I've spent the better part of a decade in the service industry from drive through coffee shops to running the bar of one of the highest volume dine-in movie theaters in the country, serving rotations of 900+ guests at a time on opening weekends of blockbusters. I have worked farm to table brunch service, run full BBQ catering service for hundreds with a team of 2, created menus for high end craft-cocktail bars and worked music festivals in downtown Austin. My role in these places has frequently involved systematic restructuring of operations to keep up with increased volume, training up new teams, or taking a venue from standard to excellent. I know first hand that the difference between great and exceptional is mountainous. A single person can lead a willing team to excellence or dismantle them into chaos.
My love for the service industry runs deep. I have always drawn parallels between the professional kitchen and the film set, and attribute much of my success in the latter to my experience in the former. Considering the fact that many aspiring actors and filmmakers start in service, its lack of representation in Hollywood films always struck me as odd. So far every film or television show depicting service that I've come across has ranged from surface level stereotypes lacking in emotional core and realism (see 2015's "Burnt"), to emotionally satisfying food porn that touch on reality in a way that's approachable for mass market and families (see 2007's Ratatouille and 2014's "Chef").
Enter "The Bear" (2022).
Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto, played by Jeremy Allen White, used to run the best fine dining kitchen in the world, until his brother Michael took his own life, leaving him the struggling family business - the Original Beef of Chicagoland. Christopher Storer's new FX series puts the pressures of high end culinary chaos on the employees of a mom and pop sandwich shop lamenting the death of their owner, and contending with the ambitions of his grieving brother.
From quart container line drinks and irreverent conversations over family meals, to "CORNER!" "HANDS PLEASE!" and stealing away in the walk in for a breath of solitude in between explosive rushes where the only rule of law is Murphy's, the show nails the ins and outs of service in a way I have never seen. Lensed by Andrew Wehde (Eighth Grade), the camera glides through the kitchen in long single takes so kinetic you don't realize there aren't any cuts until someone looks up at the clock that's screaming at them that they are running out of time to open.
The camera follows action around the kitchen expo line, darting from one chaotic set piece to the next. Fight break out in lines in the street, filmed through windows and around corners. Carmy and his "cousin" Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) pop out back for a smoke. Everything is filmed from the street view of Chicago. From the word go to the final scene of the season we occupy the character's world with occasional and effective glimpses into their psyche through dreams and flashing memories.
Nearly every conversation is a struggle for power and validation (it's funny how often we conflate the two in difficult creative endeavors), the actors constantly steal scenes as the power dynamic changes from one sentence to the next. In a show full of standout performances, Ayo Edebiri dominates as Sydney, the only other chef with the same level of culinary training as Carmy, if much less on-hands experience. Her growth throughout the series from a green and eager newcomer wanting to make her mark, to an experienced professional who stands up to the most brutal verbal assaults without taking shit from a kitchen dominated by loud men, she is an absolute marvel to behold.
Other standout treats include the endlessly loveable Matty Matheson as Fak, a local fixer of broken things who wants more than anything to be a part of the team, and the soft spoken but strong Lionel Boyce as Marcus, the baker turned pastry chef on a mission to create the perfect donut.
The core emotional conflicts in the show ring so true for each character. Resonance abounds for service industry people, creatives, those struggling to hold their lives together in the midst of chaos, recovering addicts, broken families, and just about anyone capable of empathy who isn't turned off by foul language.
As an audience member, I tend to spend more time seeking out revival screenings of weird forgotten films at any number of the wonderful cinemas around Austin than I do watching TV on streaming services. The cinematic experience excites me more than binging shows Netflix feeds me till 3:00am. So when my girlfriend and I, both service industry veterans, put on the first episode of "The Bear" on the recommendation of a couple of co-workers I thought, "Great. I just finished a shift and now I'm gonna re-live the nightmare all over again." By the end of the first episode I was jaw dropped. We finished season 1 in a single day in between sessions of house keeping and productivity and I could not be happier with it.
Christopher Storer has struck gold with a show about one of the most misrepresented groups of people in the country - who burnout and work insane hours (my longest shift behind the bar clocked in at 19.7), who undergo the endless abuse of middle management and owners who are themselves struggling to get by, who create the most delicious meals you've ever had and go home to eat peanut butter and jelly before smoking weed for anxiety and passing out on their couch. He made a show about family, recovery and psychological trauma. He packaged it in a high octane comedy choreographed at a neck-break pace topped in recent memory only by 2019's "Uncut Gems." It's packed with familiar stars in breakaway performance and fresh faces announcing themselves to the world.
When the only complaint a TV-cautious cinephile can find in the first season of a show that takes this many risks and hits this many home runs is the occasionally unconvincing CGI grease fires, you can be sure you're in for something special. I cannot wait to see where they take these characters and cannot recommend "The Bear" highly enough.
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