That The Bear is a comedy is a hard idea to defend. In terms of subject matter, the first season dealt with grief, anxiety and depression. The script was not built around jokes but about a growing tension that portrayed the stress in the kitchen of Carmen (Jeremy Allen White), who had inherited her brother’s sandwich bar after he committed suicide. But since television tends to associate the thirty-minute format with comedy, Disney-owned content platform Hulu marketed the production at the awards as a comedy, to compete with more honest examples of the genre such as Colegio Abbott, Solo murders in the building and Ted Lasso. In this way, the series now reaches the Emmys as a strong candidate for the best television comedy with thirteen nominations, among which stand out script, direction and leading actor. And, pending the awards in January because of the actors’ and writers’ strike, he returns to Disney on Wednesday with the challenge of season two: to prove that the quality of the first year was not a fluke.
Creator Christopher Storer resists the fact that his work is compared to other television productions, including The bear. Change the tone. From the screams due to the pressure to get the sandwiches out of the kitchen to the noise of the building works on the premises, which Carmen wants to turn into a Michelin star restaurant with the help of Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), her right hand. The hammer blows, however, alternate with scenes of calm introspection. Sydney is inspired by the streets of Chicago and tastes dishes from other establishments. Carmen resumes contact with Claire (Molly Gordon), his platonic love from high school. Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), previously grumpy, returns to culinary school to get promoted at work, happy to receive an opportunity. And Marcus (Lionel Boyce), whose mother is sick, moves to Copenhagen for a few weeks to expand his mind as a pastry chef. The maneuver, which has a nineties accent thanks to a nostalgic soundtrack, is risky: evolving is not always appreciated on television, since the viewer is an animal of habits.
The status of The bear as a series admired by critics is palpable. This is the only way to explain the level of the episodic actors: Oscar-winners Olivia Colman (The Favorite) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Todo a la vez en todas partes), comedian John Mulaney or performers such as Sarah Paulson (American horror story), Bob Odenkirk ( Better call Saul ) or Will Poulter ( Dopesick ) who aspire to lead roles on television. Poulter, in fact, admitted to Obsessed that he “begged” Storer for a role, and when he landed Marcus’s mentor role, he took on the task with a heavy sense of responsibility: he prepared in restaurants Black Ax Mangal, St. John and Trullo in London.
Viewers who want stimulation and conversation will also have material to process and comment on. If the first season offered Review , an episode with a 17-minute sequence plan that placed the audience in breathless tension, the second has a controversial experiment: an overwhelming 66-minute family dinner in the sixth episode, Fishes . Brilliant exercise or unbearable excess? Let the discussion begin on Wednesday, when all ten episodes are released at once.
