The Bear is the Best Thing on TV this Year and Nothing is Really Close
Here in Takes & Typo-stan, we’ve been winding down 2023 with a series of best ofs.
We started with the best book that I read, Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond. Last week, I wrote about Becoming Justice Thomas, a podcast series about our most controversial Supreme Court Judge from Slate. This week is all about the most important thing I watched. But before I rave about season two of The Bear, a little meditation on the upcoming festive season.
Trips home are bittersweet for me, often more bitter than sweet. On one hand, I'm stoked to spend two weeks back in Tacoma, champagne-ing & campaigning with family & loved ones. On the other hand, a familiar knot of anxiety tightens in my stomach the closer home gets. My trips back to the States have been a rollercoaster: losing my dad to Covid in 2020, taking my mom to a sold out live event I hosted that December only to have her fall and break her leg later that evening, rushing home to sit with her in the ICU the following summer after she was injured by an intoxicated driver, and sitting with her in the hospital as she recovered over the next two trips back.
I have a lot of guilt about being 7500 miles from home as my family has gone through this, but they are good about not making me feel worse.
I often feel some-type-of-way about traveling back to the states. Everything is expensive. Everything is a hassle. Things I used to buy cost twice as much but are of worse quality. When I’m back, I have all sorts of anxiety in my encounters with law enforcement. Last summer, I watched Tacoma police pull their guns on a homeless guy who seemed to be minding his own business. Later that summer, while visiting Tacoma Pride, I ran into one of the officers who helped kill Manuel Ellis. We recognized each other at about the same time and both of our countenances changed. Being away has highlighted to me that being Black in America is truly exhausting. There’s a whole newsletter to be written about the ways I am casually but habitually forced to justify my humanity back home, but I don’t think I want to go down that road today.
All that said if you’re a subscriber in Tacoma and see me on them Tacoma streets or posted up in one of my usual haunts—holler.
The Bear is the Best Television Show of 2023
The Bear is a show about a Michelin rated chef named Carmy that inherits his older brother’s Italian beef sandwich shop, called The Beef, in a working class Chicago neighborhood. The show is chaotic, often stressful to watch, and features amazing performances from a cast that looks like they are drawn from the River North neighborhood, where the show is set. The kitchen feels tight and tumultuous. It’s reminiscent of the tension and claustrophobia you feel in a boxing flick or submarine movie.
Sometimes you watch TV for background noise—an episode of Law & Order or lower division soccer in the background as you grade papers. Other times, you watch television to escape to different worlds and universes. The Bear is neither. It buries you neck deep in an extremely claustrophobic gyre of very familiar workplace and family conflicts. People I know in the service industry talk about this show and the lens it gives into their world the way teachers talk about Abbott Elementary.
In season one, I fell in love with the show and the world the writers were building. However, in season two, the showrunners slowed the plot progression and allowed us to take more time to experience the triumphs and tragedies of each person in the kitchen. Over the last two years, The Bear's crew has burrowed deeper into my heart than any characters I've encountered in possibly any work ever.
Carmy, the head chef is world class at what he does but is also a toxic, self-sabotaging, control-freak. His constant clashes in the kitchen with his Cousin Ritchie, in particular, are explosive. Cousin Ritchie is an absolute a-hole, but he’s on one of the most intricate, compelling redemption arcs in television history. Marcus, a young baker, throughout the series struggles with the same issues I described above—a mother in ailing health who he wants to care for, make proud, and not disappoint. Syd, is a culinary prodigy who is driven but often naive about the realities of the restaurant business and has flashes of ego. Ebraheim and Tina are veterans of the kitchen who, along with Ritchie, pre-date Carmy’s arrival at The Beef. They are older, vulnerable characters dealing with fear of the unknown and the changes Carmy wants to implement.
The most talked about episode of the season, Fishes, is a cinematic sucker punch. It features an insane family meltdown over Christmas dinner. It somehow manages to catch you completely off-guard and stick with you for days. The deliberate shot selection by the director heightened the tension and took the stakes to the rafters.
Season two's final five episodes each wrung tears from me like a dishcloth. Marcus's European journey reminded me of my first trip to Paris. Forks had people across the country cheering for the least likable person on the entire show. And the season's closing shot landed like an atom bomb into my personal familial anxiety, leaving me gasping with my arms above my head.
On our re-watch of the series (yes, the show rewards rewatching), I was blown away by how seeds planted in season one (and early in the second season bloomed), especially in the finale. Everything in the frame is intentional: Every chef’s knife. Every can. Every text.
The showrunners of The Bear are playing a different game than any other writers out there.
Next week, I will share a Spotify playlist filled with the songs and albums readers recommended in response to the last newsletter. If you want to add yours, feel free to blow up the inbox.
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share Takes & Typos with their friends.
As always, if you have any thoughts or feedback about the newsletter, I welcome it, and I really appreciate it when folks share the newsletter with their friends.