Now, having written that anti-TV rant, along comes The Bear. A former star chef at the a world renown fine dining establishment, returns home upon inheriting the Chicago Beef sandwich shop from his brother who committed suicide. Seems like a basic fish-out-of-water sitcom trope, but it's well handled. Grief lingers in various ways over the people who were close to his brother, and much resentment comes from the existing blue-collar employees who are very attached to the way things were and resent the snooty fine dining protocols.
The characters are truly well-drawn. Everyone has a dark side and a light side and is fully human. There is growth and change and acceptance --let's call it character arcs -- over time, but it all occurs within the framework of their imperfections. Sometimes, just when you have these characters figured out, they surprise you, but they still stay within their own skin. In fact the whole thing is -- dare I say it? -- character driven. Think of that: a new TV drama that is character driven and not about crime or crime-adjacent activities.
It falls short in some places. It attempts to draw a picture of a Chicago that I don't think really exists. There is an overtone of shady/mafioso style characters (big fat Italian looking guys), even to the point of them claiming the sidewalk in front of the restaurant as their turf. That is patently nonsense. It ends up being just contrivance for atmosphere.
But if it fails as a love letter to Chicago, it succeeds as a love letter to the restaurant industry. Having once been a part of that, I can attest to how well it captures the madness and the rush it can provide and why you would keep your restaurant job despite the lousy pay and all the frustration.
Nicely done. Lots of holes, lots of contrivance, but terrific character based drama. Ebon Moss-Bacharach and Jeremy Allen White and fine as the lead "cousins", but Ayo Edebiri as the hyper-ironic, overconfident, post-millennial stood out even more. It's no Better Call Saul, but it might be given a chance to grow. Nicely done.
