Anywhere else to watch it besides Hulu?
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Itās an FX on Hulu production, so unfortunately not. You could always sign up for the free trial week and watch it, then cancel before they charge you. Itās only eight half-hour episodes.
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Renewed for a second season.
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I donāt like it. It felt one and done to me.
I worked front and back of house in very busy restaurants during high school, college and grad school to pay for my education. The bear is the first movie/series Iāve seen that comes close to capturing the pace and chaos of working in a very busy restaurant. And honestly, I donāt think they did a great job capturing the sustained, frenetic pace of a night when the restaurant is crushed with 1.5 hour waits for tables.
I enjoyed the series, thought it was well-acted but maybe Iām slow and I donāt want to give away the ending, but it seemed like a stupid plot device.
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I have been eye-rolling it for days.
I finally watched it, in a hotel in Orlando. Thank you Chromcast!
Having assumed it would drag out to 10 episodes, I was relieved that it ended after 8. I enjoyed the glimpses of kitchen technique, and agree that it is well-acted, but there was too much that was either senseless or redundant. Had the crew begun to work as a coherent team, Iād have rooted for them and been interested in what developed. Carmy is supposedly steeped in an atmosphere where precision and elegance are paramount, yet he is always disheveled and grimy-looking, with zero interest in presenting himself as a professional. We arenāt given any reason why so many people loved the deceased owner. The immature male characters show little prospect of ever growing up. A 35/40 year old Peter Pan is boring and pathetic. I suppose this series has more appeal for males than females.
Iām female, and I generally liked it. I didnāt see all the male characters as immature - Richie, certainly, but not Carmy or the other guys who worked at the restaurant. I also donāt think heās supposed to be anywhere near 35 - heās the youngest sibling in his family and (if memory serves) won his ābest new chefā award at 21 or something crazy like that.
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I wasnāt implying that ALL the males were either immature or over 35.
Which one(s) were you referring to?
Richie, Michael, the Oliver Platt character, Faz, another cook whose name I never caught, andā¦Carmen, who could go either way by the time heās out of his 20ās. He WANTS to have a well-run and successful business, but is he capable of this? He has yet to truly appreciate that Sydney knows more about management than he does. The viewer pities Richie, whose value to the business is iffy. He can wrangle the low-lifes among the customers, keeping them coming by dealing drugs to them. If Carmen succeeds in implementing his vision, that segment of the patrons wonāt be welcome, nor would they be interested in eating there. So Richieās usefulness lessens dramatically and heās largely a liability.
Huh. I guess I donāt really see it in any of those characters save Richie. And I didnāt have much pity for Richie - heās the character that functions as the ball-and-chain link to the past for Carmy, the bad influence that he is honor-bound to keep around. And I agree that the new incarnation of the restaurant is going to alienate 90% of its current customer base. Which I will bet you $100 (thatās $95 more than my usual bet!) is gonna be the through-line of Season II. Shades of Big Night, for sure.
On the subject of man-babies, The Bearās saving grace in this regard, according to me, is that thereās no female character foil to Carmy, no one in what I think of as the āoh, you!ā role. Examples of this relationship abound, but the one that currently gags me the most is between Ji-Yoon and Bill on The Chair. If you havenāt seen it, Billās played by Jay Duplass, last seen as another man-baby on Transparent.
Wow. You built a lot on some small scenes. We have very little to go on Michael. He has a couple of scenes in flashbacks. Obviously a troubled person who gets hooked on drugs and then killās himself. No real explanation why. If he is a so called man child so I guess was Bourdain.
I have no idea what the Platt characters is supposed to be. Uncle or wise guy. Friend or foe. He is a complicated one.
I doubt anyone else has much pity for Richie.
By the way Sydneyās business failed.
If the brigade started pulling together immediately there would be no drama. Conflict and resolution is inherently more interesting to me than happy pablum shows. Thatās for Hallmark.
Maybe we watched different shows.
I am a male and enjoyed the show but my wife also found it compelling. The characters are interesting and trying to figure out their motivation is part of the story. We donāt know yet what is driving everyone.
Jay Duplasseā¦ugh. I pulled the plug on Transparent because the children were such selfcentered whiners. That and The Chair are the only things Iāve seen him in. Perhaps heās typecast and has done characters who arenāt as unlikeable but I am not interested in giving him more time to disgust me.
Just started. Loved Jeremy Allen White in Shameless, and itās interesting that this character is also Chicago-based, intense, talented-beyond-his roots/family, struggling with addiction, and so on. Hope he doesnāt get typecastā¦
Enjoying the show so far. Oliver Platt cameos are usually positive in my book.
Stopping myself from reading the rest of this chat here in case there are spoilers!
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More āreviewsā
Andrew Zimmern/Spilled Milk
And Jane Brendlinger Food and Wine
And Eater
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Iāve read a number of articles from restaurant professionals who have watched the show and said how close to reality it is. Itās clearly tv so itās not truly reality but itās very close. Having grown up in a family owned restaurant I know something of the chaos you can have on a busy night. One reason why I know I didnāt want to make it my profession. On the other hand the shows I have seen about my chosen profession are so unrealistic itās laughable. I tried watching Industry but it just hurt my brain so much I could not get past the third episode. When I read that some of the creators had spent time at MS I wondered where? In the cafeteria kitchen? 
Here is another story which focuses on the flashback with the dead brother and making braciole. I plan on trying it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bear-fx-interview-braciole-recipe-11657807046
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The Zimmern piece helped me understand a possible explanation for at least some of what I saw as an incongruity in the show. He suggests that Carmyās intense imposition of a high end kitchen dynamic is this tiny sandwich shop is his way of dealing with the overwhelming loss of his brother. That could explain Carmy. I donāt see it explaining Sydney though, except that she seems used to that environment so just fits in. My 2Ā¢.
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I have not yet watched The Bear, but I really do want to as soon as I finish up another series I am in the midst of. Judging by the trailer, it does seem quite intense and frantic.
I have limited ārealā restaurant experience but do have several years in food service, including working at a sandwich shop. Let me tell you, that job was the most toxic working environment I have ever been in my entire life. The stress and toxicity is relentless because you get it from every end: 1) the customers** can be quite rude, entitled, and, frankly, disgustingly behaved, 2) our manager running around cursing everyone and everything under her breath nonstop for eight straight hours (I once told her how impressed I was with her ability to talk so much shit and that it must have been a Guinness World Record), and 3) coworkers who really were once good people when they started become miserable and constantly on-edge and therefore talk about nothing except how terrible everything is. I came home angry almost every night, and in a constant state of āWhat is happening in my life?ā. If it wasnāt for my other job that I love, I might have thrown in the towel. Iām not exaggerating.
**I have observed that 90% of customers are either nice or indifferent, but the other 10% make up for it. You can be having an awesome day and literally one interaction ruins the shift.
I lasted one year and a day in this job before switching to a different food service gig. Literally a few weeks ago.
I think every āFoodieā should work at least one food/restaurant job in their life. Because some of the comments about service, etc that I read here on HO are written by people who have never experienced walking on egg shells for eight straight hours worrying that a single mistake will set someone off and bring wrath upon the staff and be expected to keep the same level of sharpness throughout the day.
Not sure how my thoughts tie into the show, but since weāre talking about stress, I figured Iād chime in.
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