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The 7 Best Needle Drops in ‘The Bear’

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A middling third season aside, Hulu/FX’s The Bear has been one of the best American TV shows of the past few years. The show follows the trials and tribulations of Carmy Berzato (Jeremy Allen White), a hot-shot chef, who leaves New York City to run his family’s sandwich shop The Beef after the passing of his brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal). In Season 2 and 3, he opens his own restaurant called The Bear with the help of the staff of The Beef. The Bear features strong performances from a deep ensemble cast, a powerful sense of narrative momentum that matches the stressfulness of the culinary world, and isn’t afraid to experiment like an hour-long flashback episode in Season Two called “The Fishes” set around the Feast of the Seven Fishes featuring guest appearances from Jamie Lee Curtis (As Carmy’s mother), Bob Odenkirk, John Mulaney, and Sarah Paulson.

It also has some pretty damn great music choices of mainly the alternative rock variety that enhance the characters’ arcs or just remind the audience that Chicago is a cool city with tasty food. (I miss it, but am never driving there again.) Without further ado, here are the seven best needle drops across The Bear‘s three seasons in chronological order.

1. “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens (From Season 1, Episode 7 “Review”)

The tensest episode of The Bear Season 1 starts with a breezy little ditty from Sufjan Stevens from his concept album Illinois. (He was supposed to make concept albums about all 50 states, but only did Illinois and Michigan.) It’s diegetic music with the radio DJ from Chicago’s adult album alternative station bantering about Stevens dressing up as a unicorn at the Metro before the more vulnerable demo version of “Chicago” plays in one of The Bear‘s mini montage. With historical, black and white flashbacks, archival footage of Barack Obama and Michael Jordan, and of course, loving tracking shots of many of Chicagoland’s beloved restaurants, it places Carmy, Manny (Richard Esteras), and Sydney’s (Ayo Edebiri) commute in context before shit hits the fan.

2. “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” by Wilco (From Season 1, Episode 7 “Review”)

Wilco is one of the great Chicago bands, and their 2004 11 minute track “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” is the backbeat of The Beef being utterly torn apart when Sydney leaves the preorder option on for their to-go orders, and the receipts keep printing out orders before the restaurant has even open. Christopher Storer’s single take/single song approach to direction keeps the stress levels increasing with Carmy throwing a fit and Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and Sydney walking out after Carmy verbally abuses them. The creativity they’ve shown with their donut and risotto dishes respectively is thrown out the window to the whine of distorted guitars and Jeff Tweedy’s barely-heard vocals in-sync with the receipt machine.

3. “Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements (From Season 2, Episode 5 “Pop”)

Even though Carmy is busy trying to open his new restaurant The Bear, there’s a little time for romance in Season 2. He reconnects with an old friend named Claire (Molly Gordon), who is a resident physician, and understands working in a hectic profession where everything is literally life and death. He initially gives her the wrong number, but Neil Fak (Matty Mattheson) plays matchmaker and gives her Carmy’s real number. There’s some flirtations and a long car ride to get a liquor license, but they finally kiss at the end of a long, stressful day setting up The Bear’s kitchen. (Of course, Fak interrupts them at first.) And what better song to soundtrack a first kiss than “Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements with Paul Westerberg’s emotive vocals matching the yearning in Gordon’s face, and that lovely chorus with the strings and horns kicking in as they start making out. Also, the lyric “Ashtray floors, dirty clothes, and filthy jokes” definitely defines The Bear’s back of house area. Pairing one of the brightest moments of The Bear with one of the best college rock songs of all time is a genius move from director Joanna Calo.

4. “Love Story” by Taylor Swift (From Season 2, Episode 7 “Forks”)

My favorite episode of The Bear Season Two is “Forks” where Carmy sends his brother’s best friend Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) to stage at a fine dining restaurant called Ever even though he doesn’t have any culinary skill. He begins the episode by resenting having to clean forks to a spit-shine, but eventually, bonds with his colleagues, buys into their philosophy, and provides speedy, attentive service. Richie falling in love with his front of house role, suit jacket and all, is set to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift with Moss-Bachrach doing emotionally charged car karaoke vocals on the way to work. This song is emblematic of his Richie’s character development in Season 2, and Taylor Swift is his daughter’s favorite artist so there’s also a personal touch too.

5. “Save It for Later” by Eddie Vedder (From Season 3, Episode 2 “Next”)

The Bear loves its opening montage needle drops, and Season 3 is no exception with a cover of The English Beat’s “Save It for Later” by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. It kicks off episode two and looks at a hustling, bustling Chicago starting its day and finds humanity in every corner from the diner waitress pouring coffee to the zamboni driver on the ice and even the guys who literally make the sausage. It’s how society should function before going into the chaotic world of The Bear. Vedder’s take on the iconic song is soulful, and there’s a feeling of basically everything be okay in the end. It put me in a calm state of mind before an episode full of arguing.

