'The Bear' on Hulu: Don't think, just binge this newfound TV show classic
"Shameless" actor Jeremy Allen White is a revelation as Chef "Carmy" Berzatto.
You just know when a television show has entered the greatness section. Whether it was the pilot or three to four episodes, it happened. Great TV shows are like epic lovers. They walk into your normal life and consume you. They can also cause two things.
First, everything else just disappears suddenly after 30 minutes to an hour. A form of TV paralysis sets in. The tasks, worries, and needs of the day just took a long lunch break in your mind. Second, something about the story feels both comfortable and familiar yet nobly rogue and authentic. The way the actors talk, how the surroundings look and fit with the aesthetic of the story, and what the camera chooses to show us. There’s magic happening here.
“The Bear” on Hulu is a main suspect for both of those things. I haven’t felt this way about a new show since “Banshee” and “Kingdom.” The people who know me will understand the weight of that statement. There are classics you finally watch long after they premiere (“Sopranos,” “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men” among others), and the ones you feel like Christopher Columbus, discovering them before the Walmart of TV viewers get there. Somehow, some way, you found it--and a special bond with that show is created in that moment.
If you haven’t watched it or at least tapped out of the tab you’re reading this Ramble in to go look it up, what is wrong with you? Let’s talk more about Christopher Storer’s show while you make the leap.
The heart of the tale centers around the self-tormented yet brilliant chef, Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White). He was the young cook who left his family business kitchen, a place called “Original Beef” in Chicago, and ran off to New York to run with the Michelin Star-carrying crew. It didn’t work out; whether it was being shouted at by Joel McHale’s lead chef or the doldrums of high class culinary cooking under a heated microscope, “Carmy” decided to come home.
But that’s a whole new “Bear” of a task, being that his brother Michael is gone and the guy left in charge, Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Richie Jerimovich, is one anger management class absence from completely losing his cool. In tackling the revamp of The Original Beef establishment, something not just stuck in its older ways but cemented to the floor, Carmy has to remodel not just his childhood but picture what his adulthood will look like back at home.
Right by his side is Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), a fellow culinary-trained chef who idolizes Carmy while also feeling the entrepreneurial and organic desire to make the hot beef shop better. Pulled from the same thread yet bending in opposite directions, Carmy and Sydney’s work relationship-the respect shown between the two and the lack of a useless romantic subplot between them-evolves over the eight episode first season.
Authenticity is the main ingredient in Storer’s kitchen, as in getting the machinations and emotional force of a working, breathing cooking environment right. This way, the real life chefs and cooks will feel like they are not alone when watching this intense series, which can get very loud and hectic inside a minute in any episode
From a baking flour mixing machine short-circuiting to a pack of smokes left by a burner to a poorly fixed hole in the bathroom, The Original Beef has many problems but personality is definitely not one of them. In fact, the show’s most tense moments thrive off the unfiltered candor that passes between the kitchen’s inhabitants during the worst of times. Carmy’s philosophy is that every cook is called “chef” as a sign of respect and personal value--but that doesn’t mean he won’t scold you for burning the Au jus or skimping on prep work.
By balancing the cinematic morals and goals of the show with the very real hot sweat reality that flows in a restaurant’s nerve center, Storer has given everyone a real treat. The treat for me is the acting and writing on “The Bear,” a show title that may confuse in the show’s first seconds on a well-known bridge in Chicago but will grow in clarity with each episode.
Played by Allen White, Carmy is a human fuse box, stuffed with insecurities and strength--like a chef carrying both sharp and dull knives in his DNA. He felt hurt that his late brother didn’t want to operate the restaurant with him, a grief that gets heavier each time he thinks about it. By running off to be a big shot chef in the world’s best restaurant, Carmy felt that proving himself to his brother would exorcise a few demons. But all he did was come back to a mess, but one with a pulse.
Allen White makes you feel all of it. The “Lip from Shameless” mentality melts off before the end of the first episode. The young Gallagher from the Showtime show had alcohol-coated daddy issues; Carmy may look like him and his problems aren’t that different, but it’s a different bag of tricks for the actor to explore. He’s a revelation in the role, something that screams EMMY but not in a showy way.
By the end of Season 1, you may know him as Carmy or Lip, or it may be time to build a conflicted young brilliant man statue in the middle of the Windy City. Chicago indeed plays a supporting role in the show itself, giving the series more artistic firepower. As a staff at The Original Beef, Carmy and company live and die off the energy of its city, even the groups of friends who horde together outside the front door before opening time. Nothing is wasted on this show.
Like any strong kitchen, Allen White has strong support. “The Bear” proudly sports its ensemble cast badge. Adebiri gives Sydney layers upon layers, showing us her own career struggles in her failed (for now) catering business. She wants to turn the Beef around, but also needs to maintain her own sanity and place in the kitchen.
Liza-Colon Zayas adds spice and an unconventional sweetness to line cook Tina, someone who clashes with Sydney at first. Lionel Bryce’s Marcus, the aspiring baker who spends all his free time trying to master the perfect donut, will be the resident fan favorite of the show. Bryce’s larger-than-life presence offsets the tenderness brought to the role of a guy who makes great bread yet wants more.
Abby Elliott gives Natalie “Sugar” Berzatto an instant toughness, as in the sister who looks out for all the overzealous men in her family. Edwin Lee Gibson’s Ebraheim can produce a comedic one liner that didn’t have intent and a soulful piece of advice inside the same scene. He goes with the flow of Carmy and Sydney’s kitchen, while also holding onto a few of the old ways. Matty Matheson’s Fak, the resident fixer who yearns to be on the staff one day, provides the true comic relief. Oliver Platt and Jon Bernthal give small yet vital performances. By merely showing up, they make anything better.
Every character on “The Bear” is authentic, which makes the show irresistible and endlessly watchable. At the core of it all is the disconnect between Carmy and his late brother, an exodus that extends to the identity of the restaurant that binds them. As David Byrne sings on the show, “Oh my brother, I still wonder, are you alright?” If there’s a current flowing beneath Storer’s show, it’s the full-blown weight of grief and its everlasting grip.
The soundtrack is another standout on the show. In addition to Byrne and Brian Eno’s “Everything that happens will happen today", artists such as Van Morrison and Radiohead make an appearance on “The Bear.” By cobbling together a team of misfit toys and ragtag Hollywood talents, the Hulu show sprung for some great, and underplayed, songs. Yeah, you don’t hear the favs by each artist played in the show. Unknown, yet still vital, tracks permeate this televised dramedy.
The last thing I’ll say is “The Bear” balances comedy and drama better than most shows. You never feel too down or too high, because of the lived-in feel of the show and how its characters speak and move. Like FX’s “Rescue Me,” it has a unique “one of a kind” aftershock.
Oh, and the final 15 minutes of episode 8 is some of the best and most moving TV I’ve watched in years--and I watch too much TV.
Run, don’t walk, to this how. Binge instead of testing. Devour instead of sipping. Just do it. “The Bear” on Hulu is 100% dynamite.