Tag Archives: Molly Gordon

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 S3E4 “Violet”

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The Bear S3E4 "Violet"

After the intensity of the past couple episodes, writer/director Christopher Storer takes a bit of a breather with “Violet”. In sort of a vignette style, he checks in different employees of The Bear when they’re not in the kitchen. Some of these micro plots hit the mark (Sydney and her dad looking at her new apartment, Marcus finding quiet inspiration in nature) while others aren’t so good. Let’s start with the negative because that’s how the episode starts, and how it ends because the restaurant has been reviewed despite Neil Fak’s comprehensive dossier on food critics, near and far.

Molly Gordon is really a lovely performer, and I especially love her work in the four films I’ve seen her in, especially Shiva Baby (She and Rachel Sennott have insane chemistry.) and Booksmart. However, the chemistry that may have worked on the page (Fine dining chef and ER doctor), it doesn’t come out onscreen despite the Cocteau Twins dialogue. There’s definitely a physical connection and a kind of tender banality of having conversations about your favorite day of the week after a stressful work week. However, an anecdote about a girl covered in scars falls flat with Gordon seemingly rushing through her lines in an overlong story about how humor covers up pain, which is something The Bear explores a lot although not in that particular scene.

Another one on one character interaction is actually charming, sweet, and relatable as Sydney and her father check out an apartment she’s already signed a lease for. Of course, he thinks it’s too small, the walls are too thin, and she can save money by continuing to live with him, but he understands and will help her find an affordable couch. The Bear has been a real coming of age, spread your wings type story for Sydney (And also the career of Ayo Edebiri.), and this is a big moment for her: a place of her own. Sadly, it’s undercut by Adam (Adam Shapiro) from the restaurant Ever casually namedropping that he’s secretly been to The Bear and enjoyed it. From what’s been going on this season, The Bear isn’t ready for primetime, and the introduction of critics creates a new source of tension culminating in this episode’s cliffhanger phone call from the Chicago Tribune. The interaction between Adam and Sydney shows how cutthroat and passive aggressive the food world is: they’re definitely not besties.

The ugly to Sydney/Emmanuel’s good and Carmy/Claire’s bad is the most awkward conversation of all time held between Richie and his ex-wife’s fiance Frank. (Josh Hartnett sexy as ever) Frank knows he has it good: he’s there for Tiff and Richie’s daughter Eva, who is still confused about there relationship plus he has a house that he paid for himself. Hartnett’s leading man presence versus Ebon Bachrach Moss’ character actor energy creates a bundle of nerves out of what should be a basic interaction with Frank telling Richie that he should have told him that he was going to propose to Tiff. This is kind of ridiculous, and Richie is happy to be back at The Bear cracking jokes about how he doesn’t care about Michelin stars because he was always a Pirelli tire man. (Or Goodyear in the Chicago winter.) However, the insecurities about being single and his relationship with his daughter are always at the back of his mind as Storer shoots a powerful scene of him taking of his wedding band for the first time before service. He’s chaotic, but is definitely a yearner and lover.

“Violet” gets off to a dimly lit, weirdly paced start (I guess Carmy and Claire cleared the air offscreen.), but there are little (literal) blossoms along the way with Sydney’s newfound independence, Tina feeling herself at the farmer’s market and realizing the effects of climate change on The Bear’s produce supply, and Marcus turned a gorgeous violet among some weeds into a yummy dessert. Also, the introduction of food critics and rival restaurants to The Bear’s insular ecosystem adds some classic suspense, and my God, I need this restaurant to get a decent review, but mentioning Carmy and Richie yelling is never a good side.

Overall Verdict: 7.6