6. “Morning Fog” by Kate Bush (From Season 3, Episode 6 “Napkins”)

“Napkins” is easily the best episode of The Bear Season 3 with its laser focus on Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas), and how she navigated economic insecurity and the job market as a middle-aged Puerto Rican woman before finally finding a home at The Beef after a heart to heart with Mikey, who spots her crying at the restaurant. In the episode, Tina talks about liking having routine through working consistently, and “Morning Fog” by Kate Bush, which plays throughout “Napkins”, reinforces this character’s trait. It helps the transitional moments in the episode like Tina taking the bus all across Chicago to hand out her resume or go to job interviews that get cancelled pass pleasantly. It’s just sad that “Morning Fog” sadly won’t get an airplay boost like its more famous Hounds of Love sister “Running Up That Hill”.

7. “In the Garage” by Weezer (From Season 3, Episode 10 “Forever”)

The Bear weirdly has a lot of Weezer songs with a track from their Christmas album wrapping up “The Fishes” and “Getchoo” from Pinkerton showing up earlier this season. However, “In the Garage” kicks off The Bear Season 3 finale with a slideshow type of montage of different influential chefs who will be attending the funeral dinner for Ever, including Carmy himself, who stands off and looks at the pictures instead of interacting with anyone. The lyrics of the song are basically about Rivers Cuomo being happier to hang out in his garage with his comics, action figures, and guitars than interacting with people and having relationships, which if you substitute the nerdy stuff for the foodie stuff, that’s Carmy to a tee. (I’m kind of ticked that they didn’t leave in the verse about Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler.) He loves tinkering with food and changing the menu every night even though this affects his colleagues and the restaurant’s bottom line. The “In the Garage” needle drop playfully creates a parallel between its lyrics and Carmy’s psyche. He just wants to be left alone cooking food.

TV Review: The Bear S3E5 “Children”

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The Bear S3E5 "Children"

“Children” marks the midpoint of The Bear Season 3, and writer/director Christopher Storer tries to do a true dramedy episode balancing humor (John Cena is a Fak, a man only answers to Computer) and serious stuff (Ever closing, Marcus dealing with the passing of his mother, the constant financial struggle) However, he doesn’t quite get the balance right in this taking stock episode that happened four episodes after the previous “taking stock” episode.

Unfortunately, the cliffhanger of The Bear’s Tribune review isn’t resolved even though Richie badgers the photographer while he’s lining up his shots and asking about a duck dish that no one in the kitchen remembers how to make. However, a food critic does make an appearance as Richie sees that Ever, a fine dining restaurant run by Carmy’s mentor Andrea Terry has closed its doors. This hits him like a ton of bricks and ruins his flow when he’s ironing his shirts for service. He has a phone call with Jessica (Sarah Ramos), and they reminisce about how all “the good shit is gone”. But Jessica also tells him that Terry seems more relaxed after closing the restaurant. This brush with restaurant mortality also affects Carmy when he finds out the news and freaks out thinking about his legacy. Storer doesn’t go for melodrama, but instead has him asking Ebraheim if he’s doing a good job after Ebra drops some sandwich buns.

However, this brush with the end of a restaurant doesn’t really connect to the rest of the episode. Christopher Storer officially goes a little too far with the Faks’ antics by having them goofing off and bantering for most of the running time of the episode. It’s like he was trying to balance some of the darker themes of the episode with some lightheartedness, but the bits go on for a little too long although Matty Matheson, Ricky Staffieri, and of course, Cena are gifted physical comedians and make the most with the material. I guess they show the disconnect between the environment Carmy grew up, and how he acts now, especially when Sammy Fak lights up a blunt in the middle of the dining room before the photoshoot.

Although Storer doesn’t find a throughline to tie the episode together (Especially with another Carmy staring at a picture moment.), there are plenty of good moving parts. Billions showrunner Brian Koppelman outshines John Cena in the guest star department as Nicholas Marshall aka the Computer. He doesn’t register words unless addressed as the Computer and brings a cold objectivity to what’s going on at The Bear in everything ranging from microgreens to produce and costs and sadly, their pastry chef Marcus, who has been spending the whole episode trying to make a beautiful dessert inspired by his mother’s favorite flower, the white violet. The Computer’s cut the bullshit attitude is refreshing, but wanting to lay off Marcus is a step too far. Abby Elliott gives a passionate speech about why he is so important to The Bear flowing out of a conversation they had about his dessert, her pregnancy, and wondering about what’s really going on in Carmy’s head. Even though dessert is a small part of The Bear’s offerings and revenues, Marcus is an invaluable vibes guy as one of the few nice, competent, and level-head members of the staff. I was afraid that Christopher Storer was going to have Marcus laid off to spice up the plot, but he refuses a cheap ploy for drama.

