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The Bear TV show on Hulu

blue_dolphin

By blue_dolphin
in Food Media & Arts

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blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

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Anyone watching The Bear on Hulu or FX?
Reviews from the NYT: In ‘The Bear’ on Hulu, a Kitchen Staff Is Nearly Eaten Alive

 

NPR: FX's 'The Bear': A funny, raw, real drama in a restaurant kitchen

 

Rolling Stone: ‘The Bear’ Is the Most Stressful Thing on TV Right Now. It’s Also Great

 

I’ve only watched the first episode and agree on the stressful and great descriptors. 
 

 

Edited by blue_dolphin
To add NPR review (log)
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gfron1

gfron1

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I almost walked away after the first episode because its very real, and I don't need to leave my work stress to go home and watch my work stress. But, after the first episode the character development really builds and it's growing on me. It is without a doubt, the thing all industry folks are watching right now because of the level of realistic detail that they've incorporated down to drinking out of quart containers and double gloving a bloody finger.

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

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Midlife

Midlife

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On 7/10/2022 at 11:51 AM, gfron1 said:

I almost walked away after the first episode because its very real, and I don't need to leave my work stress to go home and watch my work stress. But, after the first episode the character development really builds and it's growing on me. It is without a doubt, the thing all industry folks are watching right now because of the level of realistic detail that they've incorporated down to drinking out of quart containers and double gloving a bloody finger.


Any thoughts on whether what appears to be (to my admittedly uneducated self) an incongruity between what I’d thought was a routine employed in full/classic restaurant kitchens and what seems to be a beef sandwich shop?  The frenetic pace and terminology seems like what people like Bourdain have recounted, but the place seems to have just a few tables and no front of house staff visible. 
 

Regardless, the show did get my wife to ask why anyone would want to work in such a place.  Carmy is from that environment but it just seems out of place. 

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gfron1

gfron1

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On 7/11/2022 at 9:12 PM, Midlife said:

Any thoughts on whether what appears to be (to my admittedly uneducated self) an incongruity between what I’d thought was a routine employed in full/classic restaurant kitchens and what seems to be a beef sandwich shop?  The frenetic pace and terminology seems like what people like Bourdain have recounted, but the place seems to have just a few tables and no front of house staff visible. 
 

Regardless, the show did get my wife to ask why anyone would want to work in such a place.  Carmy is from that environment but it just seems out of place. 

The latter is easy - adrenaline rush, party life (work hard play hard), possibly don't know of other life options.

 

I've never done a busy sandwich shop so I don't know, but if they had a line out the door for hour on end, I suspect it would be similar.

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Chef, Bulrush & Squatters in St. Louis, MO

BBC Write-up

Smithsonian magazine story

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Kerala

Kerala

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I am enjoying this at the moment. I understand the high pressure environment, but is the nastiness really such a common feature in kitchens? When Carmy's boss tells him he is worthless and should be dead, what's he trying to achieve?

Anyway, I'm six episodes in, and will probably rewatch.

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SLB

SLB

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I nearly cried when Tina announces she needs a good knife "for school", and Carmy just gives her his without so much as a blink.  And then she explodes with pleasure at what she can do with it.  

 

Basically, I love Tina.  "Who da [eff] is Jeff??"

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Duvel

Duvel

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On 7/14/2022 at 4:02 AM, gfron1 said:

The latter is easy - adrenaline rush, party life (work hard play hard), possibly don't know of other life options.


That is - by the way - also the life of a chemistry PhD student 🥳

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FrogPrincesse

FrogPrincesse

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I just finished watching both seasons and really enjoyed it. Some episodes were painfully stressful to watch (starting with the very first episode, and culminating in "Fishes" in season 2), but I loved seeing the various aspects of restaurant work being portrayed in a way that felt very real. The actors are outstanding as well.

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My eGullet foodblog

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chromedome

chromedome

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In the UK, The Guardian has named The Bear the best show on television in 2023.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/dec/20/the-50-best-tv-shows-of-2023-no-1-the-bear

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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paulraphael

paulraphael

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On 12/20/2023 at 9:41 AM, chromedome said:

In the UK, The Guardian has named The Bear the best show on television in 2023.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/dec/20/the-50-best-tv-shows-of-2023-no-1-the-bear

 

One of the many things I like about the show: a more true observation of the creative process than I think I've ever seen in shows or movies. There are a bunch of scenes where Carmen and Syd are working on dishes for the new restaurant. There's an intense collaboration: trying things, rejecting things, talking them out, trying to put impressions into words, circling, homing in on something, failing, trying again, agreeing, fighting, egging each other on ...

 

I just don't recall seeing anything as convincing as this before. Writers usually fall back on lazy clichés like the "Aha!" moment, and other kinds of dramatic revelation. They don't show what the real work is like. This is as true for shows about chefs as for ones about artists, musicians, writers, scientists, inventors ...

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Notes from the underbelly

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IndyRob

IndyRob

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I just binge watched seasons 1 & 2 and feel like I have a love/hate relationship with the show.  I love how it's made, how it's acted, how it brings in some of the realities. But the story?  I'm not always so sure.

 

The setup is good. Great chef comes in to save a long standing and well loved (albeit dysfunctional) family business. 

 

But he can't.  Next step? Fine dining, of course.

 

And that walk-in door.   Okay, yeah, they set up how it went unaddressed until too late (despite the fact that every other element of the place is pristine - except maybe that pesky toilet).  But they clearly figured out how to get stock into the walk-in without a handle since the first failure.  They needed a plasma cutter (or whatever it was) to get their chef out?

 

 

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