The Bear Season 2

If season 1 of The Bear felt like PTSD for those who have worked in the hospitality industry, season 2 feels like healing. Season 2 is a unique experience where a fast paced show slows down, but it never feels like the season is dragging. The creators accomplish this through their character growth, pacing techniques, and writing. 

In season 1, the pacing of the show was dictated by the chaos of the kitchen. Every second of kitchen time has so much packed in, the audience feels like they were getting whiplash. For the majority of season 2 however, “The Beef” now renamed “The Bear” is under construction, so there is not much kitchen time. Instead, the showrunner used the renovation timeline to keep the story moving. Every episode mentions how many days until the grand opening. By doing this, the show constantly has stakes. When permits are late, the audience knows how far that will put them behind. When construction is over priced and new problems come up when walls are knocked down, the audience feels like their own wallets are taking a hit. By using this simple trick, every episode is given stakes and keeps the audiences engaged with both the story, and the characters. 

Will Poulter and Lionel Boyce as Chef Luca and Marcus in The Bear (2023)

The name of the game for season 2 is “Character Growth”. Season 1 sees all the characters at their worst. They are burnt out, stuck in the same mindset they have been for years, and lack a real reason for getting up in the morning. With The Bear under construction, Carmy, Jeremy Allen White, takes the lull as an opportunity to push his staff to the level he wants them to be at and knows they can reach, sometimes with mixed results. The creators take entire episodes this season to focus on individual characters in the kitchen as they go off to learn a new aspect of their craft. Episode 3 follows Sydney, Ayo Edebiri, as she travels across Chicago going to the best restaurants and learning everything she can about the food and the operations side of running a restaurant. The audience also sees her pushed as the owners of the restaurants call her out  when she is naive, and show her where she needs to grow in order to be at Carmy’s level. Episode 4 follows Marcus, Lionel Boyce, as he travels overseas to work with one of the best dessert chefs in the world, who also happens to be a friend of Carmy’s. The audience knows Marcus has a love and skill for desserts, and to get to see his skills recognized and pushed to new heights, is rewarding. Episode 7 follows Ritchie, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, as he goes from a purposeless nuisance to an integral part of the team. However, not all of the characters are ready to make the jump to fine dining. Ebraheim, Edwin Lee Gibson, does not take to the new way of running the restaurant. But instead of forcing him to change, Carmy instead meets him where he is. Ebraheim is allowed to take over the kitchen’s daytime operations where they will focus on the sandwiches and style of cooking he is used to. This simple acknowledgement shows how much the writers care about these characters. When major change is going on, not everyone is going to be able to change with it. But instead of writing him off, or forcing something unnatural on him, Ebraheim is given the chance to grow in what he already knows, and not force him into something he is not ready for. 

Liza Colon-Zayas, Abby Elliot, & Ayo Edebiri as Tina, Sugar, & Sydney in The Bear (2023)

While in lesser hands, taking whole episodes to focus on individual characters could slow the pacing, in these hands, it is an asset. After watching season 1 where everything is so chaotic, taking the time to grow the characters individually shows that the writers take their characters seriously, and that no one is a “secondary character”. In many shows, character growth is forgotten about almost as soon as it is made and the end of the season finds the characters in mostly the same spot they started in, please see almost any CW show. Not so in The Bear, every character growth moment is taken seriously and remembered. Yes, characters still stumble, but that is what makes them such well written characters, because even when they stumble, they come back strong because of the growth they have gone through. 

Episode seven “Forks” may be one of the best episodes in season 2, because this one episode shows outstanding character growth for Ritchie. At the end of episode 5, Ritchie has made a true nuisance of himself around The Bear. He is trying to insert himself where he does not belong, assert authority under the guise he is most “seniored” and is generally unhelpful and purposeless. Carmy seeks to change this by sending him to one of the best restaurants in the world to seemingly have him wash forks. The episode starts with Ritchie at the lowest he has been in the series, he is doing a menial job as “punishment”, he does not want to be there, and he does not really understand why he is being punished. However, Garrett, Andrew Lopez, takes him under his wing and shows him why they are the best, and why they have a waiting list thousands of people long every night of the week. Ritchie gets a front row seat to one of the best restaurants in the world. He gets to see why their obsessive attention to detail matters, why subtlety is an asset, and why “Every Second Counts” is their motto. Watching Ritchie go from a purposeless nuisance to waking up with purpose to the point he is showing up to The Bear in a suit is rewarding. And this is paid off in the final episode as he rises to the occasion and takes over running the kitchen line. The confidence and respect Ritchie discovers by the end of the episode feels earned and watching him carry that through the rest of the season shows why well written characters are so important. 

Season 2 of The Bear continues to raise the bar in terms of character growth, story and pacing. No episode feels like a filler episode, no cameo feels shoehorned in, and the characters are treated with such respect, that you continue to root for them until the final second of the show.