Filled with silly antics, celebrity stunt casting, a few poignant moments, and not much plot, “Children” is the weakest half hour of The Bear Season 3 so far although I’m still smiling about the Computer, and Marcus creating art through desserts.

Overall Verdict: 6.9

TV Review: The Bear S3E2 “Next”

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The Bear S3E2 "Next"

If “Tomorrow” is all nearly dialogue-free ambience and visual fragments, “Next” is overlapping conversations and loads of snarky dialogue from writer/director Christopher Storer and co-writer Courtney Storer. (Courtney acts as the show’s culinary producer so it’s fitting this entire episode takes place in the kitchen of The Bear with the exception of the opening montage and a cute scene with Sydney and her dad.) It’s the messy praxis to The Bear Season 3 premiere’s glorious theory. In the words of Richie and Carmy, this episode of The Bear Season 3 explores how badly fucked the restaurant is, and how Carmy’s goal of getting a Michelin star at all costs doesn’t endear him to the staff and ownership of The Bear.

The Storers channel David Mamet in the rapid-fire, profanity-filled dialogue that peppers “Next”. The episode feels like a stage play-meets-one of those business Tik Toks where they say what time each person gets to work as the cast dynamic is set up for the next season. And all of the optimism and high ideals from Carmy navel-gazing in the kitchen gets torn to shreds as different staff members poke fun at his “non-negotiables” or treat them like suggestions or ideas. The one that gets critiqued the most is having a different menu every day. Richie almost bursts a blood vessels when he reads that one, and Cicero (Oliver Platt) shakes his head and wishes that he’d sold the property for condos.

The most charged interactions in “Next” are between Richie and Carmy with Sydney forced to be mediator. Work and life bleed together as they go from yelling about table placements and pricing to Carmy’s relationship with Claire, who doesn’t make an appearance, but is the main topic of conversation for an extended scene. Jeremy Allen White, Ebon Bachrach Moss, and Ayo Edebiri feed off each’s other frenetic energy in this sequence with Edebiri’s comedy background serving her well in reacting to the bullshit of these long time frenemies. Richie’s use of therapy speak with the usual “fuck yous” is comedic gold as he continues to work on his toxic behavior, but isn’t 100% there yet. The heartfelt apology scene in premiere turns out to be a sham, and one of the nine Fak family members drops some hot gossip that Claire is also still unhappy with Carmy. He’s unpopular on the culinary, financial (He drew up a DocuSign for ownership of the restaurant with letting the lawyers or Natalie know.), and definitely interpersonal front. A seemingly throwaway line about four employees aka the entire wait staff quitting shows how self-absorbed Carmy is as he’s caught up in flights of fancy and French tire tread men instead of having a profitable business or a good place to work.

However, Marcus’ appearance towards the end of “Next” puts everything into perspective, and Lionel Boyce does a great job of capturing a man whose lost his mother and wants to find escape through the work that he loves. His presence causes all the gossip and arguing to end, and Carmy actually finds some empathy in an episode-closing one on one conversation where Marcus realizes that he’s at the place he needs to be in this stage of his life and trusts Carmy to make the restaurant a success and help him reach his potential as a pastry chef. It’s an emotional, understated way to end the episode after a lot of sound and fury showing that some things are bigger than a list of arbitrary bullet points on a piece of paper.

“Next” definitely reads as a companion episode of “Tomorrow” focusing on Carmy’s relationship to the talented, regular cast of The Bear in the present of the first few hours a restaurant opens. Christopher and Courtney Storer excel at writing the verbal sniping that is the complete opposite of the waving, smiling workers of Chicago filmed to an Eddie Vedder cover of “Save It for Later” by The English Beat. The Bear’s survival seems hopeless at this point without compromise and actual collaboration, but the end ends on a hopeful note so maybe this dysfunctional kitchen will make it. (Plus the show’s already been renewed for a fourth season.)

Overall Verdict: 8.1

‘The Bear’ finds nuanced humanity in a toxic work environment

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The Bear

Hey everyone! Sorry for the informal opening to this article, but I just wanted to let you all know that I’m happy to be back writing about television (And soon, comics!) at Graphic Policy after almost a four month hiatus. One day, I’ll go into why I took the hiatus, but I really missed analyzing the media I consume and sharing my thoughts on this website even if I feel like my memory/cognitive abilities/attention span have been on the decline for the past 4-5 months or so. Well, on to the article, I guess.

