and shows about a chef and their kitchen, The Bear may be the most accurate representation of life in the back of house. Filled with loud, bombastic people, a cleanliness ranging from Mechillein clean to dumpster fire, and enough language to make a sailor blush, this is the atmosphere of a kitchen. The Bear doesn’t shy away from that, but makes it one of the central characters of the show.
This kitchen is filled with a variety of colorful characters. From the earnest newcomer Sydney, Ayo Edebiri, who is just starting her restauranter career, to the more jaded Richie, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who had been keeping the restaurant together by a thread, to Marcus, Lionel Boyce, who is reigniting his passion for baking due to Carmy’s influence. With this variety of characters, you also have the conflict that comes with it. These conflicts and struggles are what keeps the audience coming back week to week, because these conflicts are the ones we see in our everyday lives. While we are not always able to resolve our own conflicts, the audience can’t help but root for these characters to solve theirs and come out stronger.
Lionel Boyce and Ayo Edebiri in The Bear (2022)
Best Performance: While every cast members’ performance is outstanding, Jeremy White Allen as Carmy carries the show. Allen’s performance has a balance of rage and vulnerability wrapped up in this need to do right by his brother. For most of the show, Carmy is very quiet, level headed and just trying to get everyone on board with his vision for a better restaurant, but the audience feels there is something lying just beneath the surface of his calm. In one scene however as everything is falling apart, Carmy becomes overwhelmed by it all. This scene is where Allen lets it rip and becomes the Bear, as he shouts commands at his kitchen staff with a rage unseen in the rest of the show. That rage Allen is able to bring out shows the audience all the pain and loss of control Carmy has been feeling throughout the series. The complexities in character and performance Allen brings is why Carmy is one of the best characters in the kitchen.
Veterans of the restaurant industry will most likely have a severe case of flashback after watching this show, while those who sit at the front of the house will have a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes. But both front and back of house viewers can agree that The Bear is by far one of the best original series of 2022, and the viewers can only hope it gets renewed for season two.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Matty Matheson in The Bear (2022)