'The Bear' review: A winning recipe that combines restaurant drama, comedy, and food porn
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If you're looking for an excellent new show that will stress you out and also make you violently hungry, I've got two words for you: The Bear.
FX's series about a struggling restaurant and its employees is an onscreen pressure cooker, a culinary whirlwind, and a rumination on grief, all at once. That combination, slathered with great performances and served with a dose of gritty flair, makes for a great sandwich — sorry, I meant makes for a great show. Did I mention you'll be very hungry after watching?
The Bear is a restaurant dramedy that knows how to dial up the stress
Created by Christopher Storer, The Bear introduces us to Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), a fine dining chef who's inherited his late brother Michael's sandwich shop, The Original Beef of Chicagoland. As Carmy works to keep The Beef afloat, he clashes with other members of the staff, like his talented sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and his brother's asshole best friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
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These conflicts play out primarily in The Beef's kitchen. Fast-moving knives and roaring stovetop fires make it a perfect backdrop for tension. Even when things are going smoothly in the kitchen, the chorused yells the chefs use to communicate — Hands! Corner! Behind! — put you on edge. All of this, plus frenetic camera movement and editing, makes The Bear one of the most stressful shows on TV right now.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the seventh episode, "Review," which takes place in real time as staff prepares to open The Beef for service. Controlled chaos erupts into actual chaos as the episode pushes everyone to their boiling points. Shot in one take, it's a tight 20 minutes that sees everyone behind the camera and in front of it firing on all cylinders. Sure, you might feel like you're close to a heart attack while watching "Review" or any of The Bear's other episodes, but all the stress is worth it to glimpse a great cast and crew at work.
Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach are exceptional
Leading the cast is White as Carmy, who is as new to The Beef as we are. We get to know the restaurant's ins and outs alongside him, as well as feel the rest of the staff's initial resistance to his new system. The Bear could easily have fallen into the trap of making Carmy a jerk to everyone around him. Instead, White embodies Carmy's frustration and grief with a heaping amount of sensitivity. Carmy is introspective and closed-off to a fault, and even when he does snap, he's determined to make amends.
Contrast this with Richie, who is bombastic, aggressive, and unlikely to admit he's wrong. Moss-Bachrach fills almost every scene he's in with a volatile energy, adding to the show's already high stress levels. He and White have phenomenal chemistry, lobbing insults and butting heads like they've known each other their whole lives.
However, the most fraught dynamic in the show, especially as it continues, might be the one between Sydney and Richie. Richie views Sydney, an accomplished chef who trained at the Culinary Institute of America, as a threat to the core values of The Beef and an encroachment on what he views as a "family" business. Meanwhile, Sydney is trying to help make The Beef the best it can possibly be, only to be shut down or disrespected at almost every turn by Richie and other members of the staff.
Watching Sydney begin to hold her own in this new environment is one of the great joys of The Bear, as is Edebiri's performance. She nails Sydney's evolution into a force in the kitchen, bringing her drive and passion for cooking to the forefront. She's also responsible for some of the funniest moments in the show, including any time she gets an opportunity to take Richie down a peg.
The food in The Bear makes for a mouth-watering watch
Between The Bear's most stressful sequences and its quieter, more introspective moments, we get shot after shot of food, glorious food. Beef getting seared. Garlic simmering in oil. Chocolate cake draped in frosting. It's food porn of the highest order. I guarantee you will crave an Italian beef sandwich, or risotto, or donuts, or literally anything while you watch.
Beyond the delicious aesthetics (and boy, are they delicious), the food in The Bear serves a greater purpose. Food is how characters relate to each other. Michael and Carmy connected over food, pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce) loves hearing about the elaborate desserts Carmy used to make, and the whole staff bonds over their "family meal" before they open for service.
However, food can also be The Bear's greatest source of conflict. Telling someone that what they cooked tastes good is the greatest compliment in the world, but telling someone their dish isn't quite ready feels like a shot in the heart. Arguments break out over recipes, and kitchen cat fights often involve cooking sabotage.
Even though The Beef weathers many, many catastrophes throughout The Bear, the show adheres firmly to the idea of found family. As the season progresses, characters let their barriers down and confide in each other, but they also push each other to their limits. It's a high-wire act that The Bear nails. As with the perfect high-end cuisine or Italian beef sandwich, every element of The Bear combines to create a delectable treat you'll want to savor all over again as soon as you've finished it.
Season 1 of The Bear is now streaming on Hulu.
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic.