Hulu/FX’s The Bear was a show that was on my radar, and a couple weeks ago, I decided to watch it while folding laundry because I thought it would have good Chicago vibes. (Chicago is probably my favorite city in the United States.) It definitely did, especially any of the close-ups of the food (Fuck, I want Italian beef.), the opening of the penultimate episode, which is a historical/montage love letter to the city set to the dulcet tones of “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens, and funny anecdote featuring the Blackhawks and Bill Murray. However, the main reason that The Bear resonated with me is because it’s the most anxiety-inducing piece of visual media I’ve watched since Uncut Gems and captures what it feels like to be in a fast-paced toxic work environment that never lets up with frenetic editing, a jarring score, and its own unique sense of humor. Seriously, with the exception of flashbacks, we rarely get to see outside The Original Beef of Chicagoland. However, there are a moments of hope and beauty along the way, especially in the season finale.

The basic premise of The Bear is that after the suicide of his brother Mike (Jon Bernthal), award-winning fine dining chef Carmen (Shameless‘ Jeremy Allen White) returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his family’s Italian beef restaurant that is drowning in debt, health code violations, and is barely staying afloat. Carmen seeks to change and modernize the restaurant while still staying true to its spirit while also dealing with the demons of his past experiences in fine dining kitchens and the loss of his brother. Writer/director/creator Christopher Storer uses slightly surreal imagery to show the fear, anxiety, and tenseness he feels, including an encounter with a literal bear and a darkly comic parody of a day time cooking show. Instead of going for boilerplate suspense, Storer and the other directors linger in a negative moment almost daring the characters to screw up. For example, Carmen’s sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), who has formal training at the Culinary Institute of America and idolizes him, drops jus after refusing one of her co-workers’ help, and baker Marcus rushes his preparation (Odd Future’s Lionel Boyce and easily my favorite character) and ends up tripping a breaker for the whole restaurant.

The Bear

Although the season finale features big reveals and heartwarming moments, The Bear‘s arc is one of toxicity boiling under the surface, and everyone can be the asshole. Even Sydney, who is one of the show’s kinder characters, is a passive aggressive and doesn’t offer constructive feedback when Carmen switches the restaurant’s workflow to a French brigade model. The same goes for Carmen, who lets Marcus explore his creative side and create a custom donut for the restaurant in earlier episodes before throwing the donut on the floor towards the end of the season because he’s behind on his tasks and throws a full-on tantrum when the restaurant gets unexpected influx of to-go orders. The Bear can have its wholesome moments, but something overtly or passively aggressive is always on its way as the whole season untangles Mike legacy’s for the restaurant and Carmen as a person.

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but my only experience working food service was a three month stint at Little Caesar’s when I was 16 so a lot of the lingo that Carmen, Sydney, and their compatriots throw around was confusing to me. The big one is everyone being called “chef” as a sign of respect, but this ends up being parodied by Tina (Liza Colon-Zayas), who calls Carmen “Jeff” and clashes with Sydney because she came into a leadership role without paying her dues. Colon-Zayas has killer sarcastic timing, but she also has a softer side like when she brings her son into the restaurant for Sydney to teach him how to work in the kitchen and any time she reminisces about Mike. This is just one of many ways the writers use the language of the kitchen to flesh out characters and create tension, especially during the to-go order fiasco. It seems like a script or a template at times, and Carmen often uses it as a crutch for how he’s actually feeling.

A character who always exactly says what he’s feeling and will somehow to make nearly every situation an opportunity for an overlong story or stale homophobic or sexual joke is Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who was Mike’s best friend and was basically the interim manager of The Beef before Carmen returned. A flashback sequence shows that Richie was basically trying to pattern himself off Mike, but is weighed down by insecurities and a gnawing feeling that he can’t do anything useful at the restaurant except for threaten cosplayers with his gun or run the cash register. Fittingly, he’s in his ex’s phone as “Bad News”, but The Bear‘s writers don’t just portray him as an asshole or a heel all the time. For example, he has a conversation with his daughter where he empathizes with her being bullied and loses the wise guy act for a minute even admitting to Sydney that she knows more about restaurant repairs than him.

This interaction and others in The Bear showcase its greatest strength, which is finding the humanity beneath the toxicity. If it wasn’t for capitalism and gentrification, we could noodle with doughnuts and braised beef risotto plus the bar down the road would still be open. Jobs could be pleasant and not hellscapes of verbal abuse delivered by Joel McHale (Who plays a chef from Carmen’s past.) and Jeremy Allen White. The Bear‘s final scene includes the whole staff of the restaurant plus Carmen’s sister and her boyfriend sitting down for a meal along with one lingering shot of Michael. Not all of the interpersonal issues between Carmen and the staff are solved, but the season wraps up with him finding some closure (and financial windfall) after his brother’s passing and a golden opportunity to do thing his and his staff’s way instead of trying to decipher Michael’s “system”.

The Bear is a cathartic, at times painful viewing experience for anyone who has felt trapped in a toxic environment and has had their hopes and dreams stymied by others’ expectations or forgot what work/life balance is. It also has yummy shots of food and some wonderful dad rock needle drops and is thankfully getting a second season to explore the new restaurant and the cast’s dynamic in that space.