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 “real” 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 “What is happening in my life?”. If it wasn’t for my other job that I love, I might have thrown in the towel. I’m 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 “Foodie” 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 we’re talking about stress, I figured I’d chime in.
I’m watching it all over again. I’m a fan of Jeremy Allen. Watched shameless. Controlled chaos. Sort of reminds me of myself. How shit never works perfectly. I just keep driving the boat up river.
It’s a little tricky to find the script (especially over the long term) but for the moment it’s on the first page at the URL if you scroll down to “Latest updates”
I hope you enjoy it! It’s a fantastic database of actual TV scripts new and old that I’ve been going to for almost 10 years now. It doesn’t have every single script out there but it does include some real gems.
Just finished watching the 5th episode. I don’t find any of the characters to be particularly compelling, save for Sidney. Richie is a PITA to watch, and I don’t care about Carmy >shrug<
The kitchen scenes and the food are what keeps me watching, but the “plot” is thinner than bad gazpacho.
Season 2 dropped this morning on Hulu for anyone interested in continuing with the show. I’m about to dive in right now, and will be back with my thoughts later on. Happy watching, everyone!
Reading some of the comments, I guess I’m in @linguafood camp. I would add not much character development. Acting is optional. And the food scenes dont really save it or do it for me.
Yeah, I never understood the massive hype the show got. So it’s a fairly realistic depiction of food staff & BOH workings. Eh. Maybe I just know too many peeps in food service to find this a revelation of sorts.
I’m far more excited about the Righteous Gemstones, TBH
