The Bear Review
Food service is a make-or-break industry at all levels. Whether one is scraping pennies at McDonald's or being screamed at by Gordon Ramsay at a Michelin-star restaurant, it's seldom depicted as an easy experience. Over the years, this has been showcased through Netflix's exhausting outflow of cooking competitions and in movies like Chef, Burnt, and the classic drama Julie & Julia. Even Disney's Ratatouille had fun with its try-hard protagonist who could never seem to ace his flavors despite his lifelong desire to be a chef.
Some people have what it takes, and some don't. FX's latest dark comedy The Bear toys with this notion and brings it into a darker-than-ever territory, taking a somewhat familiar storyline and combining it with intimate camerawork, nightmarish dream sequences, and a character-driven storyline drenched in a whole lot of grief.
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Created by Christopher Storer with co-showrunner Joanna Calo, who also writes, directs, and executive produces, the series follows renowned chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto and his return to Chicago to take over his family's sandwich shop, The Original Beef of Chicagoland, after his brother's drug-and-alcohol-induced suicide.
The half-hour show is a masterclass in the dark comedy genre and doesn't shy away from the all-consuming nature of trauma and grief. Carmy, played by Shameless's Jeremy Allen White—best known for portraying Phillip «Lip» Gallagher in the long-running Showtime series—has been on the run from his family and his brother since he was a young adult, and is often his harshest critic despite training at the finest culinary institutions and boasting an impressive resume. Regardless, he is dedicated to reviving his
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